The Caribbean islands (5). Martinique. Is it worth going to the Caribbean?
A piece of France in the Caribbean. If I said that Barbados was very close to European resort standards, then Martinique, by this token, was a piece of Europe. Out of all the Caribbean islands we visited, Martinique was the most convenient, the safest, the best cuisine, the best organised and… the most boring. Well, just because it is “old news” when you come from Europe. The local currency in Martinique is the Euro; people speak French and probably better English than the French speak in France. Although locals look more Caribbean than European, their attitude and service are very European.
You could send your grandmother there alone to Martinique and sleep tight. Just do not forget to equip her with a golden credit card, as Martinique is very expensive – in many cases, you will pay double to what is spent in Paris. The most basic hotel that we found after a careful search was 80 EUR/night (average on other islands was around 30-40 EUR).
Despite high costs, there were no challenges with Martinique – it’s a very calm place with superior service and beautiful nature. While it is snowing in Paris, tourists are jumping into the warm Caribbean Sea in Martinique.
Martinique is very well connected with France. Cuban Airlines brought us here from Cuba (in 2015 there was no other flight between Cuba and all our other visited islands, just the once-a-week Cuban Airlines flight from Havana to Martinique). After visiting all the other islands in our plan, we came back to Martinique, rented a car and had a great tour around the island on the last day before going back to Europe (Paris). Like everything else, the roads are of superior quality and easy to navigate alone.
My conclusion on the total Caribbean trip experience
It might sound strange, but after visiting various remote and really incredible places, I would put a question mark over whether it is worth going so far for just another white beach with palms around it. It is a beautiful place for a holiday on the beach, and maybe also convenient for a holiday with little kids, but it is not very interesting if you are looking for adventures or new discoveries.
Of course, it does not have to be an all-inclusive type of vacation. You can island-hop as we did. Two to three days is enough per island, but in the end, all those islands are very similar. Even the highly advertised beaches are not quite so perfect as we see in the photos. You have to get informed of where exactly to go for the nicest beaches. Also we did not find a place for a great snorkelling experience.
In case you wonder where we have seen better – Zanzibar (Tanzania) and the Pacific beaches were amazing; snorkelling and the whole underwater experience was incomparable in the Comoros Islands (Africa).
The Caribbean, though, has certain strong advantages, and one of them is that it is free from malaria.
My personal favourite experience in the Caribbean Sea region was Cuba. If I left on this trip today, I would prefer to spend much more time exploring Cuba and maximum one week in the other Caribbean islands. Preferably I would visit Saint Vincent as the least touristic and most original island, and one but not all of the touristic “all about the beach” type of islands (the Grenadines, Grenada, Union Island or Barbados).
Read about other Caribbean islands we visited: