Caribbean in the summer?

[tinofbeans]

We're thinking of going to the Caribbean for our summer holiday... I know it's low season then and there is a risk of hurricanes.

If you've been anywhere in the Caribbean please can you let me know where you went and what the weather was generally like? We're not bothered about a bit of rain in the afternoons, but it would be nice to get some sunshine too!

Thanks 😊

Sorry that was long!

We've been to Antigua in the summer 2 or 3 times, We've also been to florida several times in the summer, which has similar weather in our experience.

It's hot but manageable, esp if not doing a huge amount of exercise.
It's humid but again, not really too bad at all ime,
You get some heavy downpours at times but they are usually fairly short lived, very heavy and then dry up very quickly. You can normally see it coming. We've also had holidays where there's been no rain at all. We've never had rains bad enough to wipe out a full day, let alone the whole time.

BVIs are awesome, Antigua is nice as well. Just get travel insurance that covers you for hurricanes..read the small print, most standard policies exclude it. Getting a room with ac is important and if you can, ocean adjacent as the sea breezes are lovely

@tinofbeans if you are keen to get out and about, and are not looking for builtup areas or big resorts, I’d recommend either of the following-

Grenada - BA fly direct, so it’s easy to get to. A beautiful rainforest island, amazingly SAFE and you could hire a villa and rent a car for a week. Not something I would recommend for quite a few Caribbean islands but definitely Grenada. And they drive on the left so very easy to get around. People are very helpful and we drove all over and ate out, it’s an island that you can get out and mingle.
lots of outdoor stuff, diving, snorkelling, river rapids etc, lovely small capital city to walk around. Very hilly, beautiful scenery. Google how safe it is, or you could stay in a small hotel (there’s only about half a dozen hotels on the whole island). Lots of history as well.

Bahamas Out Islands - Bahamas has quite a few Out Islands, ie small ones away from Nassau such as Exuma, Cat Island and others. Amazing beaches, snorkelling, diving, fishing, again you can hire a car and a house (or rent a cottage within a small resort which will usually have a restaurant on site and a full kitchen for cooking). A very different experience from the main NP island where the big resorts/Atlantis/ casinos are (interesting to visit but crime can be a factor).

Thank you all for your advice, it's definitely giving us lots to think about.. Grenada or BVIs sound just what we are looking for, but very willing to hear other suggestions too :-)

@tinofbeans Grenadines. A string of unspoilt islands. Grenada has resorts as it has a bigger airport with international flights. It’s the starting point for the Grenadines or St Lucia.

We went to St Lucia in august. It was hot and we had thundery showers but they were mainly short lived and it went straight back to hot once the rain had passed.

I'd go in the summer again.

Grand Cayman has some great snorkeling spots where you can swim with stingrays and sharks.
Bahamas has beautiful beaches. Lots of small islands to explore.
Aruba also has beautiful beaches and lots of seal life and flamingos.
Jamaica has dunes river falls.
What about a cruise so you can explore lots of different islands?

@tinofbeans Don’t do a cruise. I wouldn’t think that’s for you. You won’t experience much except tourist traps. Some recommendations are a bit questionable.

Tobago was our favourite. Small but spectacular scenery. Amazing water sports. Scuba etc. great dining options.

Went to Turks & Caicos in July last year for 10 days, had one day that was a bit cloudy, otherwise perfect weather.

Be careful where you choose, there is a huge problem with Sargassum during the summer months recently. We stayed in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, the sea and beach were full of seaweed. Apparently Cayman Islands and a few other Caribbean islands also suffered from it. There were also a few beaches on Turks that had seaweed.

www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1115383385/seaweed-record-caribbean

Carribbean rain is nothing like the rain here. When it rains here it drizzles all day and is grey. In the Carribbean it chucks it down heavily for about 20 minutes normally early morning or evening. Then clear blue skies. I've been going to the Carribbean in summer for years and it's always had perfect weather.

We stayed on Grace Bay and there was no seaweed. On the other side of the Island, the beaches had a lot of seaweed.

"f you’ve been reading about
sargassum seaweed problems in Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean, you might be wondering which Caribbean islands are not affected by seaweed and brown algae.

It’s especially important to think about in 2023. A recent report by the University of South Florida states that due to a record-breaking amount of sargassum in the Atlantic, there could be a major seaweed bloom in 2023 in the Caribbean Sea.

In order to help you decide where to travel, we’ve created a list of Caribbean beaches not affected by seasonal sargassum seaweed in the past."

www.atastefortravel.ca/13836-caribbean-islands-not-affected-by-seaweed/

We went to Antigua on honeymoon on August 2017. We'd been assured by the travel agent that hurricanes rarely hit this area at this time of year.

Five days in - Hurricane Irma. Biggest one they've ever seen in this area. Flattened the adjacent island of Barbuda. We were ordered to leave afterwards because a other hurricane was inbound and the resort (Sandals) wanted to close as staff were struggling with their own homes being damaged, never mind the hotel damage.

Make sure you pay extra for hurricane protection on your travel insurance - we didn't know it was excluded!

I think Barbados is pretty safe from hurricanes. Technically on the hurricane belt but pretty shielded from them too.

Another vote for Tobago, simply gorgeous and not as touristy as some of the other islands. You get intense rain showers in the summer but they tend to be short-lived and the sea is right there if you need to cool down (the Atlantic side can be rough though, the Caribbean side is amazing).
Not sure if there are direct flights but you can fly to Port of Spain from Gatwick and from there it's a quick 30 min flight that goes several times per day.

We've been twice in summer , once to St Lucia and once the DR. In St Lucia it was mainly hot and sunny with a couple of daytime showers, however it rained with out fail about dawn and dusk.

The DR was not so good we were hit by the outer edge of a hurricane so a few days we've eet and windy but apart from that it was dry and sunny.

Can I just say thank you for this thread. I'm poorly again and feeling a bit wobbly and reading about all these beautiful sounding places has been a very pleasant few minutes. OP, I hope you find your perfect island - it sounds like there are some amazing choices. Just off to google....