We were just in Martinique in Jan. It was our first visit to that island. We took a ship tour but I can't remember the name. It was 4 hours and went all over the northern part of the island.
The rain forest was among the prettiest I have seen, really lush. We also toured through the town that was destroyed by the volcano, very narrow streets and black sand beaches. Also many ruins still there with folks building in and around those ruins. Interesting that down from the mountain the climate was very dry and brown! Such variety on a small island.
By the time we were done, the shops in town looked very crowded and we were tired so just went back to the ship. I would have liked to shop there a bit, but have to wait till next time.
I had heard the locals were very rude there. Can't say for the town shops but they were all very nice were we stopped. I greeted our tour guide with a little bit of high school French and we even had just a bit of further conversation. It was fun but as we continued I got nervous, he said my French was good and thanked me for trying. I greeted everyone I met in French and they would smile, then we would have a nice chat in English. I saw no English on any of their signs, enjoyed reading them and trying to figure out what they said. I seem to do better reading than speaking. Not bad since HS was over 40 years ago.
We all thought it was a beautiful island, one of the prettiest we've seen, and would like to go back there sometine. I would like to see the other part of the island and have more interactions with the locals, better brush up on my French fist though.
On our tour we went through a very old rum factory, had the best coconut rum I have ever tasted. Didn't have any small bottles of it and I didn't want to bring back a big bottle with all the flight restrictions in place now.

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