Not all Caribbean islands are created equally and there are some like Martinique that is way more difficult to get to. So I wanted to write about Martinique because I’ve been researching to fly to this island and it’s kind of insane from the United States. And you’d be surprised, it’s easier to fly from Europe than the United States to Martinique in most cases.

Let me just say that Martinique is gorgeous and can rival all the other Caribbean islands. It has beautiful mountains, lush jungles, and sandy beaches. Therefore it should be a popular tourist destination from the United States. But it surprisingly there isn’t much offered from the United States and I write below on why I think this is happening.

Where is Martinique?

Martinique is part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean and is part of France. So when you go to Martinique you are going to France and as such you’re in Europe. They use the Euro, speak French, and have direct flights to Paris. Which is why Martinique is easier to get to from Europe than the United States even if the United States is closer in distance.

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Major City Arrivals to Martinique

I have a map below showing all the major destinations to get to Martinique. It seems that North America is not very well serviced at all. There used to be more direct flights, I heard, but now routine service from North America is limited from Montreal and Miami. Direct service from Sao Paulo is a little strange too?

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Flight Schedules

This brings up my other point about Martinique. It’s kind of hard to get to. I don’t live in Miami or Montreal, therefore, I would need to connect to one of these cities. So when I started looking up flights I could not find very many flights heading to Martinique.

And beyond that, the flight schedule is horrendous when connecting. I’ll give you an example from Chicago. So I’m looking to go to Martinique in February on a cruise and I say I need to get there by like a Saturday. When I plugged from Chicago this is what I got:

If you’re coming from North America, you only have two options, through Miami and Montreal. Air Canada seems to have more service and American Airlines only offers one flight per week at the moment. It’s kind of surprising given that Martinique is a beautiful island and should have more tourists coming from the United States. Above is on a Friday.

On a Saturday the options are actually better but there is only one flight through Miami and technically I could make this flight from Chicago. But the connection is short and not really a great option.

However, if I wanted to travel during the middle of the week, it’s damn near crazy in terms of connections in time. It would take nearly 30 hours from Chicago to get to this Caribbean island. I almost think it would be easier to fly to Paris and connect from there. Four connections and stopping at places like Haiti and Guadulope is crazy.

What I Think

What I think is going on here is unfortunately geopolitics. There should be more flights to Martinique but because it’s not an English speaking island it’s well traveled from the United States. France owns the island and they do market tourism for themselves. And because the United States has plenty of other English speaking Caribbean islands to go to, Martinique is overlooked. That’s the same as Guadeloupe and Dominica, neighboring islands.

Perhaps these islands may be known to a more French-speaking world but not to North America. I don’t hear much about Martinique in travel news!