Health, shopping, money, fuel, coverage, time difference and public holidays — what we repeat most often to our customers as we hand over the keys.
Martinique is a French département: same currency, same health card, same plug sockets, same highway code. You need no passport, no visa, no adapter and no particular vaccination.
But a few everyday details cannot be improvised — supermarket hours, fuel, mobile coverage, finding a pharmacy open on a Sunday. This page gathers what we repeat most often to our customers as we hand over the keys.
For a serious emergency: 15 for the ambulance service, 18 for the fire brigade, 17 for the police, or 112 from a mobile — the last works even with no SIM card and no coverage from your own network.
For anything that is not life-threatening — a cut, a sprain, a burn, a child's ear infection after the beach — the most convenient place on the island is the airport medical centre. It brings together GPs and emergency doctors, and is open every day of the year, from 6 am to 11 pm — from 8 am on Sundays.
Aimé Césaire airport, Le Lamentin, inside the terminal on the upper floor: at the top of the escalator on the right, second corridor on the left, past the pharmacy. Phone: +596 596 42 16 16. Consultations are walk-in, in order of arrival, and the place is busy: arrive early in the morning to limit the wait.
A pharmacy sits right next door, open until 10 pm — the latest on the island. Elsewhere, pharmacies keep normal shop hours, and each displays the on-duty rota in its window for nights and Sundays.
The university hospital in Fort-de-France handles hospital emergencies. A European Health Insurance Card or French carte Vitale works exactly as it does in mainland France.
One sentence covers the essential: on Sundays, supermarkets close at half past twelve. Plenty of holidays begin with a Sunday afternoon spent hunting for something to cook for dinner.
On weekdays, expect 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Saturday. The chains are the same as in mainland France, with markedly higher prices on imported goods — and much lower ones on fruit, vegetables and rum.
| Store | Where | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| Carrefour Génipa | Ducos | The largest on the island, on the road south |
| E.Leclerc La Galleria | Le Lamentin | Ten minutes from the airport |
| Carrefour Dillon | Fort-de-France | Closest to the centre |
| Caraïbe Price | Les Trois-Îlets | Opens at 7 am — morning baguettes |
| Carrefour Market | Le Marin | For the whole south |
For fruit and vegetables, Saturday morning village markets are cheaper and far better than supermarket shelves.
The euro, and cards are accepted in every shop, restaurant, filling station and hotel. No exchange fees, no commission: you are in France.
That said, always keep €20 to €30 in cash in the car. Beach vendors, food trucks, markets, some site car parks and the track down to Anse Trabaud take cash only. Cash machines are plentiful in the villages and scarcer in the north of the island — draw cash before heading up towards Grand'Rivière or Le Prêcheur.
Here is a local peculiarity: fuel prices are regulated. They are set each month by prefectoral order and are therefore identical at every filling station on the island. There is no point hunting for the cheapest: it does not exist.
As of 1 September 2026, the regulated maximum is €1.90 a litre of unleaded and €2.08 a litre of diesel. Those figures change on the first of each month.
Driving round the whole island uses less than you would expect — allow around sixty euros of fuel for a week in a small car, driving a great deal.
Two habits to adopt: most stations close in the evening and on Sunday afternoons, and they are scarce in the north. Do not set off for Le Prêcheur, Grand'Rivière or the Route de la Trace on a quarter of a tank.
If you are coming from mainland France, your plan works here as it does at home: since 2017 Martinique falls under the European roaming rules, and calls, texts and data come out of your usual allowance at no extra cost. Visitors from elsewhere in the EU are covered by the same regulation.
One caveat: operators apply a fair-use data limit for the overseas départements, often lower than the mainland one. Check your plan's ceiling before you travel if you intend to tether heavily.
Coverage is good along the whole Caribbean coast and in the south. It becomes patchy in the hills, on the Route de la Trace, in the northern gorges and on many hiking trails. That is precisely why our Martinique travel guide works offline once installed on your phone.
Tap water is drinkable and can be drunk without concern. Rotating cuts can happen in the dry season, especially in the south: keeping a pack of bottled water in the boot is the local habit.
Electricity is 230 volts, 50 Hz, on French sockets. Visitors from mainland France need no adapter; visitors from the UK or North America do.
Time: UTC−4 all year round, with no clock change. Martinique is therefore four hours behind London in winter and five in summer, five hours behind mainland France in winter and six in summer.
The sun rises around 5.45 am and sets between 5.30 and 6.30 pm depending on the season, with no dusk: twenty minutes after sunset it is pitch dark. This is what surprises visitors most, and what ruins the most late-afternoon walks.
The UV index here is among the highest in the world, and the sun is almost directly overhead between 11 am and 3 pm. You can get a serious burn in an hour, including under cloud. High-factor sunscreen, a UV shirt for children, a hat, and shade in the middle of the day.
Mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, and more so in the rainy season. A repellent suited to tropical regions, covering clothes in the evening, and no standing water around your accommodation are enough in the vast majority of cases. If you are staying beside mangrove, bring plenty.
Beware of manchineel trees on the beaches: those with a red band painted round the trunk are toxic. Never shelter under one, especially in the rain, and do not touch the small green fruit.
On top of the French national holidays, two local periods matter.
Carnival, in February or March depending on the year: from the Sunday to Ash Wednesday, the island stops. Offices closed, shops closed, roads through the villages shut for the parades. It is an extraordinary thing to witness, but it needs planning — and above all, do not count on crossing Fort-de-France on those days.
22 May, commemorating the abolition of slavery in Martinique, is a public holiday on the island and not in mainland France.
Everyone speaks French. Creole is the language of daily life, and a few words visibly change the welcome you get.
Bonjou (hello) · Bonswè (good evening, used from midday) · Mèsi (thank you) · Souplé (please) · Sa ou fè? (how are you?) · Doudou (a term of affection).
One social rule not to overlook: saying hello when you walk into a shop is not optional. Walking in and asking for something without greeting anyone reads as plainly rude. A "bonjour" before any question changes everything.
A Welcome Rent agent stays reachable throughout your rental on +596 596 52 08 26: by WhatsApp message seven days a week, and by phone Monday to Friday. A real person, who has your file in front of them — not a call centre.
We deliver to Aimé Césaire airport, the Fort-de-France cruise port and the Express des Îles terminal. For the rest — roads, real distances, traffic traps — it is all on our page about driving in Martinique.
Martinique is a French département and part of the European Union. French nationals need only a valid identity card; EU citizens travel as they would to mainland France. There are no customs formalities and no compulsory vaccinations. Travellers from outside the EU should check French entry requirements.
Yes, tap water is drinkable and can be drunk without concern. Rotating supply cuts can occur in the dry season, especially in the south of the island: the local habit is to keep a pack of bottled water in reserve.
If it is a French or EU plan, yes. Since 2017 Martinique has fallen under the European roaming rules: calls, texts and data come out of your usual allowance at no extra cost. Operators do apply a fair-use data limit for the overseas départements, often lower than the mainland one.
Prices are regulated and set monthly by prefectoral order, so they are identical at every station on the island. As of 1 September 2026 the maximum is €1.90 a litre of unleaded and €2.08 a litre of diesel. Allow around sixty euros of fuel for a week.
Martinique is on UTC−4 all year round, with no clock change: four hours behind London in winter and five in summer, five hours behind mainland France in winter and six in summer. The sun sets between 5.30 and 6.30 pm, with no dusk — twenty minutes later it is pitch dark.
Supermarkets open on Sunday mornings only, until around 12.30 pm. Filling stations often close on Sunday afternoons. During Carnival, from the Sunday to Ash Wednesday, shops and offices are closed and the villages are cut off by the parades.
All-inclusive rates, insurance and unlimited mileage included, delivery to the airport, the cruise port and the Express des Îles terminal.
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