Martinique: Eight Attractions and Natural Wonders

The island of flowers

Martinique, an overseas region of France in the Lesser Antilles, is a volcanic island of rainforest peaks, black- and white-sand beaches, and a Creole culture shaped by French, African, and Caribbean influences — it uses the euro, sends deputies to the French parliament, and is part of the European Union. About 360,000 people live here, and it was the birthplace of Empress Joséphine, wife of Napoleon.

The eight below run from the volcanic north to the beaches of the south. It is warm year-round; the dry season (December to April) is the most popular, with a hurricane risk from June to November.

1. Saint-Pierre

Saint-Pierre was once the "Paris of the Caribbean", Martinique's largest city and cultural capital, until Mount Pelée erupted on 8 May 1902 and destroyed it in minutes, killing an estimated 28,000–30,000 people — one of the deadliest volcanic disasters in recorded history. Only a handful survived, including a prisoner shielded in a thick-walled cell. The rebuilt town today, much smaller, keeps ruins of the old theatre, cathedral, and prison alongside the Musée Vulcanologique documenting the disaster.

2. Mount Pelée

Mount Pelée, at 1,397 metres, is still an active volcano, monitored closely since 1902, and its slopes are now a nature reserve of rainforest trails, part of the Regional Natural Park. A well-marked path climbs to the crater rim in around four to five hours, weather and cloud cover permitting — often clearest early in the morning.

The mountain's shadow, quite literally, falls over everything else in this part of the island.

3. Fort-de-France

Fort-de-France, the capital, has been Martinique's main city since Saint-Pierre's destruction — a lively port with the ornate Schœlcher Library (named for the French abolitionist, built for the 1889 Paris Exposition and shipped over piece by piece), the star-shaped Fort Saint-Louis still guarding the harbour, the Grande Savane park, and a busy covered market for spices and produce.

Its hillside suburbs and traffic give it a more workaday feel than the beach resorts elsewhere on the island.

4. Habitation Clément

Martinique produces rhum agricole — distilled from fresh-pressed cane juice rather than molasses, and the only rum in the world with its own French AOC designation. Habitation Clément, a restored 19th-century plantation estate near Le François, tours its distillery, aging cellars, botanical gardens, and grand Creole house (host to a 1991 US-Russia summit), and is the best-known of several distilleries open for tastings across the island.

Depaz and Saint James, near Saint-Pierre, are other historic estates worth a stop.

5. Diamond Rock

Off the southern coast near Le Diamant, a steep, uninhabited volcanic islet rises 176 metres straight from the sea. In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British Royal Navy fortified it with cannon and formally commissioned it as HMS Diamond Rock, using it to harass French shipping for over a year before a French assault finally retook it. It remains a striking landmark and a technical dive and climbing site today.

It is best viewed and photographed from the beach at Le Diamant, with Diamond Rock as the backdrop.

6. Grande Anse des Salines

Grande Anse des Salines, near the town of Sainte-Anne on the island's southern tip, is a long, palm-lined white-sand beach with calm, shallow water — regularly rated the best beach in Martinique and one of the best in the Caribbean. It gets busy on weekends and holidays with local families, but the crescent is long enough to find space.

The drive down through Sainte-Anne, past smaller coves, is part of the appeal.

7. Les Anses d'Arlet

Les Anses d'Arlet, on the sheltered west (Caribbean) coast, is a cluster of small fishing villages and coves with a relaxed, unhurried feel, calm clear water good for snorkelling with sea turtles just offshore, and a small church built right at the water's edge. It is quieter and more local than the busier resort beaches further south.

It makes a good day out from Fort-de-France or a base in its own right.

8. The Jardin de Balata

The Jardin de Balata, created by a single gardener from the 1980s around a traditional Creole house, packs thousands of tropical plant species — orchids, heliconias, giant water lilies — into a garden with rope-bridge canopy walks and views toward Mount Pelée. It is one of the most visited sights on the island and a good introduction to Martinique's plant life before heading into the wilder rainforest.

It sits on the scenic Route de la Trace, the mountain road linking Fort-de-France with the north.

Martinique suits a car-based week: a few days around Fort-de-France and the volcanic north (Saint-Pierre, Mount Pelée, Balata), then south to the beaches around Sainte-Anne and Les Anses d'Arlet.