Grenada
Discover Grenada
Introduction
Grenada is a country of three inhabited islands and 344 square kilometres at the southern end of the Windward chain, with an estimated 114,621 people in 2024: the main island, Carriacou with 6,000 and Petite Martinique with 900, some 160 kilometres north of Venezuela and directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is volcanic and mountainous, Mount St. Catherine the highest point at 840 metres, with crater lakes at Grand Etang and Lake Antoine, an active submarine volcano called Kick 'em Jenny eight kilometres off the north coast, and 121 kilometres of coastline that includes Grand Anse Beach, often described as one of the best in the world. The rain falls hardest on the windward mountains, more than 3,500 millimetres a year against less than 1,500 in the lowlands, and the average is a steady 29 degrees. St. George's, the capital, sits on a horseshoe harbour that is itself an old crater, under a French star fort begun in 1705.
The Kalinago held off Europeans for a century and a half after Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1498; the French settled in 1649 and broke the last resistance at Leapers' Hill in 1650; Britain took the island in 1762 and kept it, but for four French years, until independence on 7 February 1974. A Marxist coup of 1979 ended with Maurice Bishop's execution in the fort's courtyard on 19 October 1983 and the US-led invasion six days later, a date now kept as Thanksgiving Day. Nutmeg, introduced in 1843, put the island second in the world after Indonesia and a split nutmeg on the flag; Hurricane Ivan destroyed 90 per cent of the homes in 2004, and Beryl flattened Carriacou on 1 July 2024.
For the visitor the island is beaches in the south-west, waterfalls and rainforest inland, the world's first underwater sculpture park off Molinere Bay, Fort George above the Carenage, oil down on the plate, Spice Mas in August, and Carriacou's reefs and Big Drum dances by ferry. English is official and a French patois survives; the East Caribbean dollar is pegged at 2.70 to the US dollar; traffic drives on the left with a local permit; and 911 is the emergency number.
Do I need a visa?
Most visitors do not; three months are granted on entry with a passport valid six months beyond arrival and an onward ticket.
Which airport?
Maurice Bishop International at Point Salines, about five miles south of St. George's and next to the Grand Anse hotels.
How do I reach Carriacou?
On the Osprey fast ferry from the Carenage in St. George's to Tyrell Bay, which continues to Petite Martinique; it does not sail on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day or Good Friday.
What currency?
The East Caribbean dollar, pegged at 2.70 to the US dollar, which is also accepted; ATMs are at banks only.
Which side of the road?
The left, with a local temporary licence from the hire company or the central police station.
Is it safe?
Both advisories say normal precautions: opportunistic theft, care after dark and at Carnival, rip tides, poor roads, and a hurricane season from June to November.
What are the emergency numbers?
911 for police and fire, 399 for the coast guard, and the hospital numbers 434, 724 and 774 for an ambulance.