Visitors to
MARTINIQUE will
have to do some legwork to discover
the island Columbus once lauded as
the "?most charming country
there is in the world".
Aggressive development has resulted
in resort towns complete with
artificial beaches and pastel-hued
cement hotels more appropriate to a
Florida landscape than the French
West Indies. That said, Martinique's
resort emphasis makes the island
ideal for all-inclusive travel, and
most resorts organize optional day
trips to the spots that give an idea
of what brought the developers here
in the first place.
The second largest holding in the
French West Indian empire,
Martinique's 1100-square-kilometre
terrain is topped by a series of
mountain peaks. The most imposing,
the dormant Mont-Pelée
volcano, wreaked devastation on St-Pierre
in 1902; traipsing about the fabled
city's charred ruins nowadays is an
eerie experience. Botanical
gardens teeming with indigenous
flora evoke Martinique's original
designation as Madinina (island of
flowers), while the stupendous Habitation
Clément distillery hosts a
fascinating anti-Columbus exhibit.
In between these sights, villages
like isolated Grand' Rivière
and Atlantic-facing Tartane
steadfastly retain the customs
emblematic of traditional Caribbean
fishing villages; the latter, on the
Presqu'Île Caravelle , is
also the island's most laid-back
destination, a wonderfully
underdeveloped stretch that boasts
some of Martinique's finest beaches.
Most package tours head
straight to Martinique's southern
edges, where the island's
spectacular Les Salines beach
is located, along with a host of
smaller white- sand stretches, and
hamlets like Ste-Anne and Diamant
that have escaped the build-up
elsewhere. The island's beaches get
increasingly black as you head
north, culminating in the
breathtaking Anse Couleuvre
at the island's furthest reaches - the
place to go for total isolation.
