Martinique

Martinique is a Caribbean island that is an overseas department, (or dependent territory), of France in the Caribbean Sea, to the north of Trinidad and Tobago.

The island is dominated by Mount Pelee, which on 8 May 1902 erupted and completely destroyed the city of Saint Pierre, killing 30,000 inhabitants.

Regions

In the South of the island, there are many beautiful beaches with a lot of tourists. In the North, the landscapes and the black sand beaches are worth seeing.

Cities

• Fort-de-France - Capital
• Saint Pierre
• La Trinite

Understand

This island experiences an average of one major natural disaster every five years. This includes hurricanes, flooding and volcanic eruptions.

Climate

Tropical and humid with an average temperature 17.3 degrees C. The climate is moderated by trade winds. The rainy season is from June to October but the island is vulnerable to devastating cyclones (hurricanes) every eight years on average.

Terrain

Mountainous with indented coastline and a dormant volcano as well as related volcanic activity.

; Highest point : Montagne Pelee 1,397 m

History

Colonized by France in 1635, the island has subsequently remained a French possession except for three brief periods of foreign occupation.

Get in

By plane

• From Venezuela, company Avior Airlines ~180€ each way.
• From Guadeloupe, company Air Caraibes ~150€ round trip.
• From Germany, FRA (via Paris), company Air France ~700€ round trip.

By boat

From the surrounding islands, you can use these ferry companies:

• Express des Iles
• Brudey Frères

Get around

You can rent a car to drive where you want. There are no trains and the buses are not the best to drive around in the island, especially for tourists.

Talk

Languages

French, Creole patois

Drink

• Karaoke-Café, quartier Basse Gondeau 97232 Le Lamentin, 0596 50 07 71, bar/restaurant/nightclub, currently the trendiest place (but not the most typical). Live music, Karaoke, 80s, dance, techno, worldmusic. Entrance 20€ with a drink.

Work

For European people coming from an EU country, working in Guadeloupe is allowed without problem. If you're from outside the EU, you will probably need a work permit - check with the French Embassy in your country. Do not forget though that the unemployment rate is high. But if you work in the heath sector (doctor, nurse), it will be much easier.

Voluntary service: Volontariat Civil à l'Aide Technique (VCAT). Conditions: you must be French or from another EU-member state or a country belonging to the European Economic Area. You must be over 18 and under 28 years old (inclusive). You must not have had your civic rights revoked by a court or have been convicted of certain offences. VCAT

Contact

This text of this article is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0. It has been slightly modified to fit the general design of this website. The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, David, Evan Prodromou, Yann Forget and the following WikiTravel users: Bijee, CIAWorldFactbook2002, Chris_j_wood, Huttite, InterLangBot, Schmendrik. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/Martinique.