Martinique -- so near, so far -- is at its best any time of the year. It's well known that all over the Caribbean in summer and fall months, the so-called low seasons, rates go down just as travel and accommodations go up in Europe. Temperatures vary little from those in winter, although rain spells may be more frequent, making the humidity seem greater.
The latest bargain on this tropical French island is the decision made by most of the hotels and some of the more intimate family-owned places (known as the "relais Creoles") to peg rates to the dollar rather than sticking to the higher euro standard that is the norm -- in an effort to attract more American visitors. That means the cost of a room will be at least 30 percent less than usual. According to Muriel Wiltord of the Martinique Promotion Bureau (www.martinique.org) in New York, the plan may extend into the winter high season as well. Special double-room rates begin at $75 a night, for instance.
A great number of properties offer this rate -- at least one dozen by the latest count. A few other stand-outs include:
- Karibea owns a group of hotels of varying sizes, including the Karibea Les Amandiers (tel. 596-62-32-32; fax 596-62-33-40; e-mail: reservation@hotellesamandiers.com; www.hotel-caribbean-karibea.com) in the small town of Sainte Luce in the south.
- Another of the larger ones is the Diamond Rock Hotel (tel. 0596-76-42-42; fax 0596-76-22-87; e-mail: resa@diamond-rock.com), an all-inclusive resort in Diamant, with a range (in season) of $140 to $237, the latter for three persons.
- Another large (but not all-inclusive) hotel is Domaine de l'Anse Caritan (tel. 0596-76-74-12; fax 0596-76-72-59; e-mail: resa@anse-caritan.com; www.anse-caritan.com) outside Sainte-Anne. It's a real bargain at 66€ to 268€ (no dollar rate listed) depending on the number of persons and time of year. You'll find the lowest rates in June, July, September and October.
- The small and secluded (i.e. no sea view since it is back set in the countryside) 12-room Residence Plein Soleil in Le Francois (tel. 0596-38-07-77; fax 0596-65-58-13; e-mail: pleinsoleil@sasi.fr; www.pleinsoleil.mq) has three different seasons, three different prices and two types of rooms, all with A.C. and kitchenette ranging in price from 90€ to 177€. Incidentally, I dined divinely here on its prix fixe supper for 35€.
My visit there spent driving top to bottom and east to west looking at all sorts of available activities and accommodations on the 425 square mile island (50 miles long and 22 miles wide at the widest point) showed how it is possible to manage a comfortable and none too extravagant vacation on the euro. Because a great many visitors are French families from the "mainland," the hostelries are flexible and have a plentiful supply of sofa beds for guests traveling in groups. A super Continental breakfast, included in the price of a room, is likely to include fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal -- little extras that can keep one full until dinner with only a sandwich bought on the run for lunch. At famous St. Anne's beach in the south, a huge plastic bag of fresh cut fruit sufficient for four was available for $7.
There is no single central reservation bureau for all hotels (and hotels can range in size from under 10 to over 300 rooms), but a useful resource is Centrale De Reservation (tel. 596-61-61-77) for small- and medium-sized hotels; apartments and studios that are available in private homes can be found through Logis Vacances Antilles (tel. 596-73-74-74). Plus, the tourist office desk stays open at the Fort de France airport until the last plane arrives. Most useful of all would be the chief web site at www.martinique.org/accommodation, since it gives a complete rundown of almost every property (large resorts; relais creoles, guesthouses and villas). It's even possible to rent entire islands such as Ilet Oscar and Ilet Thierry; call 596-65-88-54. Also see: www.touristmartinique.com.
Transportation options are improving as well. There is fresh hope that American Airlines will reintroduce their Eagle flights to the island by the end of the year. American pulled out a few years ago because of a disruptive local labor dispute. To date, many East Coast travelers have had to suffer the inconvenience of having to take as many as three and four different flights to reach Fort-de-France in one day (likewise, the return) or spend a night in Miami prior to catching an early morning Air France flight that goes direct (with a stop or two) to Martinique. And as of May 5th, Take Airlines has daily flights between Fort-de-France and nearby St. Lucia, which is served by Air Canada and major U.S. airlines.
For my trip, it cost around $650 to take four different airplanes beween two different carriers -- USAirways (tel. 800/943-5346; www.usair.com) and LIAT Air (tel. 888/844-LIAT; www.liatairline.com) to go from Washington, D.C., to Fort de France within the same day just at the end of so-called high season. Someone flying to Miami to get the thrice-weekly Air France flight (tel. 800/237-2747; www.airfrance.com) that flies goes to Fort de France (still, with two stops) would pay $773, on top of the flight to Miami. Any flight via the major hub of Puerto Rico going into Guadeloupe would allow someone to catch either the last Air Caraibes flight (tel. + 011 590-82-47-00; www.aircaraibes.com) or a Air Antilles flight (www.airantilles.com) into Fort de France. Alternately, a flight to St. Lucia offers a connection there from TakeAir (tel. 877/772-1005, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. M-F; www.takeairlines.com) at the International airport in St.Lucia of Hewanorra or Air Caraibes from the local smaller airport Vieux Fort; cost is around $140 round-trip.
Doubtless, the strength of the euro has discouraged many Americans to venture into this French territory. Others may be discouraged by not having knowing the language to cope as independent travelers. Only 3,000 or so land-based Americans came to Martinique in 2004, compared to nearly 80,000 arriving on cruise ships. The latter number was a huge drop from the previous year -- a fact that tourism officials attribute to Carnival Destiny dropping the island as a port of call in January 2004.
Based on the recent experiences of this newly returned traveler, about the only reason not to venture would be nervousness over tackling island roads in a rental car. Martinicans are fierce drivers. While in good condition, some of the secondary roads (and even some main ones) are challenging, especially at night. Main roads are crowded; traffic around Fort-de-France often moves at a crawl. Driving is on the right, continental-style, and distances are in kilometers, naturellement.
Risk taking your eyes off the road, however, and what you see around you is breathtaking. The island is representative of the best of the Caribbean: Great contrasts in scenery with abundant flora and fauna, making it possible in the same day to spend hours baking on a nearly deserted beige sand beach (weekdays anyway) and hiking hours in cool rain forests past sheer mountain streams where extreme adventurers practice the sport of canyoning. The activity entails cascading down a river, often in a canyon, and crossing waterfalls or plunging into water basins on special ropes (harnessed and helmeted, of course). This is not to be attempted by neophytes without professional guides. Two reliable sources for these are: Aventures Tropicales (tel. 596-64-58-49; fax 596-64-18-76; e-mail: aventures-tropicals@wanadoo.fr; www.aventures-tropicals.com) and Bureau de la Randonnee (tel. 596-78-30-77; please note they speak only in French). Guides can be obtained for the numerous hiking trails as well.
There are at least 12 different museums accounting for the diverse (and often perverse) history of a former slave-owning island, and plentiful recognition of its abundant agricultural life. The Banana Museum (tel. 596-69-45-52; fax 596-69-45-01), located within a half hour's drive of the famous Rhum Clement distillery, is one of the most unusual. Set on a working plantation, it gives a history of the fruit and explains all its many dozen varieties. Admission price, like the price of most museums in Martinique, is around 7&euros;. It's off the main highway, in Sainte-Marie. The magnificent Jardin Balata in the north is an up-close dream walk through hundreds of varieties of vegetation that are humbling even to botanical wizards.
Museum officials seldom miss an opportunity to plug products and sell related souvenirs, but, overall, commercialization on the island seems blissfully under control. Just as there are a range of accommodations by category -- everything from a four-star spa Relais & Chaateaux resort at Cap Est Lagoon to rooms in gites ruraux (local homes), there are activities for every taste: A Robert Trent Jones golf course and a casino, plus one of the largest marinas in the Caribbean; fancy shopping in Fort-de-France stores and a village "Tee-Shirterie" selling native handicrafts. Club Med promises a spectacularly renovated operation on its site called Buccaneer's Creek come mid-December. Club Med's aim is a very "grown-up" facility that no longer caters strictly to the cruising singles.
Frommer's Caribbean 2006 provides plentiful factual help of this kind, about all a traveler needs on the journey. But it's up to the traveler himself to seek out the subtle immutable aspects of a country's spirit. What is truly impressive about the island is the overlay of what we'll call charm, for lack of a better word. Not just the happy talk about the combination of French style in an easygoing tropical setting, as good as that is.
What remains strongest in memory are the casual encounters -- connecting spontaneously with people in an easygoing way -- most often done in fractured French with gestures and smiles. At least four times, strangers went out of their way to help with directions. First time was at night on arrival trying to find the Hameau de Beauregard (see below for contact information), a family-styled hotel in the south, when two men in a pick-up drove ahead of us as guides to end our confusion. The same act of kindness occurred when trying to locate the central parking lot in downtown Fort-de-France and, again, when trying to figure the right place to return a rental car at the airport. Fearing we would be lost in morning traffic and needing to keep an appointment one morning at an office outside Fort-de-France a half hour away, our landlord at the small eight-room La Fregate Bleu outside of Francois on the east central coast escorted us all the way to the office door.
- In Sainte-Anne, the Hameau de Beauregard (tel. 596-76-75-75; fax 596-76-97-13; e-mail: infos@hameau-beauregard.com; www.hameau-beauregard.com) boasted a 146€ rate ($160) for an apartment with two rooms, two baths, a kitchenette and a modest balcony.
- For charm, a visitor would want to check the Manoir de Beauregard nearby (e-mail: manoirdebeauregard@wanadoo.fr; www.manoirdebauregard.com), where rooms are 112€ (about $130).
- The truly romantic souls would head for one of two authentique plantation-styled hotels, called Habitation LaGrange and La Plantation Leyritz, to get a feel for the life on a plantation in colonial days.
- Fregate Bleu offers rates ranging from $80 up to $122; tel. 596 54-54-66; fax 596-54-78-48, or toll free from the US is 800-633-7411.
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