Wishing you could find a Caribbean destination still capable of surprises? asked Eric Lipton in The New York Times. “Martinique is just that kind of place.” On the French-speaking island that remains part of France, the small capital is wealthy enough to support an arts center, the count of all-inclusive resorts stops at one, and “you can go days without running into any Americans.” Despite the island’s sizable population, nearly half its landmass is tropical forest, and when my family and I visited earlier this year, we learned to embrace the unexpected. Once, our GPS told us to cross the mountains to reach the blacksand beaches of Saint-Pierre. After the road instead dead-ended at a trail head, we left behind our beach chairs and took an unplanned hike through towering ferns and wildflowers. “I found myself introducing a new word to our daughters: ‘serendipity.’”