You can find Martinique comfortably located between Dominica and St. Lucia, pretty much in the middle of the southern Caribbean. As an “over-seas region” of France and the 3rd largest of the Windward Islands, Martinique is a unique Caribbean destination, and that holds true for its hiking trails. The island offers a variety of easy relaxing walks as well as some very challenging and mountainous hikes. Although we were only there for the day as part of a cruise stop, we were feeling ambitious and decided to attempt hiking one of the tallest peaks on the island – Piton Lacroix, which stands majestically at 3,870 feet (1,180m) above sea-level.
We rented a car in Fort-de-France, then headed north-west along the coast towards Le-Morne Vert. We were amazed to discover that the main roads on Martinique are large, well maintained multi-lane highways. It was a nice scenic drive, filled with gorgeous coastal views on one side, and green mountainous rainforest views on the other! Just past Bellefontaine, we headed inland towards the town of Saint Maurice. Driving on these narrow, winding roads, we got lost a few times before ending up at the east end of a road called Canton Suisse.
At this point, I’ll mention that sometimes things just don’t work out as planned… While there are over 3 dozen marked trails on Martinique, unbeknownst to me at the time, this wasn’t one of them. Not one of my best ideas – However, it was an adventure, none the less!
We parked the car on the side of the road near an old farmhouse and walked up a steep paved road which turned into a dirt/grass track before ending-up at a partly plowed farmer’s field. As we walked, we passed goats and cows wandering around. As we seemed to have startled them, I don’t think they were used to many visitors. At the edge of the field, we could see a series of forested mountains in the background to the east. From this vantage point, we also had beautiful views to the north/west of the island, towards Saint Maurice, Le Morne Vert as well as the Caribbean Sea.
Did I mention that we were kind of winging it? Well… as we were at the forest edge, I assumed that the trail must start here somewhere, however there was no marked trailhead of any sort. I walked the edge of the field/forest trying to find some hint of a trail. I never really found anything that resembled a well-used trail but eventually, after about 10-15 minutes of searching, we headed up-hill on what appeared to be a path of some sort. In the back of mind, I was wondering if this was a wild animal path, as I have been known to veer off man-made trails, accidentally following deer paths and the like – I guess we would find out
From the start, the going was tough, not just because the trail was barely visible, but because the path was extremely steep and muddy – we were slipping and sliding all over the place. After what seemed like an hour or more, the trail finally looked a bit more discernible, albeit strewn with fallen trees and rocks. This was a true rain-forest hike adventure, as the forest was very dense and dark in most sections, with only the occasional rays of sun peeking through the heavy canopy. Pretty cool!
While at this stage of the hike I was starting to gain confidence that this may be an actual trail, we had consumed a fair amount of time for a couple of reasons. One because there were a number of steep and muddy sections that we had to carefully pick-our-way up and around, but also because the trail to this point was not obvious so we couldn’t motor along like we typically would. When you lack confidence, you lack in conviction (and speed).
When we had made it to some high ground where we could see where we were, the hike became a little more intimidating. It appeared as though we had just hiked to the top of a small ridge of sorts, and now were probably less than halfway to the peak of Piton Lacroix. We were about 2,526 feet (770m) above sea-level at this point and we could see that the trail descended into a gulley and we could only assume that it took a seriously steep ascent of Piton Lacroix which we could see across the valley. It was already afternoon, and with an estimated 3 more hours traversing another couple thousand feet (700m) of elevation change to complete the hike and return, we decided it wasn’t do-able with our time constraints, so we turned back.
We were covered in mud, tired and disappointed that we didn’t reach the peak, however it was an experience to have got this far. We found out later, once I found a proper map of Martinique’s trails, that while this is an actual trail, it is not maintained and rarely used.
While we didn’t have the time to complete this hike, we realized that we didn’t have to head back to the port right away. After getting back to the car, we drove a little further north before heading back to the coast. As a result, we stumbled across the town of Le Carbet and found a beautiful quiet beach. What a find! We wandered around for a while, appreciating the cool breeze off the Caribbean Sea. When we were leaving town we also noticed a boutique rum distillery, so we stopped in for a visit. While most Caribbean islands make their own rum, Martinique could be considered the rum capital of the world with its more than 10 distilleries and even more rum brands. For more information, check out our Martinique Rhum page. Anyways, we had a good afternoon as we found some nice areas of Martinique to visit.
Before we got back on the cruise ship, I managed to grab a nice detailed Martinique Hiking Trail Map – Next time, we will be much better prepared! Reference our Circuit de la Caravelle blog post for proof of that.
ACT Staff
For a more ‘technical’ Trail Report as well as much more information on hiking in Martinique, please reference the following links (to pages on our website):
For an overview of this French Caribbean Island Paradise, take a look at our Martinique Vacations page
If you’re looking for more active things to do while vacationing on the island, click on our Martinique Adventures blog for more great ideas! (coming soon)
For a more relaxed vacation itinerary, you can find great Tourist Attractions on the island, by checking out our Things to Do in Martinique blog (coming soon)
