Attractions & Natural Wonders · Suriname

Suriname: Five Attractions and Natural Wonders

A Dutch colonial capital built almost entirely of wood, one of the largest wooden cathedrals in the world, and Maroon communities descended from enslaved Africans who escaped into the rainforest and never left

By Worldlore Editorial · 30 September 2026

Historic Dutch colonial-era brick and wooden buildings along a street
Colonial-era architecture in Paramaribo's historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (SAFPhotography / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0)

South America's smallest and most diverse country

Suriname, South America's smallest independent country, was a Dutch colony until 1975 and remains one of the continent's most ethnically diverse nations — Creole, Hindustani, Javanese, Maroon, and Indigenous communities each shape its culture, cuisine, and religious life side by side. Its interior is covered by dense, largely untouched Amazon rainforest, home to Maroon communities descended from enslaved Africans who escaped Dutch plantations centuries ago and built independent societies deep in the jungle.

The five below run from the capital, Paramaribo, to the rainforest interior. The dry seasons (roughly February–April and August–November) are generally the easiest times to travel.

1. Historic Paramaribo

A row of white wooden colonial-era buildings along a tree-lined street
Wooden colonial-era heritage buildings along a street in Paramaribo's historic centre. (M.Rogali / Wikimedia Commons)

Paramaribo's historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2002 for its outstanding collection of Dutch colonial architecture, keeps its original street plan and buildings largely intact, with many of its historic houses built of timber — giving the city a distinctive architectural character.

2. Fort Zeelandia

An old star-shaped colonial fort with cannons
Fort Zeelandia, a 17th-century fort at the heart of Paramaribo's historic waterfront. (Medimir / Wikimedia Commons)

Fort Zeelandia, begun as a French wooden fort in 1640, reinforced by the English as Fort Willoughby and captured and renamed by the Dutch in 1667, anchored colonial Paramaribo's defences along the Suriname River and later served, more darkly, as a detention site during the country's post-independence military rule, including the December murders of 1982. It now houses the Suriname Museum.

3. The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul

A large wooden cathedral with twin spires
The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul, one of the largest wooden buildings in the Americas. (David Stanley / Wikimedia Commons)

The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul, built almost entirely of wood in the late 19th century, is described as the largest wooden structure in the Western Hemisphere — its twin spires and ornate interior a striking demonstration of the same timber-construction tradition found throughout Paramaribo's historic centre, built to withstand the tropical climate without the stone typically used for cathedrals elsewhere.

4. The rainforest interior

A rounded granite dome rising above dense rainforest canopy
Voltzberg, a granite dome rising above the rainforest of Suriname's Central Suriname Nature Reserve. (David Evers / Wikimedia Commons)

Suriname's interior is covered almost entirely by pristine Amazon rainforest, a vast tract of it protected within the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000, holding an exceptional diversity of wildlife and granite inselberg formations like Voltzberg, climbable for sweeping views over an unbroken canopy stretching to the horizon.

5. Maroon river communities

Dugout canoes moored along a wide jungle river under a partly cloudy sky
Dugout canoes moored along the Suriname River, home to the Saamaka Maroons of the country's interior. (Dan Sloan / Wikimedia Commons)

Suriname's Maroon communities are descended from enslaved Africans who escaped the colonial plantations and established independent societies deep in the rainforest along the country's rivers, maintaining distinct languages, art, and social structures that draw on African traditions preserved and adapted over centuries. River trips from Paramaribo let visitors experience this culture, generally arranged through community-based tourism initiatives.

Suriname suits a trip combining a few days in Paramaribo's historic centre with an extension into the rainforest interior, where river travel by boat remains the primary way to reach most Maroon and Indigenous communities.

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