Introduction to Nickerie
Nickerie is the westernmost district of Suriname and one of the country’s most important agricultural regions. The district borders Guyana and is known for its wide rice fields, coastal wetlands, and the busy town of Nieuw Nickerie, which serves as the district capital.
Nieuw Nickerie is commonly cited as one of Suriname's largest towns outside the capital, and acts as the economic center of the western part of the country. The town sits along the Nickerie River, with a waterfront area where locals gather, fish, and watch boats move along the river. Markets, restaurants, and small shops make the city an important hub for surrounding farming communities.
Much of the district is made up of rice polders and farmland, which stretch across the landscape in a network of irrigation canals and fields. Nickerie is often referred to as the rice capital of Suriname, as a large portion of the country’s rice production comes from this region.
For travelers, Nickerie offers a mix of small city life, rural landscapes, and nature. Many visitors come to explore the wetlands of Bigi Pan, visit the waterfront in Nieuw Nickerie, or travel further west to cross the Corantijn River into neighboring Guyana. The district is also a good place to see a different side of Suriname, where agriculture, fishing, and cross-border trade play an important role in everyday life.
Experience it in Motion
Things to Do in Nickerie
Nickerie's appeal is split between the wetlands that make it one of Suriname's best birdwatching destinations and the working waterfront of Nieuw Nickerie itself, a genuinely local city rather than a tourist stop dressed up for visitors.
Boat Through Bigi Pan's Mangroves
Bigi Pan is a 68,000-hectare protected wetland stretching along the coast of Nickerie and neighboring Coronie, and boat trips out of Nieuw Nickerie wind through mangrove channels and open lagoon on the way to spot birds. Scarlet ibis are the headline sighting, roosting in the thousands at sunset during their season roughly from November to mid-May, alongside around 70 other resident species and dozens more that migrate down from North America. Some operators run trips to an overwater eco-lodge in the middle of the wetland, which turns the visit into an overnight stay rather than a day trip.
Walk the Nieuw Nickerie Zeedijk
The Zeedijk, Nieuw Nickerie's sea dike, runs along the coast where the Nickerie River meets the Atlantic, with views across the water toward Guyana. It's the town's default evening spot, a flat walking route that doubles as a birdwatching vantage point and a good place to watch the sunset over the river mouth.
See the Rice Polders
Nickerie earns its reputation as Suriname's rice capital from the network of polders, irrigation canals, and fields that spread out from Nieuw Nickerie across much of the district. Driving through the countryside, especially toward Wageningen, gives a sense of scale that's hard to get anywhere else in Suriname: flat, cultivated land as far as you can see, worked by a mechanized rice industry that supplies a large share of the country's production.
