Martinique Vacation in the French Caribbean
Explore the French Caribbean on a Martinique vacation! An overseas department of France, Martinique is located in the Lesser Antilles, nestled between Dominica and St. Lucia. The island combines beautiful beaches and bays with lush rainforests and mountains, quiet fishing villages and colorful culture. Mixing French and Creole flavors and with a history influenced by famous figures ranging from Napoleon to Columbus to Aime Césaire, Martinique also has a rich history.
As there are not a lot of fully guided vacations packages for Martinique, this vacation is truly unique! Like all of the “Darley Vacations” we offer, we also experienced this Martinique vacation and hand picked each adventure for you, making for a special vacation.
Check out the below vacation itinerary and talk with our Preferred Travel Advisor to book this trip or customize it to fit your needs or that of your group!
6 days/ 5 nights starting at $4,262.50 USD* per person based on double occupancy
* Daily inclusions listed below. Itinerary pricing based on double occupancy. We are happy to customize this itinerary to fit your needs.
Martinique Vacation Itinerary
Day 1: Bonjour Martinique! Bonjour Fort De France!
Welcome to Martinique! You’ll be met at the Aimé Césaire International Airport by your private driver-guide and transfer to your hotel in Trois-Ilets (About 35 min).
Check in at your 4-Star charming West-Indies style hotel located in the resort area of Pointe-du-Bout. You’re staying beachside along the Fort-de-France bay. The hotel has rooms and suites, all with balconies or patios, two restaurants, a cocktail bar, two tennis courts, a swimming pool, beach and water sports facilities.
Enjoy the white sand beach around your hotel and relax from your travels. Tonight, enjoy a three-course dinner at panoramic onsite at the hotel restaurant (included).
Beachfront hotel in Martinique
Day 2: Fort De France
You’ll be picked up this morning at your hotel by your private driver-guide to embark on a morning tour of the capital of Martinique, Fort De France. At 50 miles long and 22 miles across at its widest point, Martinique is the third largest island in the Lesser Antilles, and most of the island’s residents, totaling around 400,000, live in the capital city. Hear about its fascinating and unexpected French and Caribbean history and culture, with stops at the following points of interests:
- La Savane
- Schoelcher library (outside)
- Le Malecon Boardwalk
- Fort Saint Louis The cove
- Aimé Césaire museum to learn about the most influential Francophile Caribbean writer of his generation
- Former Palais de Justice (Hall of Justice)
- Covered market: taste some tropical fruits and local products (Included) directly from the producers’ stalls and check out the spices, flowers and homemade liquors at this market that dates back to 1885
After your discovery of Fort De France landmarks, your private driver-guide will take you to Le Prêcheur (45 min), a charming fishing village. Check out the village and enjoy a jump in the ocean here if you wish.
Aime Cesaire Museum and Library in Fort de France 
Liquor and spices at the Martinique market 
Meeting the locals at the Fort de France market 
Schœlcher Library in Fort-de-France
Visit Habitation Céron, a former sugar cane plantation and estate that dates from 1658. This eco-friendly tourist site located on the outskirts of scenic Le Prêcheur and offers discovery trail itineraries though majestic gardens and rivers. Its sugar and cassava refinery ruins are still standing, a testament to the island’s remarkable history. Nestled between Martinique’s majestic mountains, fine volcanic black sand beaches, and rivers, the estate backs up against an Integral Biological Reserve. At Habitation Céron, cocoa trees are regularly planted as part of the revival of the cocoa production in Martinique.
Habitation Céron is not just a restaurant and an old sugar factory, it is also a remarkable garden, where culture, history, gastronomy, fauna and flora of Martinique come together.
- Walk in the garden
- Discover the Zamana, a 300-year old tree named 2016 Tree of the year
- The river
- The sugar factory ruins
- The crawfish pond
Enjoy lunch at Habitation Ceron at their restaurant overlooking the river with hammocks and swings for children!
The Chef picks, presses, cuts, ferments, mixes, associates, fruits, vegetables, wild herbs, spices, textures to offer you a cuisine that is lively, respectful, in motion, and most importantly: an original and delicious Caribbean cuisine.
Return to Fort De France for a glass of Champagne at sunset at the Bolibar, a cool bar over the Bay of Fort-de-France.
* 1 glass of Champagne/person included. Any additional drink is at additional cost
Diner on own tonight. Your driver is at your disposal to take you wherever you wish to go!
Day 3: Cooking Class, the Pompeii of the Caribbean & Rum Tasting
Today, we customize your day according to your wishes! If you wish to take a cooking class, we can customize your day differently than the options below: Cooking class followed by time on own at the beach, then explore the island southbound with stop at famous Anse D’Arlet, a charming town with a beautiful church overlooking the beach.
Morning guided tour: Martinique natural wonders
Hotel pick up by private driver-guide.
Today, you will discover Martinique natural wonders: gardens and rainforest.
Depart from your hotel to Balata Garden. Created in 1982 by horticulturalist Jean-Philippe Thoze, whose family owned the property, the gardens opened to the public in 1986. Walk amid the treetops on swinging bridges and observe thousands of diverse tropical plants and hundreds of species of palm trees. Back at the Creole style main house with its period furnishings, make sure to take the time to watch the hummingbirds.
Lunch today is at a local creole restaurant (included). Alcoholic beverages not included.
Continue just a few minutes to Saint Pierre, which has been coined the little Pompeii of the Caribbean.
The former capital of Martinique, it was completely destroyed in 1902 by the eruption of Mt Pelée, which overlooks the city.
Today Saint Pierre is principally a tourist center with shops and restaurants of every variety. Completely rebuilt upon the ruins of its former self, the city demonstrates the wrought iron balconies and Persian adorned entrances that are considered characteristic of the architecture of early 1900s. By getting off the beaten track and keeping a careful eye out, you can still find forgotten remnants of the former city such as ruined walls.
Explore the landmarks in Darley’s footsteps with your private guide.
Time on own at leisure for shopping at your convenience
Saint Pierre in Martinique with postcard views 
Darley explores the ruins in Saint Pierre 
Saint Pierre in Martinique and some of the ruins
Rum Distillery tour: Tasting rum at sunset
Just as wine lovers visit France to savor the best of French wine while traveling along La Route des Vins, rum connoisseurs head to Martinique to experience some of the world’s finest rums by traveling La Route des Grands Rhums
For four centuries, at the foot of Mont Pelee and at the edge of the bay of Saint-Pierre (in Martinique), the “Mountain Plantation” produces the island’s finest sugar cane: an exceptional climate, abundant mountain spring water, volcanic soils and human dedication- these are the secrets of Depaz rum (or similar).
On the Depaz estate, the sugar canes draw their richness from the young high-quality soils created from the ashes of the 1902 eruption. The exceptional exposure on the flanks of the Mount Pelée, abundant sunshine, buffeting from trade winds and the free-draining volcanic soil all favour the accumulation of sugar in the canes.
Enjoy some rum tastings while the sun sets.
Spend some time on own at the Carbet beach before heading back to your hotel, where you can enjoy dinner on your own.
Day 4- Martinique History
Check out at your hotel and get picked up for your next hotel and destination.
Martinique is truly a melting pot and today, you’ll learn more of its history at La Savane des Esclaves, the Slave Savannah.
Created by local Gilbert Larose, who is passionate about keeping island ancestry and traditions alive, Slave Savannah contains historical and recreated artifacts, medicinal and organic vegetable gardens, livestock, and a series of slave huts, placing the traveler back in a 19th century slave village. Each small hut may have housed an entire family, who would depend on their own subsistence growth and herbal medicines to survive. Visitors are transported through the hard and horrific lives slaves faced from their capture from their homeland and transfer to Martinique through their daily work on plantations and eventual freedom.
Some highlights of your visit may include: Cassava making, the museum, maroon house and gardens.
Darley trying cassava with Gilbert Larose at the Slave Savannah 
Gilber Larose at the Slave Savannah 
Gilbert Larose at the Slave Savannah
Continue to the Village de la Poterie (The Pottery village)
Located on a former Jesuit monastery and later a sugar plantation, the Pottery Village dates back to the 18th century and is today a place where travelers can meet modern artists and gain an unique appreciation for the red clay soil that’s transformed this part of the island.
Meet many skilled craftsmen and women, and enjoy shopping for ceramics, jewels, souvenirs and wood furniture. On some visits, you may enjoy pottery making demonstrations and a performance by the Hommes d’argile, the Clay Men group, who perform a sort of ballet with clay.
Enjoy lunch today beachside at Ti Sable, located on a beautiful stretch of sand.
Check in at your boutique, artsy hotel for the next part of your stay. Owned by an art collector and with a stunning pool overlooking the Fort de France Bay and top restaurant, this is a unique accommodation where guests say they feel at home in Martinique. Enjoy a gourmet dinner (included) at the restaurant onsite tonight.
The owner of this Martinique hotel is an art collector 
Boutique Hotel with art galore in Martinique 
View of the hotel pool
Day 5: Atlantic Coast Adventures
Your private driver-guide will take you to Le Robert, on the western coast of Martinique, the Atlantic side of the island this morning for a sailing and snorkeling excursion.
Enjoy the stunning waters of the Atlantic Coast of the island, meet iguanas on Ilet Chancel, discover Ilet Madame and go snorkeling in crystal clear waters. You’ll enjoy lunch on board the sailboat today.
Darley goes snorkeling in Martinique 
Beautiful waters for snorkeling in Martinique
This afternoon, back at the marina, you’ll be picked up and continue on to François for a rum or “rhum” tasting adventure.
Habitation Clement: some local rum, called “rhum” in Martinique, plantation tour and local art and traditions.
Habitation Clement is a historic sugarcane plantation and rum distillery, where rhum agricole production dates back over 125 years. Martinique is known for its varieties of rhum agricole, which is rhum produced with fresh sugarcane juice as opposed to molasses.
In addition to the cellars and a museum, Habitation Clement’s grounds are like an open air art gallery, with sculptures on display amid stunning trees and contemporary art housed in modern galleries, but a centerpiece of this estate is the main home, the only Creole building recognized as a French historical monument in Martinique. World leaders including President George H.W. Bush have visited and held meetings in this stunning open-air home.
Enjoy a private tour of Habitacion Clement, including its art, gardens, old distillery, main house and, of course, rhum tasting!
Art at Habitacion Clement 
Habitacion Clement main home you can tour 
Measuring rum in Martinique
Departure from the distillery to Vauclin.
This afternoon, you can choose to have a relaxation experience with a massage (we will arrange it should you choose) or enjoy time on your own. Dinner on your own.
Day 6: Au Revoir Martinique!
Check out of your hotel and head back to the airport in Fort de France to travel home.
Trip Prices & Inclusions
6 days/ 5 nights starting at $4,262.50 USD* per person based on double occupancy
* Daily inclusions listed below. Itinerary pricing based on double occupancy. We are happy to customize this itinerary for you!
Package Inclusions
Accommodation
5 nights hotel accommodation for 2
Meals
Daily breakfast for 2
Day 1 Dinner
Day 2 Habitation Céron lunch
Day 2 Champagne at sunset
Day 3 Lunch
Day 4 Dinner
Day 5 Lunch
Activities
DAY 2- Full day private guided tour
DAY 3- Full day private guided tour
Day 4 Hotel Pick up & Transfer w/stop for excursion
Day 5 Private charter sailing boat
Day 5 Driver-guide services
All entrance tickets for 2 at all visited locations
Transfers
All transfers included per itinerary
Taxes and Fees
Exclusions
International air (ask us about super great priced airfare with JetBlue)
Personal expenses
Travel Insurance
Gratuities