Welcome to my second installment of my mini blog series of ‘My time in the Caribbean’, this time I’m going to be talking about one of the French islands in the Lesser Antilles. Now, to be honest when my boyfriend and I were planning our travels, Martinique was not on our very small list of islands that we wanted to go to basically because we didn’t even know it existed (bad I know). But when it came to booking flights to and from the islands, the airline (we flew with Liat) had very set routes on how to get to certain islands, for example to get to Barbados you have to fly there via Martinique. So to save time and some money we decided to book our flights according to where the airline would have to go via…if that makes sense…anyway that’s how we ended up on this beautiful island.

Out of all the islands that I’ve visited in the Caribbean, Martinique was weirdly the one that felt most like home. It was just so European, I remember getting out of the airport and it felt like I was in France, and I know it’s a French territory in the Caribbean so some people might say ‘Well what do you expect?’ But Montserrat is a British territory and that is like nowhere in Britain- believe me! It was just so refreshing. And for me, such a nice way to feel, landing somewhere that feels so close to home. Now, I don’t speak French, I’ve done so many years off it, all the way through to college when I sadly failed my first year (yes I got a U) so surprisingly I’m still not good. I’ve always loved the language, so I thought staying in a French speaking country for 5 weeks, my French must improve! Right? Kinda. Anyway, having the language barrier just added another challenge to our stay and I loved it.

The Air B&B we had was sooooo cute. A little studio apartment with a sea view, 5 minute walk from the beach. It was the sweetest little place, modern, quirky with plenty of living space for a couple. Check it out : Our little studio flat. Couldn’t ask for more really. The beach we were next too was called Anse Mitan, it was beautiful, clear waters, white sand and a lovely view of all the boats and the coastline. We were on quite a restricted budget, as this is the island we stayed on the longest and also the most expensive, so a lovely cheap day for us is spending it on the beach and grabbing a cheeky drink in the afternoon. Our favourite beach bar was called ‘Ti Taurus’ and be honest we discovered this place after using TripAdvisor to find the cheapest places to eat near to you. But it became so much more than that, the people were lovely (and spoke some English), great drink and food selection, anything from your classic burgers to local seafood and fish, and an amazing view of the ocean. So as you can probably guess we were there quiet a lot. My drink of choice while in Martinique was Desperado Red. Oh my gosh, x100 better than the original desperado for sure. If you see it somewhere, get it, you won’t regret it!

Our time in Martinique was incredibly chilled and to be honest you could say we were even pretty lazy, but that’s what you do when you’re on holiday right?! We spent most of our money there on drinks and going out for food- that’s just what we like to do! A few times we got exploring by catching the ferry over to Fort-de France and spending the day there. Fort-de France is the main city in Martinique so there were definitely a lot more city vibes going on, and a great place to be a tourist. Lots of shops, restaurants and attractions, and if you’re like us on a more strict budget, check out the museum (Musee Departemental de la Martinique), free entry and loads of interesting history about Martinique and the Caribbean islands in general (they had English translations obviously, but to be honest worth a visit just for the visuals). I’m not the biggest history person but even I found it really interesting- so definitely worth a visit. There is also an incredible market right in the center on the city, perfect for souvenirs, anything you can think off from Caribbean chutney, to bags, to furniture. I love markets, they are such a fun away to find individual unique things. I just wish I had the space in my bag and money in my wallet to buy things. If you go upstairs in the market, there is restaurant cafe, where we grabbed a bit of lunch on our second visit. Now if there’s one thing you can rely on in the Caribbean, it’s that the chicken is going to be the best chicken you’ve ever had! Seriously it’s always incredible, and that’s exactly what we got, curried chicken with rice, beans and plantain, delicious!!

I hope this gives you a little insight to the time I had in Martinique, I really loved my stay there. Well done if you’ve made it this far as I’ve rambled quite a lot!

Thank you so much for reading x