Martinique advice needed

We are long-time visitors to both St Martin and Aruba, and are now considering visiting Martinique. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate a Martinique travel forum that can even remotely compare to TTOL. We need advice, suggestions and opinions. We speak no French, only English.
We are wanting to rent this beachfront villa:
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p612102a
Will need to locate a rental car agency, grocery store and a few restaurants within a 30 minute drive where we can get by without speaking French. Also, any comments about the safety of the island and the location that we are considering would be appreciated. Thanks for your help!

Try TripAdvisors' forum on Martinique. It's not too lively but you can post and perhaps get some info to your questions. If you do go, let us know how you liked the island. Good luck.

I haven't been to Martinique in a few years, but just returned from a 2 week sail in Guadeloupe. It was great.

You will need a rental car, might as well get it at the Airport; taxis in the FWI are really expensive!

Martinique is very developed even more so than Guadeloupe, you won't have any problems finding gourmet groceries: we have provisioned at the Geant Casinos in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Everything you might need or don't! http://geantcasinomartinique.fr/spip.php?page=catalogue-geant-casino-martinique Think Walmart sized store with full service wine, deli, bakery, butcher, fish counters and low prices. Quality is high.

We only anchored off the Anse Diamont so can't help with much specific about it, except you will not have any problems with restaurants lot of them in this somewhat touristy area. Creole cusine is our fav in this part of the world and we ask around for the REAL local stuff. It always cheap(er) and good.

On this last trip we found the people of the FWI are friendly and genuinely helpful even if you have no French, and will try their best to help you.

We felt no safety issues even late at night in the harbors, a refreshing change from some of the "English" islands.

It's been a while since we have been there, but I have to say that Martinique did not seem to be a too-friendly Anglophile destination. They really seem to prefer those who speak French.

That was also my impression a few years ago, decade really. Certainly everyone perfers communicating in their native tongue, but hey! even us English speakers poke fun at our different accents. However, this new generation seems to be much more comfortable with and accepting of English and the doors it opens both culturally and in business; it's study is required for high schoolers now. Maybe it's helped along by the almost invasive exposure to American music & TV.

This last trip I found the Antilleans who were not fluent in English, at least had some (think the typical American with rusty high school Spanish)few words they could call upon. I was pleseantly surprised by just plain folks we stopped in the street to ask for help or directions.

Your mileage may very...

I agree that Martinique is a place where some French is needed. Maybe a quick Rosetta Stone course??

I have only been by boat, but there are lots of wonderful restaurants in the Trois Islets area. Anses d'Arlet has some beach side restaurants. Sainte Anne is a beautiful area, too. I don't know how long it would take to drive to these, but they are in the area of your villa. Definitely read up on and visit St Pierre! Very fascinating, but at least when we were there, everything in the volcano museum was in French.

Don't know that villa but I recognise the island in the distance as Diamond Rock. That is a beautiful part of Martinique.

Don't worry too much about not speaking French. If the French want to sell you something (beer, wine, food etc) they'll find a way to communicate with you!!!

Mike: Not to argue with ya, but enjoying the culture and history of an island is different than just having people sell you stuff. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" /> If I were spending a week on Martinique, besides studying up on the 1902 eruption, I'd also read some of Patrick Chamoiseau's work as background.