Weather Watch: Planning Caribbean Travel

The fastest way to ruin a beautiful paradise vacation is to find out that the weather forecast is calling for rain in the Caribbean during your entire stay. There’s not much you can do to change the weather, but there are a few things you can take into consideration when planning a Caribbean vacation. Hopefully these tips will help you enjoy beautiful sunny weather during most of your stay.

Obviously, the Caribbean is often hit hard by hurricanes. Therefore, your first and foremost plan is to not book a Caribbean vacation during hurricane season. Hurricanes and tropical storms can occur during various times in the year, but most fall during the official hurricane season, which runs from June to November. Most of the storms happen specifically between August and October, with September being an especially volatile time. Try heading to the Caribbean during a different time of the year.

However, if you must plan your trip during hurricane season, try visiting islands that usually do not get hit. Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, which are sometimes known as the Netherlands Antilles islands or the ABC islands are rarely in the path of the storm, and you can avoid a direct hit by traveling to Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and Barbados. If you want to learn about a specific island’s weather report, contact a travel agency dealing with travel to this location or a tourist center on the island itself.

In fact, before you plan your island vacation, learning about the weather on specific islands is crucial. For example, if you plan to visit Dominica, you should be prepared for some rain. The wildlife there is beautiful, but they get over 300 inches a year, more than anywhere else in the world. Another example would be Bermuda. It’s actually a northern Caribbean island and has a climate close to that of North Carolina, so if you visit in the winter, you won’t want to lie on the beach or swim in the ocean. You’ll have to head south for warmer weather there.

About a week or two before you leave, track the storms and weather happening on your island. Remember that every storm hits not every island. If you work through a travel agency or buy a packaged deal, sometimes you can get your money back if a hurricane hits your island and you can’t fly in for your vacation; otherwise, make sure that you know some of the indoor activities to do as well, like spending time at the resort or touring local museums. These will help battle your rainy day blues.