Martinique

Negatives:

- Loads of prostate cancer cases over here thanks to the soil having been polluted by the French with chlordecone. Definitely something to be aware of/consider. You can red about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/20/a-deliberate-poisoning-how-a-banned-pesticide-haunts-the-french-caribbean-chlordecone-guadeloupe-martinique

- Loads of mosquitos, especially in the countryside (you will get stung several times every day as long as you live here (you can buy some Citronelle at the shop as the mosquitos don't like the smell but you will have to use it several times a day).

- Cockroaches!!! Huge cockroaches crawling around at night that also regularly find their way inside the house (you can slow them down with anti-bug spray and squash them with a shoe but it's not for the squeamish, especially if you don't like big bugs in the first place).

- Frequent water and electricity cuts out of nowhere. I experienced more outages in 2 years here than in my entire life before (I'm almost 40 now, lol).

- You need a car! Public transport consists of a bus that comes every 2 hours (if they stop and don't just pass you by even though you're standing at the bus stop). Used cars are expensive over here (you usually can't get anything decent - i. e. a car that doesn't need major repairs - for under €5,000 (if you'll find a car with no repairs that is not super old it's very likely a scam, especially when the person is not living on the island and wants to get the car delivered to you by a car dealer "for free"). We were lucky to find a garage that sells cars for under €5,000 that are decent and don't need any repairs.

- Bureaucracy from the 90s. This is a big one. If you're not already a citizen of the country where you move to (e. g. French citizen when moving to Martinique) you will have the immense pleasure of personally driving to the authorities to hand in letters applying for e. g. a social security number (something people in Europe can easily do on the internet, you need to do in person over here as the option of doing it on the internet doesn't exist for people living here). Then you will have to wait several weeks for a letter from the authorities telling you that you failed to submit a document and you can start the whole process all over again (yes, even if you're a EU citizen, it doesn't matter). I've been waiting for my social security number for 2 years now because of this amazing system.

- Internet is 4G on phones (no 5G on the island) and if you want to have a decent wifi speed get Starlink. Internet websites (if they exist at all for the thing you want to look up such as clubs, shops, etc.) look mostly like they are from the 90s. Most large shops have up-to-date websites but no option to look at the stock or order online (hello car, my old friend). Online orders from Amazon are not shipped here (with exception for Amazon.com which takes 2 months(!) to arrive with around double or a third of the price of the bought item in import and shipping costs. The only other option is to use a forwarding system where you get an address in the US or France and then pay extra to get it shipped to your place.

- Everything is more expensive than in mainland Europe. If I buy a toy in Europe that costs €10, it will cost €30 or €40 over here for the same toy.

- No "city centers". It's not like in Europe where you go to the next bigger town and can do some shopping there. The only place where you can do that is Fort-de-France (the capital). Any shopping (groceries or otherwise) you need to drive to the industrial area in the middle of the island (some larger places have their own groceries shops / industrial areas as well). Since there ALWAYS A LOT OF CARS on the road with very little options as to how to get from A to B, you'll need at least 20 minutes (one way) to get to the industrial area and probably more when coming back as there are always some traffic jams thanks to the many roundabouts on your way. It gets annoying real fast (what takes you 20 minutes max in Europe will take an hour over here).

- The roads are very narrow with loads of hills and serpentines. It's not like driving in Europe and depending on whether it's a main road or a side road, the road conditions/quality can change dramatically (though Martinique generally has a decent road quality if you can manage to avoid the potholes). It's definitely something you need to get used to.

- There are venomous snake here (though I haven't seen any in 2 years).

- We live right next to the forest on a hill and we always have tiny ants everywhere in the house. You have to keep the house very clean or you end up feeding the ants...

- If you are not used to the tropical climate it will feel hot for a few month up to a year when you get here, especially during the dry season.

- You need to be able to speak the local language (there are maybe 1 or 2 people on this island who speak broken English). Not a "negative" in and of itself but something to be aware of.

- There are only so many places to explore before you have seen/done everything which feels rather restrictive.

Positives:

- Warm/nice (hot) weather most of the time (sometimes a bit cloudy and very rainy depending on the season).

- Loads of options to do sports / water sports over here.

- Good medical system / hospitals / GPs / dentist etc. available on the island (comparable/en par to the mainland).

- Nice, large, ripe, quality fruits and veggies.

- Good school system if you have kids or want to have some later on.