Fort-de-France is the capital of Martinique and its only real city: eighty thousand residents, a deep bay Columbus had already noted, and a centre covered on foot in half a day. You do not stay here for a beach; you come for the city itself and because it is the departure point for the shuttles to the hotel peninsula across the water.
The essentials in four lines
- About five hours non-stop from Montreal to Aimé Césaire (FDF), twenty minutes from the centre.
- A French department: euro, French language, right-hand driving, European-standard hospitals and roads.
- The city has no usable beach. The southern beaches are forty-five minutes away by road, or twenty minutes by ferry.
- December to April is the dry season. Hurricane season runs June to November.
What to see
The Schoelcher library
It is the most surprising building in the city. Built in Paris for the 1889 World Exposition, it was dismantled piece by piece, shipped and reassembled here in 1893 to house the ten thousand volumes that Victor Schoelcher, architect of the 1848 abolition of slavery, had bequeathed to Martinique. Iron frame, polychrome ceramics, Byzantine dome: nothing comparable in the Caribbean.
Fort Saint-Louis
Begun in 1638 on a rocky promontory closing the bay, it is still an operating naval base, which makes it the island’s oldest monument still serving its original purpose. Guided visits lead to the batteries and the ramparts, with the view over the roadstead.
La Savane and the market
The large park facing the bay, planted with royal palms, serves as the public square. A few steps away, the covered spice market gathers vanilla, nutmeg, bay rum leaf, colombo and infused rums, with vendors who let you taste before buying.
The cathedral
Saint-Louis has been rebuilt seven times after earthquakes, cyclones and fires. The current version, completed in 1895, rests on an iron frame designed to withstand earthquakes, with a fifty-seven-metre spire.
The ferry
This is the most useful practical detail on this page. Launches link the Fort-de-France dock to Pointe du Bout, Anse Mitan and Anse à l’Âne, in the commune of Les Trois-Îlets, in fifteen to twenty-five minutes.
By road the same trip takes forty-five minutes around the bay, more at rush hour. So the ferry is faster, cheaper and more pleasant. That is how you stay on the beach side and come into town for dinner, or the reverse.
Around the city
The Balata garden, fifteen minutes up toward the interior, gathers three thousand tropical species around a Creole house, with walkways suspended fifteen metres up in the trees.
The Route de la Trace, laid out by Jesuits in the eighteenth century, starts in the city and winds through rainforest north toward Mount Pelée. It is one of the finest roads in the Caribbean.
To the south, the beaches of Les Trois-Îlets, Sainte-Luce and Sainte-Anne follow one another, with Les Salines at the island’s tip, an hour and a quarter away.
Accommodation
Fort-de-France has city hotels and a few characterful addresses, but no beach resort: there is no beach. The hotels and the island’s only large all-inclusive village are in the south, at Les Trois-Îlets and Sainte-Anne.
The usual approach is to stay on the beach side and come into town for a day. If you are weighing the format, our criteria for choosing an all-inclusive hotel help judge what it actually covers on an island where restaurants are numerous and good.
When to go
The dry season, December to April, brings trade winds, little rain and calm water on the Caribbean side. The wet season, July to November, is hotter, greener and cheaper, with short downpours.
Carnival fills February and ends with the burning of Vaval on Ash Wednesday, when the whole city dresses in black and white. Our guide on when to travel south from Montreal sets out the pricing calendar.
To plan this trip, see also our Martinique page and our month-by-month calendar.
