The largest of the French Caribbean islands, Martinique is steeped in history as well as beauty, a slice of France transported to the tropics, planted with sugar cane, littered with beaches, and sprinkled with lashings of laid-back Caribbean charm. Boasting a lush mountainous interior, and a coastline fringed with beautiful bone-white beaches, the ‘Isle of Flowers’ is covered in immense rainforest, punctuated here and there by delightful fishing villages offering a welcome so warm, you’ll barely believe this is actually a department of France, with French the official language. Volcanic in origin, the island is crowned by the still-smoldering Mont Pelée (4,583ft), which wiped out Martinique’s former capital of St-Pierre in 1902. Now offering superb walking trails on its forest-covered slopes, Mont Pelee is a hiker’s dream, although with beaches this good, you may never get away from the sunlounger. Virtually ringed by beaches, the ‘Isle of Flowers’ poses a difficult question: which beach to choose. The southwest has some of the best, with the calm waters and abundant corals off Grande Anse offering some of the finest swimming and snorkelling in the French Antilles, while the waters between St-Pierre and Le Pecheur offer superb wrecks and reefs for divers. Criss-crossed by an excellent network of roads, Martinique is a wonderfully easy island to explore, with the budding nightlife of Fort-de-France only ever a short drive away if you crave some action away from the beach.
Facts
Capital
Fort-De-France
Airport
Lamentin [not sure if you want minutes from the capital or hotel?]
Size40 miles long, 20 miles wide
Currency
Euro
Population
414,515
Average temperature
22 to 30 degrees on the coast, a couple of degrees cooler inland. Humidity is highest in September and lowest in April.
Local highlights
Aside from the south-coast beaches such as Grande Anse des Salines and Les Salines, and the snorkelling/diving along the coral reef between St-Pierre and Le Precheur, the island’s rainforest provides fantastic walking trails. The slopes of Mont Pelee also shelter fine botanical gardens; elsewhere, banana, sugar cane and pineapple plantations abound. In the former capital St-Pierre – once ‘Petit Paris’ of the Caribbean until Mont Pelee covered it in lava in 1902 – an excellent Musee Volcanologique documents life before the eruption and remains from the disaster itself. For sport lovers, Trois-Ilets has an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Henry Trent Jones, while the Parc Naturel Regional offers island bike tours. Finally, Fort-de-France, now the island’s main town, has a bustling centre with superb waterfront shops and cafes, a burgeoning night-life, and the impressive For St-Louis.
Getting out and about
Well maintained and patrolled, roads in Martinique present few problems, although those in the north are fairly narrow and winding, and the approaches to Fort-de-France, and the city itself, can be very busy at weekends and during rush-hour. Distances are never great, and road surfaces are good, so getting about is easy. Taxis are readily available for short distances, but car-hire is the best option for exploring all the island has to offer.
Travel arrangements
There are flights to Martinique with Air France and KLM, both via Paris. The flight time from London to Paris is approximately one hour; from Paris to Martinique is approximately 8 hours.