Martinique Taxi Tour with Thomas Vincent

My husband & I along with friends recently arrived at Fort de France on Anthem of the Seas. After reading reviews on tour guides, we chose Thomas Vincent, who was to be our guide for the day. He took us on a six hour tour to various locations which he mentioned in prior emails to my husband. Thomas does speak English although he is French.

The tour started in the city. The drive took us into the mountains towards the rain forest. Our first stop was, Sacre Coeur of Balata Church. It's a beautiful Catholic church and a replica of a church in France. We continued to the rain forest where he stopped and took a short walk to a lovely waterfall.

Continuing on, we stopped at Jardin de Balata, a tropical garden which had several walking paths among the vegetation and a beautiful view of the island's volcano. Next stop was the Depaz Distillery where we tasted several local rums.

His tour continued along beaches and the views were just lovely. These are just a few of the sights we saw on our tour. Thomas and his wife do the tours. He brings refreshments (local juices made on the island). He is a wealth of island information and very personable. His wife followed our van with another couple. They stay together when they have multiple guests. You would not be disappointed with a tour with Thomas Vincent. He makes the tour more personal than a big bus tour. If you are looking for a relaxing tour of Martinique, you will not be disappointed if you tour with him.

Thanks for the review. We did a similar tour through HAL and went to the same places except for distillery- went to St. Pierre instead. Any Martinique tour which includes the Balata Gardens is interesting from our experience. Beautiful gardens.

Website? Email address?

As he asked me, just transfer his data to get in touch with him through his home made website :

http://taxinordenvincent.wix.com/discover-martinique

On your North tour did you stop at a black sand beach for a swim also?

Hi lorenajb7

Yes we did stop at the end of the tour in a place close to St Pierre in a nice black sand beach.

He asked us to decide how long we wanted to stay assuming 45 min to drive back to the ship.

My wife and I secured an excursion with Thomas several months in advance of our cruise in Oct. 2016 and again confirmed our excursion with him just days prior to our sailing. Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we arrived onshore and were told by him that he was unable to accommodate us because he had secured a larger group and that he had no room at all for us. In all our many sailings and our arrangements with independent tour operators we have never experienced such an occurrence before. Fortunately we were able to secure another tour although it wasn't what we had expected. I honestly cant recommend a tour operator that would drop us in a heartbeat for more $$. I absolutely do not recommend Thomas Vincent as a reliable tour operator for Martinique.

My wife and I secured an excursion with Thomas several months in advance of our cruise in Oct. 2016 and again confirmed our excursion with him just days prior to our sailing. Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we arrived onshore and were told by him that he was unable to accommodate us because he had secured a larger group and that he had no room at all for us. In all our many sailings and our arrangements with independent tour operators we have never experienced such an occurrence before. Fortunately we were able to secure another tour although it wasn't what we had expected. I honestly cant recommend a tour operator that would drop us in a heartbeat for more $$. I absolutely do not recommend Thomas Vincent as a reliable tour operator for Martinique.

He did the same thing to us in April 2016. I did post what had happened to us. I was really upset at him because this is not an easy port and I didn't like his way of dumping customers. We were on Kata Mambo in the am and arranged for Thomas to do our tour in the afternoon but he found a better way to make money with an all day tour and dropped my husband and I. I understand the need to make money but the internet is your friend or enemy and I appreciate anyone who tells what happened on their tour and why they liked/disliked it so I can make my decision. Martinique is not a country I would go out of my way to visit again, but if I do, I will not use Kata Mambo or Mr. Vincent. Hopefully by then, some more reliable tour operators will have businesses.

We had a wonderful day with Thomas Vincent in Martinique. His e-mail is taxi.norden.vincent@gmail.com. He picked us up at the port in comfortable air conditioned van. There were 3 groups of people for a total of 7 guests. I always prefer the local tour guides and helping small businesses, he did a good job and has lots of information about the island. We visited beautiful locations, Sacre Coeur Church, photo stop at scenic stream and walk down to rushing waterfall, the Botanical Garden, Rum Distillery, the ruins in St. Pierre and a view of the mountain and black sand beach. This was a great value for a full day tour and we got to sample juice made from his father in laws fruit trees - very tasty. His website is http://taxinordenvincent.wixsite.com/discover-martinique

We contacted Thomas several months in advance after reading researvhing the best taxi tour on Martimique, and he responded promptly. All communication with him prior to the cruise was great. Upon arrival Thomas was right there. Thomas was very attentive to detail and very, very customer/client oriented. Very friendly, knowledgeable, caring and accommodating. Our tour with him was stupendous! It could not have been better. The reviews did not do him justice. You won't not go wrong if you book Thomas! He is the best.

In our upcoming Christmas cruise, it will be our first time in Martinique and we would really appreciate any information about the length of the walk from the ship to where where the taxis are located.

We are trying to find out how long the pier walk is because my DH has some mobility issues in that he cannot do a lot of walking and not on uneven ground.

Thanks in advance for giving us this information so we can plan on what we can do in Martinique.

The Martinique pier is even but a good walk. I am horrible at estimating distances...8 blocks. There's an info/tourist booth with shade and chairs once you get off the pier. The is also some seats along the pier. Most tours pick folks up right at the end of the pier. There's a large selection of venders at the end of the pier...nicely done.

Which is a better tour, the South or the North Tours of the Island, This is the first time at Martinique. Thanks

TAXI NORDEN VINCENT Did the same thing to us on Jan. 19! Booked months in advance for a private tour party of 4. We were at the designed spot 15 minutes early, waited for 1/2 hour after the agreed time. HE NEVER SHOWED UP. We were at correct spot, and checked with all drivers who were there for pick up, none for us.

With two ships in port, he dumped us to take more passengers, I am sure. Bad Guy, not honest or trustworthy.

We booked with Thomas fo Feb 4. Four of us had a private tour scheduled. Our confirmation stated an English speaking guide. Not so! Our guide barely spoke English. We should have cancelled our tour right then, but thought we would be able to communicate some with his “little English, as he said he spoke some. We were wrong!!!

Plus, four of us were crammed into a small car (with hump in middle of back floor) and little air conditioning. Miserable ride. After 20 min of silence, I finally asked him what our day would consist of. He basically communicated to us we would go to a rum distillery and a beach. No one spoke English at the distillery and we had no narrative on our entire drive of the island. We maybe had two or three photo stops, with no narrative. He dropped us off at a beach for two hours. We grabbed lunch, and luckily had euros with us.

This was basically an expensive cab ride. We learned nothing of the island. Not sure what we will do next year when in port. The people did not seem very friendly to us. Don’t know why the ships make this stop.

On 23 Jan our roll call group of 8 had a tour booked with Taxi Norden Vincent for $65pp.

The itinerary was:

*Balata Cathedral (Sacre-Coeur de Balata), a small scale replica of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, Paris.

*Route de la Trace through the rain forest including the cascade of Saut du Gendarme.

*Domaine d'Emeraude - a highly rated botanical garden (includes a 20 minute walk).

*Views of Mt Pelee,

*Distillerie Depaz - one of the oldest rum factories on Martinique dating from 1651 including a tasting of rum and liqueurs.

*St. Pierre - the former capital of Martinique, known as Little Paris, until it was destroyed by an eruption of Mt Pelee in 1902, killing 28000 people in just 2 minutes.

*Finally, if there is time, a visit to a black sand beach.

Unfortunately, I was Ill so my wife led the group of 7. They had a wonderful time with all expectations fully met - nice clean van with good aircon and a charming guide (French national with excellent English). We expected to have to pay for my vacant seat but this wasn't asked for.