Of all the things to do around Bouillante, this is the one we recommend most often — and the only one our guests can reach on foot. The Parc de la Source is a ten-minute walk from the property, up in the hills of Poirier.
What it is
The park covers ten hectares of agroforestry, laid out on the land of an old estate where coffee, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg were once grown. It opened to visitors in July 2022, and it is best described as a working forest you are invited to walk through, rather than a botanical garden.
The vanilla plantation
A guided tour of the vanilla plantation sets off each day at 10.30am, and interpretation boards along the trail explain how the crop is grown. Vanilla is a slow, hand-pollinated business, and seeing the vines on the trees rather than the pods in a jar is genuinely worth the walk. The tour is given in French, so a little translation may be needed — but the plants speak for themselves.
Walks, waterfall and picnic huts
Fourteen carbets — open-sided wooden shelters — are dotted around the park. Seven sit high up with a view over the Cousteau reserve and the Pigeon Islands; the other seven follow the Bourceau river, interrupted along its course by the twenty-metre Queue de Cheval waterfall. Each shelter has a table seating ten, and a barbecue can be hired for the day.
New for 2026
The park has expanded its programme this year: yoga sessions, Creole language classes, wellness days, domino tournaments and orienteering courses. Worth checking what’s on the week you visit.
Practical details
The park is open from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Dogs are not allowed, and babies need to be in a carrier rather than a pushchair — the trails are not suited to wheels. Music is only permitted through headphones, to protect the Guadeloupe woodpeckers and American kestrels nesting in the park. A shuttle service is available for visitors with reduced mobility.
There is a craft shop with work by more than sixty local artists and makers, and a cafeteria — which, unusually, will deliver to your carbet in the middle of the forest.
Allow half a day, or a full one if you plan to picnic.
Staying with us? The path from the property takes about ten minutes on foot. Our self-catering bungalows in Bouillante are the closest accommodation to the park — a rare thing on an island where almost everything requires a car.
