Six days through the only English-speaking country in South America and one of its least-visited: two days in Georgetown, a colonial river capital of wooden cathedrals and a 300-year rum trade, then a pair of small-plane hops into the Guiana Shield’s unbroken rainforest for Kaieteur Falls and a canopy walkway strung 100 feet above the forest floor. Real lodges, charter flights, and 2026 prices for every stop.
Day 1Georgetown Arrival & Colonial Streets
Touch down in Georgetown, Guyana’s low-rise colonial capital on the Demerara River, with the afternoon free to settle in before the rainforest.
🛬 Airport Transfer — Cheddi Jagan International to Georgetown
~45 min · private transfer ~$35-45 USD
Cheddi Jagan International Airport sits about 25 miles south of the city along the Demerara River; most hotels and tour operators can arrange a private transfer timed to your flight.
🛎️ Hotel Check-In — Cara Lodge
From $177 USD / night, for 2 people
A 19th-century colonial mansion turned boutique hotel in Georgetown’s Stabroek quarter, built from greenheart timber with wraparound verandas — past guests have included Mick Jagger and Jimmy Carter, and the garden bar still pours a proper rum punch.
Cara Lodge · +592 225-5301 · carahotels.com
🏛️ Evening Walk — St. George’s Cathedral & Stabroek Market
~1.5 hours, self-guided · free
One of the tallest wooden buildings in the world, St. George’s Anglican Cathedral rises in white gingerbread trim a few blocks from Stabroek Market’s cast-iron clock tower, Georgetown’s trading hub since 1880.
🍽️ Dinner — Backyard Café
~1.5 hours · ~$20-25 USD / person
A garden restaurant in Queenstown serving Guyanese classics — pepperpot, garlic pork, cook-up rice — in a lush courtyard strung with lights, popular with locals and visiting researchers alike.
Backyard Café · Queenstown, Georgetown
Day 2Georgetown’s Rum Route & Botanical Gardens
A full day in the capital before flying into the interior, tracing Guyana’s 300-year rum history and the gardens where a giant water lily grows wild.
🌴 Georgetown Botanical Gardens & Zoo
~2 hours, self-guided · entry ~$2 USD
Manicured canals modeled on Dutch polders, royal palms planted in the 1880s, and the giant Victoria amazonica lily pad floating in its ponds, alongside a small zoo that’s home to Guyana’s national bird, the prehistoric-looking hoatzin.
🥃 Demerara Rum Experience — Diamond Estate Distillery Tour
~2.5 hours · from ~$45-60 USD / person
A tour of the Demerara Distillers complex on the Diamond Estate, home to the last working wooden Coffey still in the world, tasting through the El Dorado rum range that put Guyana on the spirits map.
Demerara Distillers Ltd · eldoradorum.com
🛍️ Stabroek Market Browse
~1 hour, self-guided · free
A return visit by daylight to haggle for cassava bread, hot pepper sauce, and gold jewelry under the market’s clock tower, shipped over from Edinburgh in 1880.
🍽️ Dinner — Oasis Café
~1 hour · ~$10-15 USD / person
A relaxed café on Carmichael Street known for fresh juices, salads, and pastries — a lighter night before an early flight into the rainforest the next morning.
Oasis Café · Carmichael Street, Georgetown
Day 3Kaieteur Falls by Air
A charter flight into the heart of the rainforest for the single most dramatic sight in Guyana — a waterfall nearly five times the height of Niagara, with no crowds and no guardrails.
✈️ Charter Flight — Ogle Airport to Kaieteur National Park
~1 hour each way · from ~$220-260 USD / person round-trip
Trans Guyana Airways runs small charter flights from Ogle Airport, Georgetown’s domestic hub, over unbroken rainforest canopy to the airstrip above Kaieteur Falls — no road reaches the falls at all.
Trans Guyana Airways · +592 222-2525 · transguyana.net
📸 Kaieteur Falls Viewpoints
~2 hours, guided walking tour · included with charter
The Potaro River drops 741 feet over a single sandstone cliff — a free fall nearly five times the height of Niagara — reached by a short rainforest walk to a series of viewpoints with no fences and almost no other visitors.
🦜 Return Flight to Georgetown
~1 hour · included
The afternoon charter retraces the route back over the Pakaraima foothills, often detouring past Orinduik Falls’ stepped sandstone terraces on the Brazil border when weather allows.
🛎️ Overnight — Cara Lodge
Second night, same rate as Day 1
Back in Georgetown by early evening with time to repack before heading to the rainforest lodge the next morning.
Day 4Into the Rainforest: Iwokrama & the Canopy Walkway
A second flight carries you deep into the Iwokrama Forest, 900,000 protected acres of rainforest between the Amazon and the Caribbean, ending with a sunset walk above the treetops.
✈️ Flight — Georgetown to Fairview Airstrip, Iwokrama
~1.5 hours · from ~$180-220 USD / person
A second small-plane hop lands at the dirt Fairview airstrip inside Iwokrama Forest, where a lodge vehicle meets arriving flights for the short transfer to Atta Rainforest Lodge.
🛎️ Lodge Check-In — Atta Rainforest Lodge
From $150-180 USD / person / night, full board
Ten screened rooms raised on stilts at the base of the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway, run with the Iwokrama International Centre and the Makushi community of Surama — meals are taken family-style and the forest starts right at the porch.
Atta Rainforest Lodge · iwokrama.org
🌳 Sunset on the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway
~1.5 hours, guided · included for lodge guests
A series of suspension bridges and viewing platforms strung 100 feet up between four giant trees, built to sway gently rather than fight the wind — the best hour for spotting toucans, macaws, and howler monkeys moving through the canopy below.
Day 5River Life on the Essequibo
A full day on and around the Essequibo River’s upper tributaries, searching for giant otters and black caiman, plus a visit to the Makushi village that helped build the canopy walkway.
🛶 Boat Trip — Essequibo River Wildlife Float
~3 hours, guided · included for lodge guests
A quiet motorized-canoe float along the river below Iwokrama, scanning the banks for giant river otters, capybara, and black caiman, with a stop at a sandbar for giant Amazon water lilies.
🏹 Village Visit — Surama Eco-Lodge & Makushi Community
~3 hours, guided · included on most lodge packages
A short drive or river transfer to Surama, an Indigenous Makushi village that owns and runs its own community eco-lodge in a ring of savanna surrounded by forest — cassava bread demonstrations and traditional dance by arrangement.
Surama Eco-Lodge · suramaecolodge.com
🌙 Night Walk — Iwokrama Forest Trail
~1.5 hours, guided · included for lodge guests
A headlamp walk along the lodge’s forest trails after dinner, when tarantulas, tree frogs, and the eyeshine of caiman along the river show up far more readily than in daylight.
Day 6Return Flight & Departure
A last rainforest breakfast before the flight back to Georgetown and onward connections home.
🥐 Breakfast at Atta Rainforest Lodge
~45 min · included
A final forest breakfast on the lodge’s open-air deck, with mixed-species flocks of tanagers and honeycreepers often working the fruiting trees just beyond the railing.
✈️ Flight — Fairview Airstrip to Georgetown (Ogle)
~1.5 hours · from ~$180-220 USD / person
The return charter retraces the route north over unbroken canopy, landing back at Ogle Airport with time to connect to an international departure from Cheddi Jagan.
🚕 Transfer to Cheddi Jagan International Airport
~45 min · private transfer ~$35-45 USD
A final road transfer south to Cheddi Jagan International for the flight home, Georgetown’s wooden church spires visible in the rearview for most of the ride.
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