Anything within walking distance of pier?

[New2cruise1483]

We will be in Martinique in November, and I was wondering if there's anything we can see and do just by walking around? We are trying to keep this on the cheap since we are visiting 10 ports on a B2B and can't afford excursions for all of them. I'm really having a hard time finding information on this port so any input will be greatly appreciated :)

[K&RCurt]

Really not too much to speak of.

 

The ferry to the beaches is quite reasonable. We were there on Fat Tuesday, so the ferry was only running between Fort de France and one of the beaches, (Anse Mitan) but it was only $7.00 pp round trip.

Edited February 23, 2016 by K&RCurt

[Clayswife]

Not very much near the pier at all. There are a few shops, but nothing worth your while. I would agree about taking a water taxi to the beach ... We were just there and we found a tour guide (didn't speak much English) to take us to St. Pierre, DePaz Rum Distillery, Mt Pele, and Sacre Coeur. It's a beautiful island, but they are SO rude. NOT impressed at all. We might try going back and visiting the beach next time ... But, they are not tourist friendly. Make sure you bring euros, most places wouldn't take American currency (at least none that we encountered). I figured we would give Martinique the benefit of the doubt and try it one more time ... Maybe the beach will be a more pleasant experience. If not ... Bye-bye Martinique. Hopefully, it will work out for you!! :) Either way, you're on vacation :D

 

Jackie

[New2cruise1483]

Thank you both for the suggestion. BF isn't much of a beach person, so Iwas hoping to maybe find something close by to check out without having to book a tour of some kind. I'll either have to keep searching or just tell him that Martinique is "my" day and we got to the beach lol.

[negn]

DH and I did a stroll around the port. Found an interesting church made out of metal built to withstand invasions. Also walked thru a open market with many vendors Had a cocktail at a sidewalk cafe. Inexpensive and easy day in port.

[New2cruise1483]

That does sound interesting. That way we wouldn't feel obligated to be anywhere at any specific time, except for all aboard. From a few pictures that I've found, it looks like a nice little town to walk around in.

[keawakapu]

Hello! Check out my post on Martinque. My husband and I loved wandering around the town. The town felt very safe to walk around in. We saw beautiful churches, squares, statues, and a beautiful library. Martinque has good infrastructure as they get money from France. I didn't experience any rudeness at all from people. They just go about their day and they simply let you go about yours. Anyone that I actually engaged in conversation and tried to use French (you have to try to use French, folks...this is an outpost of France after all), were very friendly! I loved being able to walk around and no one ask you buy anything. They have very nice stores and cafes. Think of this as your opportunity to get a little taste of France..have some cafe au laits, munch on croissants, and have a nice French lunch. If you like beauty products, have your list ready and head to one of the pharmacies (look for the green glowing signs). Friendly, helpful staff. I love the Pharmacie Cypria. They are modern, clean, and filled with all of the products you can't buy in the U.S. except for really inflated prices online. I had a most enjoyable day in Martinique. Just try your best to greet people in French and learn how to say "I don't speak French" in French. Lots of the cafes have free Wi-fi too so a good time to catch up on your e-mails as well.

[keawakapu]

There is an interesting statue of Josephine Bonaparte. The people beheaded the statue as she was hated in Martinque. She had Napoleon bring back slavery so that she could have workers for her estate. A new head was reinstalled but the statue was beheaded again. To this day, her headless statue can be seen. There was also some red paint splattered on the statue to represent blood. Josephine Bonaparte was born in Martinique. There are interesting tidbits of history to be found all over Martinque. If we had more time, I would have like to see the ruins of Sainte-Pierre that were buried by Mount Pelee.

[sbb]

If you don't have a tour planned or do not want to go to the beach, I would stay on the ship. I have a totally different opinion from the previous post. The vendors on the pier have the usual inexpensive t-shirts and jewelry, but I did not see any stores or cafes that I wanted to stop at. Definitely not a shopping destination. A tour will show you the island highlights which was IMO just okay. We were in Martinique just last week.

[keawakapu]

Hi! I agree, Fort-de-France is not for everyone. If fact, I was going to stay on the ship as I didn't fancy Martinique when we had cruised there 10 years ago. If I didn't need to pop out and look for cough syrup and some free wi-fi, I would have stayed on board.

There is definitely some cheesy stuff to be had at the shops and at the vendors. Every port seems to have these things. There is some decent silver jewelry but this is not high end stuff at all.

I did love the print I found. It is very "Restoration Hardware" and it was only $15 so you might find little treasures if you poke around.

Also, if French beauty products don't excite you much, then you likely won't be too smitten by going to the pharmacies here. However for people that want to check things out, it takes about 5 minutes to walk to the pier and check out the vendors and I think you could walk to a pharmacy in ten minutes so you could still have the majority of the day to be on the ship if that is your pleasure.

It is easy place to get free wi-fi at a cafe and catch up e-mails too if you don't want to use up your texting/wifi minutes (if you have purchased a package for this) on board.

I get that it won't be a highlight for some people, but it is an easy place to walk around with no one asking you to buy anything with access to some things that are hard to find outside of Europe.

Hopefully more people will post with ideas or interesting things that they saw to give people some more ideas.