Martinique rewards travellers who go beyond the resort beaches. The island is compact — you can drive a circuit of the whole coast in a day — but it packs in an enormous amount of variety.
Mont Pelée and Saint-Pierre are the island's most dramatic pairing. The volcano dominates the northern skyline and is hikeable; the trail to the summit takes around three hours from the Aileron trailhead and rewards with views across to Dominica and Guadeloupe on clear days. Below it, Saint-Pierre was once the cultural capital of the French Antilles — "the Paris of the West Indies" — until the 1902 eruption killed the entire population in minutes. The ruined town has partially been rebuilt, but the old city lies half-buried. The Frank A. Perret Museum documents the catastrophe with photographs, artefacts, and melted objects recovered from the wreckage. Just offshore, a dozen ships sunk by the eruption make Saint-Pierre one of the best wreck diving sites in the Caribbean.
The rum distilleries are a genuine highlight, not just a tourist gimmick. Martinique produces rhum agricole — made from fresh cane juice rather than molasses — and holds the only AOC designation in the rum world, equivalent to those awarded to French wines. The Depaz distillery at the foot of Mont Pelée, the J.M. distillery near Macouba, the Saint James distillery in Sainte-Marie, and Clément at Le François all offer tours and tastings. Depaz and J.M. are the most atmospheric for their settings; Saint James has a rum museum.
The Caravelle Peninsula on the northeast coast juts into the Atlantic and is protected as part of the Regional Nature Park. The walk along the peninsula to the ruins of Château Dubuc, a 17th-century sugar estate, takes about two hours and offers clifftop views of the wild Atlantic coast.
Les Fonds Blancs ("white shallows") are a series of sandbars in the lagoon between Le François and Le Vauclin on the east coast. At low tide the sea is barely knee-deep over vast stretches of white sand surrounded by blue water. Boat excursions run out here most mornings from Baie du Simon near Le François — bring snorkelling gear. It is possible to bathe in a natural pool known as Josephine's Bath, named for Napoleon's empress who was born nearby.
The beaches of the south coast — around Sainte-Anne and Le Vauclin — are the finest on the island, with powdery white sand and calm turquoise water. The northern beaches are black volcanic sand; quieter but striking in a different way. Anse Couleuvre near Le Précheur, accessible only on foot after the road ends, is one of the most remote and beautiful.
The Jardin de Balata, north of Fort-de-France, is a private botanical garden set into a hillside at about 500 metres altitude. It has an exceptional collection of tropical plants and suspended walkways through the forest canopy. Allow a couple of hours.