Petites Cayes
French side- Secluded
- Hike to reach
Pale, with rocky, coral-rubble margins on the approach and at either end. None at the beach. You park at a trailhead: a small informal gravel area by the water treatment plant above Anse Marcel, or roadside at Grandes Cayes. A hike to reach. No fee.
- Getting in
- Long walk
- Parking
- No parking. There is no parking at the beach because there is no road to it. The western trailhead has an informal gravel lot that mainly serves the water treatment plant, described as small, above the Anse Marcel resort area. The eastern trailhead at Grandes Cayes is informal roadside or track parking with no marked lot. Neither is attended, so leave nothing in the car. There is no bus to either trailhead, and a taxi can drop you but will not wait out a two-hour hike unless you arrange and pay for it. One open question: whether the water treatment plant lot at the Anse Marcel end is still open to hikers now that the main resort there has closed.
- Water
- Varies
- Shorebreak
- Seasonal, varies with the swell
- Snorkeling
- Fair
- Shade
- No shade
- Chairs
- No chair rental
- Food on site
- Nothing on site
- Restrooms
- None
- Facilities
- No chairs and umbrellas, restrooms, snacks and drinks, showers, natural shade, or lifeguard
- On a ship day
- Low
- Crowds
- Quiet
- Best time
- Start before 8am. One first-hand account recommends 7:30 and reports the heat becoming unbearable by mid-morning, and there is no shade on the sand.
- Best for
- Quiet or a long walk
- Safety
- Heat and dehydration are the realistic emergency here, not the sea. Carry at least 1.5 to 2 litres of water each, wear closed shoes with grip, and start early. One specific trail warning worth repeating: cactus grows right at the path edge, so do not grab a plant for balance. Rescue access is poor. No vehicle can reach the beach, and any evacuation is on foot back over the trail or by boat if the weather allows, which is the strongest argument for walking with a companion. In the water, a French guide is explicit that northeast wind or swell brings strong waves and currents and that this is dangerous for children and inexperienced swimmers, and a first-hand account found surf strong enough to make swimming dangerous on the day of the visit. The beach faces roughly north to northeast, fully open to Atlantic swell with no protecting reef, and entry and exit are complicated by rocks and boulders, so a wave that would be harmless on open sand can put you into rock. Carry a charged phone, though whether coverage reaches the beach is unverified.
The story
Petites Cayes is an empty sand beach inside the Réserve Naturelle on the wild north coast, and the only way to it is the Sentier des Froussards, on foot, from Anse Marcel or from Grandes Cayes. There is no road, no track, no facility and nobody there. The trail name translates roughly as the cowards' trail, which is a good story, though not one anybody has sourced properly.
Checked: August 2026 · Reported
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