Accommodation

Paramaribo has various large hotels with well-appointed comfortable air conditioned rooms. Branch names like “Royal Torarica”, “Residence Inn”, “Marriott”, “Best Western” and “Krasnapolsky”, are just a view of the major players in the accommodation sector. The quality of smaller hotels, pensions and guesthouses is passable. In addition there are an increasing number of vacation houses and apartments in and outside Paramaribo.

The western town of New Nickerie also has hotels, pensions, guesthouses and vacation houses for rental. Elsewhere on the coastal area smaller hotels and guest houses can be found. In the interior, the accommodation is somewhat simpler. Some villages have a simple guesthouse, but there are also tourist lodges in fascinating nature areas. Near the city you will also find several vacation park areas. A local company has recently started to offer specific river cruises as well.

Cuisine

Suriname has become famous for its magnificent and distinct cuisine. There is a wide variety of restaurants and eating houses. You can enjoy tasty Javanese, Chinese, Creoles, Hindi, Korean, Dutch and Lebanese food or choose from the international menu. International fast food giants such as Mac Donald’s, KFC/Pizza Hut and Popeye are also present in Paramaribo.

Entertainment

The favorite sport is soccer, but basketball, volleyball, badminton, tennis and many other ball sports as well as games are practiced widely. Fitness, martial arts, fishing, birth watching and hunting are also favorable pass times. Surinamese people are extremely friendly and like to dance, sing and party. Paramaribo has several bar dancing’s that can easily be described as internationally high standing, offering a repertoire of national and international melodies.

The New Years Eve celebration (“OWRU YARI”) has become a festivity that makes Suriname unique in the world. People of Suriname celebrate the New Year with lots of drinks, music and fireworks. The New Years Eve festivity and the splendor is the outcome of many long practiced traditions observed by the early ancestors. New Year traditions in Suriname bring out the typical New Year custom of South America. Making loud noises at the stroke of New Years Eve midnight with car horns, boat whistles, church bells or drum beats is customary. Variegated types of fireworks lighted up for long hours create a brilliant spectacle on the night sky. This is undoubtedly Suriname’s grand celebration. The SURIFESTA Foundation is the organization that is the lobby group for the festivities concerning the end of the year parties and New Year’s Eve (www.surifesta.com) .