Martinique · west-facing
Martinique West Coast
High
Head to head editorial
Martinique: east coast vs west coast sargassum
Book west for calmer water: the leeward coast from Case-Pilote to Saint-Pierre faces away from the open Atlantic, while the east coast catches it head on.
The reasoning
Why the map says what it says
Same island, opposite exposures. The Atlantic card below tracks the windward east shore, which has carried some of the heaviest readings in this atlas; the Caribbean side faces away from that path. The south-coast beaches around Sainte-Anne sit between the two modeled shores, so for those, check both cards and ask the property which way its beach faces.
Right now
Current risk level, side by side satellite-derived
Both measured from NOAA's update of . Each card rates one specific stretch of coast; open a destination for the full picture.
Martinique · east-facing
Martinique Atlantic Coast
Medium
The record
September, five years back satellite-derived
Raw satellite floating-algae detections near each coast for this month in each of the past five years (brighter orange and red = stronger signal). These are detections, not risk ratings: clouds and glare can hide algae, offshore mats do not always land, and the nearshore strip is blanked where the signal is unreliable. Click any map for that month's full Caribbean view.
Making the call
How to decide
- Read the cards above, including the full mix of levels, not just the headline.
- Open a beach cam for each contender if one exists; nothing beats looking.
- Ask each hotel for a same-day photo of its swimming beach.
- Remember the atlas rates coastlines, not resorts: one cove can beat its neighbor on the same morning.
More head-to-heads on the compare page, or build a shortlist from scratch with where beaches stay clearer.