The hook
A UNESCO-listed old town of black-and-white Dutch-colonial wooden buildings, in one of the most extraordinarily diverse societies on Earth, where a mosque and a synagogue stand peacefully side by side.
01Why it's worth it
Suriname is a tiny, little-known country on South America's northeast shoulder, a former Dutch colony that is culturally more Caribbean and Asian than Latin, and its capital, Paramaribo, is a genuine surprise. Its historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a distinctive ensemble of Dutch-colonial architecture rendered in white-painted wood, elegant, shuttered buildings, churches, and forts strung along the wide Suriname River, blending European style with local materials and tropical adaptation. But Paramaribo's real wonder is its people: waves of migration, Indigenous, enslaved Africans (and the Maroons who escaped into the jungle), and indentured labourers from India, Java, and China, have made it one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse places anywhere, and it wears this harmony openly, most famously in a large mosque and a synagogue that stand amicably next to each other, along with Hindu temples, churches, and a cuisine that ranges from Javanese to Creole to Indian, often on the same street. Add a laid-back riverside atmosphere and it makes a fascinating, friendly, and utterly distinctive city, as well as the gateway to Suriname's vast, pristine rainforest interior.
02How to experience it
Wander the wooden colonial old town along the river, see the side-by-side mosque and synagogue and the other houses of worship, and above all eat your way through the city's remarkable diversity, Javanese, Creole, Hindustani, and more. Then use it as the base for a trip into Suriname's rainforest interior and its Maroon and Indigenous villages.