Attractions
What to see in Paramaribo and Suriname
The historic centre of Paramaribo has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 and holds over 240 listed timber buildings. What makes it unusual is that you can walk between almost all of them inside one kilometre.
Below, every place has its own page with what there is to see, what it costs, how far it is from the centre and its coordinates. Opening hours and prices in Suriname change without notice, each page records when we last checked.
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Fort Zeelandia
Fort Zeelandia is the oldest structure in Paramaribo, built from 1640 on the bank of the Suriname River, and now houses the Surinaams Museum. It is also where fifteen critics of the military regime were killed in December 1982.
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Palm Garden
The Palmentuin is a free city-centre park in Paramaribo with hundreds of royal palms, originally laid out in the seventeenth century behind the Presidential Palace. Howler monkeys sit in the trees before 09:00 and after 16:30.
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Central Market
The Central Market on the Waterkant in Paramaribo is the largest market in Suriname, with vegetables, spices, fish and meat on the ground floor and clothing and household goods above. Entry is free and the stalls are fullest between 07:00 and 11:00.
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Waterkant
The Waterkant is the oldest street in Paramaribo: a row of white timber merchant houses along the Suriname River, part of the UNESCO-protected townscape and the best-known place in the city to watch the sun go down, year-round between about 18:15 and 18:45.
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Independence Square
Independence Square is the central square of Paramaribo, ringed by the Presidential Palace and government ministries. On Sunday mornings between 07:00 and 09:00 it hosts the twa-twa songbird contests.
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Synagogue beside mosque
On the Keizerstraat in Paramaribo the Neveh Shalom synagogue of 1842 and the Ahmadiyya mosque stand directly next to each other on the same plot, and have done for over a hundred years. There are very few places in the world where that is true.
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Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral
The Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Paramaribo, with twin towers of 44 metres, is one of the largest entirely timber church buildings in the western hemisphere. It was consecrated in 1885 and the interior is unpainted cedar.
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Blauwgrond
Blauwgrond is the Javanese neighbourhood in northern Paramaribo, about four kilometres from the centre, and the culinary heart of the city: the warungs there run from around six in the evening.
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Peperpot Nature Park
Peperpot Nature Park is a former coffee and cacao plantation eight kilometres outside Paramaribo, given back to the forest, and one of the most reliable places in Suriname to see three-toed sloths, best between 07:00 and 10:00.
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Fort Nieuw Amsterdam
Fort Nieuw Amsterdam is a pentagonal fort completed in 1747 at the fork of the Suriname and Commewijne rivers, now an open-air museum with casemates, cannon and a former prison.
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Frederiksdorp plantation
Frederiksdorp is an eighteenth-century coffee plantation on the Commewijne River, about 35 kilometres from Paramaribo, where the director’s house, the police post and the prison cells all still stand: one of the few Surinamese plantations preserved as a whole.
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Colakreek
Colakreek is a blackwater creek in Para district, about 50 kilometres south of Paramaribo near Zanderij. The water is translucent red-brown from tannins in fallen leaves, and is shallow, cool and safe to swim in.
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Brownsberg Nature Park
Brownsberg Nature Park sits on a plateau of about 500 metres on the western edge of the Brokopondo reservoir, 130 kilometres south of Paramaribo, and is one of the best places in Suriname for howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys and toucans.
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Brokopondo reservoir
The Brokopondo reservoir was created in 1964 when the Afobaka dam closed the Suriname River. Roughly 1,560 square kilometres of rainforest was flooded without being logged first, and about six thousand people, largely Saramaccan Maroons, lost their villages.
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Jodensavanne
Jodensavanne on the Suriname River was a Jewish plantation settlement from the seventeenth century with its own synagogue, Beracha Ve Shalom, built in 1685. The ruin and the cemeteries can still be visited.
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National Archives of Suriname
The National Archives of Suriname in Paramaribo holds the emancipation registers of 1863, the immigration registers of Hindustani indentured labourers from 1873 and Javanese from 1890, and civil registration, the core sources for Surinamese genealogy.
Opening hours and entry prices last checked August 2026. They change regularly in Suriname; call ahead if you are travelling specifically for one of them.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main sights in Paramaribo?
In the historic centre: Fort Zeelandia (the oldest building, from 1640), Independence Square with the Presidential Palace, the Palm Garden, the Waterkant with its timber merchant houses, the Central Market, the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral and the synagogue beside the mosque on the Keizerstraat. All of it sits within about a kilometre.
How many days do you need in Paramaribo?
You can see the historic centre in one day. Three days adds Commewijne and a food tour; five days adds Brownsberg and Colakreek. We have written all three plans out on our itinerary pages.
Why is Paramaribo a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
The historic inner city was listed in 2002 as an exceptionally intact example of European building styles fused with South American material and tropical craftsmanship. The protected zone contains over 240 listed buildings, almost all timber.
Can you do day trips from Paramaribo?
Yes. Peperpot is 8 km away, Fort Nieuw Amsterdam 20 km, Colakreek 50 km and Brownsberg about 130 km. All four work as day trips; Brownsberg is eleven hours door to door.