Getting There & Around · Our pick in St Lucia
Beyond St Lucia: island hopping to Martinique and the Grenadines
The back story
About Beyond St Lucia: island hopping to Martinique and the Grenadines
Saint Lucia sits between Martinique and St Vincent, and it makes a natural base for the Windward Islands. Martinique is an hour and a half away by sea; the Grenadines are a short flight or a few days’ sail.
Martinique by fast ferry
The ferry once called L’Express des Îles now sails as FRS Express des Îles. The crossing from Castries to Fort-de-France takes 1 h 30, non-stop, and the route continues to Dominica (2 h 15) and Guadeloupe (6 h 45). The timetable we checked has departures from Saint Lucia to Martinique at 7.30am on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays; return sailings leave Martinique at 1.15pm on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 7.45pm on Thursdays and Sundays. There are 3 to 7 round trips a week, depending on the season, and schedules can change, so book on the operator’s site.
Take your passport. When you leave Saint Lucia by sea you pay a departure tax of EC$33 per person aged 12 or over at the counter before boarding. Martinique is part of France, so it uses the euro and French is the main language.
An hour and a half to another island, another language and another cuisine.
If you would rather go for the day, Adventure Tours St. Lucia runs power-catamaran day trips to Martinique on the Flying Ray.
48 hours in Martinique
Day one: Fort-de-France. The capital has the Schoelcher Library, the Cathédrale Saint-Louis and the old fort on the bay, and Martinique’s tourist board lists cultural walking tours of the city.
Day two: north to Saint-Pierre, once the cultural and economic capital of Martinique. At 8.02am on 8 May 1902 a pyroclastic flow from Mount Pelée destroyed the city within minutes and killed nearly 28,000 people. Today it is Martinique’s only Town of Art and History, where modern buildings stand beside the ruins, with a memorial to the 1902 disaster and the Depaz distillery at the foot of the volcano. Mount Pelée, 1,397 m, is Martinique’s highest peak.
If you have a car, cross to Le François on the Atlantic coast for Habitation Clément: an 18th-century Creole house, listed as a historic monument in 1996, with a former distillery, a contemporary art foundation, a sculpture garden and a rum house. Presidents Bush and Mitterrand met there in 1991.
The Grenadines by air
No scheduled ferry links Saint Lucia with St Vincent and the Grenadines, so the quickest way is to fly. Mustique Airways flies private charters from both Hewanorra (UVF) and George F. L. Charles (SLU) to Mustique, Bequia, Canouan, Union Island and Petit St Vincent. SVG Air and Grenadine Airways, which sell their seats through grenadine-air.com, fly between St Vincent and the Grenadines; note that Bequia’s airport is closed for renovation, and the airlines are routing passengers via St Vincent and the evening ferry meanwhile.
The Grenadines by sea
Sunsail’s base is in Rodney Bay, and its suggested route heads south past the Pitons to St Vincent and the Grenadines, including Bequia, eight miles from St Vincent. The Moorings suggests itineraries from St Lucia to Bequia, the Tobago Cays and Mustique. Sailing south, Admiralty Bay at Port Elizabeth is Bequia’s harbour, and the Tobago Cays are a protected cluster of small islands behind a horseshoe reef. You must clear out of Saint Lucia before you leave and clear in at your first port in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
By helicopter
St. Lucia Helicopters flies around Saint Lucia, not between islands, but a transfer from Hewanorra to the north takes 10 to 15 minutes instead of about 90 by road, which helps when you are connecting to a ferry or a charter.
Why it's on our list
- Fast ferry to Martinique
- 48 hours in Martinique
- The Grenadines by air
- Sailing south
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Beyond St Lucia: island hopping to Martinique and the Grenadines before you go.