Best Western Hotel Amazonia

Rooms and decor

Walk into Best Western Hotel Amazonia for the first time and you can tell straight away this isn't a hotel built to sell Instagram photos — it's built for people who actually travel and want it to work. The building sits on Avenue du Général de Gaulle in the heart of French Guiana's capital. The lobby is open and airy in warm brown-wood tones with simple black ironwork, with small sofa clusters for an easy wait at check-in. All 120 rooms are reached by lift across the second to fourth floors, decorated in warm browns with tropical-pattern bedspreads. Large windows pull in light and a view of the central garden or the pool, depending on the room. Standard rooms are a sensible size for two, with a soft king bed and air-con that's cold enough — which matters a lot in a city where heat and humidity run high almost year-round. Some Superior rooms add a small balcony for a cool morning breeze, while family rooms take up to 4, good for a small family traveling together. The overall feel is the easy, reliable Best Western standard — not thrilling or plush, but dependable every time you open the door.

Food and amenities

The heart of a stay here is the square outdoor pool tucked into the middle of the building, ringed by fresh green tropical plants with canvas chairs and beach umbrellas. It's open daily from morning to evening, and in Cayenne's rainforest-grade heat and humidity, a cooling swim after a full day out genuinely feels like the reward of the day. Beside it, a poolside bar opens in the evening, serving a French West Indies Ti' Punch and a cold local Lager Caraïbe. A few steps on is L'Outremer, the in-house restaurant serving both French classics and Cayenne Creole dishes — bouillon d'awara, a thick soup from the awara palm fruit with smoked meat; colombo de poulet, a West Indian spiced chicken curry; or grilled capitaine fish. The flavors land close to the local spots and it's far easier than hunting for food after dark. Breakfast is a French continental buffet — croissants, crusty-outside soft-inside baguette, butter and several jams, fresh fruit, juice, and full coffee and tea. It's not lavish, but it's enough to start the day right. The building also has fast free Wi-Fi in every room, on-site parking for self-drive renters, and a small meeting room that business travelers working with the Kourou Space Center use often.

Location and getting there

Location is the real reason people pick this place. The hotel is on Avenue du Général de Gaulle, the main street of central Cayenne, and it's about a 3-minute walk from the lobby to Place des Palmistes, the square of tall palms that's the city's symbol. In the evening the square comes alive with open-air restaurants, food trucks and locals out for the cool air. Walk another 5 minutes and you reach Marché de Cayenne, the lively produce and souvenir market full of Creole vendors, odd tropical fruit, habanero chilies and colorful spices — best explored in the morning. Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur and the Musée des Cultures Guyanaises are also a few minutes on foot. To go farther, staff can book a rental car or a tour to the Kourou Space Center, about 60 km away, or a wildlife boat trip out to the Îles du Salut. Cayenne–Félix Eboué Airport (CAY) is roughly a 25-minute drive, so coming and going is easy. If you want a base to explore Cayenne mostly on foot without renting a car for every move, Amazonia's location is the best answer in town.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide. The thing reviews flag most consistently is the age of the building and the room decor — fairly plain, with parts showing wear after years of use. Some furniture, curtains or carpet in certain rooms look older than newer hotels in other cities, and anyone expecting crisp modern rooms may find it a touch dated. Second is breakfast, a basic continental spread — bread, croissants, fruit, coffee — less varied than bigger chains, and some reviewers say it gets repetitive over several nights; if breakfast matters to you, grab a baguette and coffee at a local spot outside on some days instead. Third is noise on Général de Gaulle in the evening and at night, with traffic and downtown ambience that you may hear from inside; light sleepers should ask for a room facing the pool or the central garden, which is clearly quieter. One more thing to plan around is Cayenne itself — some downtown streets feel deserted after dark, so walk back to the hotel before nightfall and take a taxi for longer trips. The hotel will happily call one for you.

Our take

After reading through the real reviews and weighing them against what Cayenne actually offers, Best Western Hotel Amazonia sells the best mix of central location, international-chain reliability and a cool-off pool in this budget. If your trip is built around exploring Cayenne on foot without a rental car — up early to grab a baguette at Place des Palmistes, the market mid-morning, the cathedral and museum in the afternoon, then back for a swim before dinner at L'Outremer or a Ti' Punch at a local bar — this is the best fit in town. It's ideal for business travelers working with the Kourou Space Center who want a dependable chain with a meeting room, plus couples and small families visiting Guiana for the first time. But if you're after a design-led boutique or crisp modern rooms on the level of a brand-new hotel, this one may read as plain. Overall we give it 7.6/10 — best for travelers who value location and convenience over how stylish the room is.