Oh Martinique, I wanted to Love You….
I read some great things about Martinque and was excited to visit especially after visiting the sister island of Guadeloupe in February 2018. I flew Norwegian Airlines from New York – John F Kennedy (JFK) airport to Fort-de-France (FDF), Martinque. Fort de France is the capital of Martinque. At the time of this writing Norwegian no longer flies to the French Caribbean, but you can fly to Martinique from Miami on American Airlines or fly into Guadeloupe from NY on JetBlue and then take a 45 minute flight to Martinique.
I went to Martinique Martin Luther King weekend 2019 (5 days and 4 nights) with a small group of women and ended up staying at the Hotel La Bateliere in Schoelcher which is about 3 miles from Fort-de-France. We were originally supposed to stay in another hotel, but after one of our tours canceled because our hotel was too far a decision was made to change hotel locations to be more centrally located. Due to it being only a few weeks before our trip the pickings were slim and we ended up staying at Hotel La Bateliere. To put it bluntly, the place was a dump. On the positive side, although the beach at the hotel was small I enjoyed sharing the beach with the locals and picking up some “new to me” music artists to add to my playlists. Also, Le Lili’s Beach Bar restaurant was nice and was one of the better meals we had on the island.
While in Martinique we visited the Distillerie Neisson Rhum Factory, the historic ruins of an old theater and prison cell, the Saut Gendarme waterfall and the Sacre-Coeur de la Balata which is Martinque’s version of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris. While I didn’t purchase any rhum from the rhum factory they did have some really yummy rum infused chocolate bars that I couldn’t get enough of. In full transparency I am a chocoholic. My favorite was pistachio and it was sooo good that it had me on a wild goose chase trying to find something similar when I got home. I think I overdosed on dark chocolate pistachio bark for 2 – 3 months after I got back.
We spent most of our time on the beach at Les Trois Ilets or Les Anses d’Arlet. In order to get to Trois Ilets we had to catch a ferry to Pointe du Bout from Fort-de-France. The ferry runs every 30 mins, takes about 15 mins and it costs 7 Euros (almost $8) roundtrip. Trois Ilets is a great little town that also has some shops, restaurants and hotels. If I were to come back to Martinique I would stay there and would recommend that to others. We visited Les Anses D’arlet while on a speedboat tour that took us to a bat cave and snorkeling for sea turtles. We also saw some beautiful views of the island while cruising on the water.
On our last night in Martinique we had our best meal on the island at a restaurant called The Steel Pan. It was a great Caribbean style restaurant with good food, service and ambiance. They also speak English which is hard to find on the island. I highly recommend checking them out if you are in Martinique.
All in all, the trip was good but I can’t say it was because of the island. I was there with a great group of ladies who made the trip fun. We bonded during the experience and made the best of a not so great lodging situation. If you haven’t experienced it already, traveling will test your resiliency. It’s your choice as to whether you want to pout about things that don’t go right or keep moving and find joy in the experience.
Recommendations:
Where To Stay – Les Trois Ilets
Where to Eat – Le Lili’s Beach Bar & The Steel Pan
Beaches to Visit – Les Trois Ilets & Les Anses D’Arlet
Things to Do – Visit a rum factory (there are several on the island), go to the Saut Gendarme waterfall and go to the beach
Things I Didn’t Do, but Recommend – Visit Mont Pelee (I took a picture from a vantage point, visit Anse Cafard Slave Memorial and pair it with a visit to Diamond Beach. *I will definitely check these places out when I go back to the island. Since I’ve already been to both islands I will probably do a combined visit of Guadeloupe and Martinique to finish out my sightseeing there.