Martinique

The Martiniquais being quite touchy, do not hesitate to repeat 'bonjour' and 'merci' along with many smiles in order to obtain what you want faster.

The island has three main beach resorts: 'Diamant' and 'Trois-Ilets' in the west and 'Sainte-Anne' in the east, all three of them on the Caribbean coast. This is where most of the tourist hotels are concentrated, and more particularly at Trois-Ilets. The more common form of hotel is 3 or 4 star with various daily or night activities. You will also find hotel residences with rooms and apartments equipped with a small kitchen area, but which also have standard restaurant catering (optional) and, sometimes, some activities. Standard hotels (no activities offered) just have rooms and a restaurant. There are four 'all-in-one' hotels: Club Med Les Boucaniers, Nouvelles Frontières' Paladien Marouba, Fram's Framissima La Batelière and Accor Tour's Coralia Club Trois-Ilets. Half-board or full-board are included in the price, as well as all the activities, except for motor sports.

Useful information: the beaches on the Caribbean Sea side (Trois-Ilets, Sainte-Anne), on Côte-sous-le-vent, are better sheltered from trade winds than the beaches on the Atlantic Coast (Caravelle Peninsula, Le François), which are permanently windy.

If you want to know when the festivals are on, get the 'Choubouloute', a free monthly magazine available at tourist offices and some shops. If you need help choosing a restaurant or some shop addresses, ask for the 'Ti Gourmet', a pocket-size booklet, also available from tourist offices, shops, hotels and restaurants.