Martinique ranks at the top of the list of islands we’d love to revisit. We spent a week in Martinique, enjoyed the crystal clear waters, delicious French cuisine, and fun culture, and we will be happy to return. Here are my recommendations on how to spend a week in Martinique.
See Dolphins
We saw dolphins almost every time we sailed in Martinique! On entry into the country we saw the biggest pod we had ever seen: hundreds swimming alongside and ahead of the boat.
Then, on just a day trip south from one harbour to another we saw a few dolphins very close to the boat. And finally, on the day we were sailing from Martinique to Saint Lucia, we were visited again by a few dolphins alongside the boat. This time we even saw a momma and baby dolphin swimming together. Sorry! No photos, but it did happen.
The dolphins are reason enough to love Martinique. But there’s more.
Visit the Beaches
Fortunately, living on a sailboat means we can anchor near the beach. Not too close with an almost 7 foot draft, but pretty close! And Martinique has a lot of beautiful anchorages near the beach so we visited a few of their beautiful beaches.
Plage de Saline
One day, we rented a car to visit one of the island’s best beaches. Saline Beach is a place you could spend the entire day. It’s got everything: soft sand, clear water good for soaking or light body surfing, and several beach bars. There were a fair amount of people there the day we went, but with so much beach, it didn’t feel crowded.
Grand Anse de Arlet, Martinique
Since Grand Anse is known for its turtles living in the bay, we moved Sava over there pretty fast. Sure enough, we saw turtles while we were anchoring and consistently throughout the two days, but never for long enough to get a photo. So elusive!
Right near the beach in Grand Anse you can see tons of starfish on the ocean floor. The water is so clear, you can see the different colored starfish from the dock or your boat. Beautiful!
The snorkeling in the southern end of this anchorage by the point is also amazing. We saw lots of fish on just a quick swim over from our boat.
Eat and Drink
This is a no brainer because Martinique is French! We tried to sample as much of the local cuisine as possible, and tried baguettes, croissants, cheese, wine, rum punch, seafood salads and accras.
In Martinique, we did one of our biggest stockups in months; our freezer works finally, so we filled it with meat and croissants! The croissants – so big, flaky and buttery. We also filled our fridge with cheeses, patès and other delicious products subsidized by the French government.
The Carrefour supermarket is one of the best we have seen in months, and the best since Puerto Rico.
The seafood, the famous local accras, everything we ate in Martinique was fresh and delicious. We will be back. And we will stock up on wine!
Explore the Seaside Towns
Sainte Anne
Our favorite of the few towns we visited was by far Sainte Anne. Great restaurants, charming port, and charming port. Plus we got lucky and picked a night where there was a music festival all over the island and Sainte Anne had traditional folk music and dancing – with costumes!
FORT DE FRANCE
Friends flew into the local airport and we picked them up in Fort De France, which is a nice place to visit for a few days.
There’s a lot of shops, including the local market, The Marché Couvert, where we stocked up on veggies, hot sauces and flavored rum. Passion fruit, mango, they add anything to their rum here and watch out because it can be strong!
The town is charming, with winding narrow streets full of people and vendors, and some lovely old buildings like the historic library and town hall, or “Hotel de Ville.”
Fort de France is great for walking, with a large waterfront park and a seaside trail with great views.
Marin
We stayed in the giant harbor of Marin for a few nights, enjoying the shops and restaurants in this big port town. Marin has a lot of restaurants, and this isn’t even the busy season.
One of our favorites was Indigo Factory. Located on the water with its own dinghy dock, open air dining and extensive menu, we had a great seafood meal there. There are tons of little bars and restaurants all around the marinas there. We also liked the casual vibe, good beers and wifi at KokoaRum.
As you can tell, we kept ourselves busy during our week in Martinique. Maybe next season we’ll stay there much longer.
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