Martinique: The Honest Brits Guide
by The Floating Nomads
We flew from Paris to the Caribbean and never left France. That is not a typo.
Martinique is not a French territory or a former French colony that has held onto the language. It is an actual region of France, in exactly the same way that Brittany or Provence is a region of France. The currency is the euro. The street signs are French. The plug sockets are European. And yet you step off the plane into tropical heat, palm trees and rum. It is one of the most genuinely surprising places we have ever been.
We based ourselves in Fort de France, the capital, for several days and explored almost entirely on foot. This is what we found.
What to Expect
Fort de France is a proper working city rather than a resort. It has a harbour, a market, art deco architecture, great bars and restaurants, and a French naval fortress that has been in active use since 1638. It does not feel like a tourist bubble. It feels like France, but warmer!
The vibe is relaxed and happy. There is music everywhere. The food is excellent. The rum is serious business. And because it operates under French law, it is one of the most LGBT-friendly destinations in the Caribbean, which is genuinely worth knowing given how patchy the region can be on that front.
Fort de France on Foot
The good news is that you do not need a car, a hire bike or a taxi to see the best of Fort de France. The city is completely walkable and everything worth seeing is within easy reach of the centre.
Start at the beach. There is only one in the city centre and it sits directly beneath Fort St. Louis, the fortress that gives the city its name. Built in 1638, it is still an active French naval base today. The British tried to capture it multiple times in the 18th and 19th century and kept renaming it Fort Edward. It is very much Fort St. Louis now.
From the beach, head inland and you will find the Bibliotheque Schoelcher, which is one of the most extraordinary buildings we have come across anywhere. It was built in Paris in 1889 for the World's Fair, dismantled brick by brick, shipped across the Atlantic and rebuilt here. It looks like it belongs in the 7th arrondissement. It is in the Caribbean. That tension is what Martinique is all about.
Continue into the centre and the market is unmissable. The spices, the fruit, the colour, the noise. We will be honest with you: it smells better than the spice bazaar in Istanbul, and we loved Istanbul.
In the evening, head to the Street of Colours for rum. Not cocktails. Rum. Specifically a ti-punch, which is the local way to drink it. They bring you a glass of rum, a bowl of sugar and some chopped limes and you mix it yourself to your taste. It sounds simple. It is not something you forget in a hurry.
Day Two: Pointe du Bout
Take the ferry from just outside the city centre to Pointe du Bout, which is described locally as the Saint-Tropez of the Caribbean. Built in the 1970s in Neo Creole style, it is genuinely beautiful and genuinely luxurious feeling. From there it is a short walk to the Hotel Bakoua, where we had pina coladas on the terrace with views back across the bay to Fort de France. You do not need to be a guest to sit at the bar.
A word on the ferry: do not trust Google Maps or any transit app for timetables in Martinique. Find the timetable directly from the ferry operator. We paid nine euros each for a return ticket, payable by card, despite the internet insisting it was five to seven euros and cash only. The internet was wrong on both counts.
Key Facts
Currency: Euro
Language: French
EU member: Yes. Not Schengen
LGBT travel: Martinique operates under French law. Same rights as mainland France
Getting around: Fort de France is completely walkable
Ferry to Pointe du Bout: Nine euros return, payable by card
Ti-punch: Around ten euros each on the Street of Colours
Getting there: Direct flights from Paris CDG with Air France, around eight hours
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