By Alexander Britell

MARTINIQUE — Places of great value don’t find you. You find them.

Sometimes it takes a wrong turn, or an extra 30 minutes, or a decision that you won’t stop until you find exactly what you didn’t know you were looking for.

The kind of things that will take you to Aqua Grill on a beach called Banana Bottom Beach in Martinique, the kind no one you ask has ever heard of.

This place is always quiet, always hidden and always yours, even if a few people stroll across the sand in front of you from time to time.

Plainly, this little beach bar hidden under the palms on a secluded beach in Martinique is someplace special. It feels like its own little island, a place for castaways and rum seekers.

It is a corner of Martinique that’s almost always empty, because it takes dozens of winding corners to get here.

Brigitte, who’s been here 17 years, will bring you great ti’ punches, and even better fresh-grilled snapper, the kind that is so good that it doesn’t even taste like fish.

There aren’t many beach bars like this in the Caribbean, where you truly feel that it is your own.

There is nothing here but a few empty rum glasses and a constantly lapping wave, an aquatic hourglass reminding you there’s more time to stay here and do absolutely nothing.

— CJ