Ships dock and anchor in Martinique.

They dock at the Passenger Terminal or the new pier at Pointe Simon. The Passenger Terminal is a 5 minute drive to town and Pointe Simon Pier is in the heart of Fort-de-France. If your ship tenders, the tender pier is also right in town. Taxis are readily available at all piers.

Walking from the cruise terminal of Fort de France is very safe and takes about 15 minutes to the downtown area. Just follow the blue line.

Printable map to take along on your cruise.

Cruise calendar for this port.

Watch a destination video.

Martinique is a Caribbean island that is an overseas department 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. In the South of the island, there are many beautiful beaches with a lot of tourists. In the North, the rain forests and the black sand beaches are worth seeing. The interior of the island is mountainous.

Fort-de-France is the largest city in and capital of Martinique.

Fort-de-France, the capital and largest city is a cross between New Orleans and a town on the French Riviera. Narrow streets amble up the evergreen hills that surround this bay side town.

There are many English speaking taxi drivers and tour guides on the pier offering services. One suggestion if you want English is to chat a bit with the guide before accepting the offer. Some are good at the first few sentences but have then exhausted their language skills.

There are 3 ferry companies, Madinina, Matinik, and Petrolettes, and the ferry dock is just to the right of the ship (when facing inland), you can see it from the deck of the ship. You can take Matinik to Trois Islets, 5 euros return, a pretty village, no other attractions. The other 2 ferries go to Pointe de Bout, 6.50 euros return (they don’t take dollars), which has some shopping, hotels, marina, and a beach. Diamant beach is much better, down the coast a few miles by cab. The ferries run frequently, every 30-45 minutes, and Madinina has their schedule on their web site. There is sometimes a ferry dispatcher on the ferry dock to help find the right one, and he speaks some English.

For a St. Tropez ambience, take the ferry from the waterfront to Pointe du Bout (20 minutes each way), which has some good beaches -- Anse-Mitan and Anse-a-l'Ane -- and is home to some of the island's major resorts, such as the Kalenda Trois Ilets and the Bakoua.

Visits to the rain forest and a tour of the island's beauty are downright memorable and well worth the effort to do.

There is excellent duty-free shopping right at the cruise terminal itself.

There is also an excellent crafts market near the harbor on the north side of the park that sells everything under the sun. It is well worth a visit if you are looking for local crafts, art and clothing.

Martinique is a dependent territory of France and uses the euro as currency. US dollars are not accepted in shops, but many restaurants and hotels take credit cards. The best exchange rates can be had at banks or ATM's. If they will accept USD, the conversion rate will be poor.

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French and Creole patois are spoken on the islands; English is known by some inhabitants.

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