Is it nuts to go to the Caribbean in September?

July 23, 2013 9:54 AM

Next September, my fiancee and I are getting married. We have free access to a timeshare, and one of the places we can stay is in Guadelope, a small island in the Lesser Antilles. Everything I read seems to say that the weather sucks in September, because it is the hurricane season, and will be humid. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to go in the Caribbean in September? Is it worth going? Or should we delay our honeymoon?
posted by MisantropicPainforest to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

Best answer: It's the tail end of the hurricane season. But it will be humid. SO Humid!

If you can, delay your honeymoon (at least the big trip) just a couple of months, it will make a HUGE difference in the weather. Hurricane season is typically over in October.

I'd take a long weekend after the wedding, and put up in a posh hotel. A nice place with a pool, room service, etc. No big travel, no hassle. Rest, relax and reconnect after all the hullabaloo.

Take the big honeymoon trip later, when it will be pretty and nice.

You don't want to be on a tropical island in a hurricane. You don't even want to be in Florida.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:04 AM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

I went to St. Croix in September, and it sucked. A hurricane passed by but did not hit the island. I was evacuated from my hotel and stayed in a dumpy hotel that was on higher ground. All the restaurants were closed for two days after the storm, and we had to make due with random snacks. Even after the restaurants re-opened, most of them didn't have supplies (they flooded and all the food was ruined). For two days, there was nothing to do and no where to go. Even after the storm, there wasn't much to do. Many beaches were closed and swimming was discouraged (the waste treatment plants overflowed during the storm and the water was contaminated with bacteria). I couldn't swim, snorkel or sunbathe. The hotel I was evacuated to didn't lose power, but others did. The hotel I was evacuated from did not give me a refund.

You have to evaluate the risk of a hurricane for yourself -- as Ruthless Bunny notes, it is the end of hurricane season, so your chances are good that there will not be a storm. Having been through the above, I would never take that risk again myself, no matter how small. It was a horrible experience, and I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if I had been in the main path of the storm.
posted by OrangeDisk at 10:16 AM on July 23, 2013

It's not completely nuts - people continue to live in the Caribbean during hurricane season, and the prices are certainly lower. However, since the weather isn't very pleasant, you should go somewhere else for your honeymoon. How about Australia? September is the first month of the Australian Spring.
posted by oceanjesse at 11:28 AM on July 23, 2013

I lived in the Caribbean for many years through hurricane seasons. It's crap shoot. You could end up with lots of rain or nothing at all. If you're worried try going to more down island like Aruba, Bonaire or Curacao (the abc islands). They usually escape hurricane season. Also Trinidad and Tobago usually aren't too affected. There's also an island off of Venezuela called Margarita (I've never been).
posted by lasamana at 11:46 AM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

My partner and I went to Cuba last October. We got a pretty good deal because we went during the second week, when the weather could have been a little iffy. We had one afternoon of rain and it was pretty windy late at night, but otherwise the weather was perfect. A couple who were at the resort while we were there said they went to the resort every year around that time (early October) and it was sort of 50/50 whether it would be sunny or storming. You might want to hold out for later in the year, or go elsewhere if you're worried about the weather.
posted by gursky at 12:37 PM on July 23, 2013

Not the Caribbean, but the Greek islands are pretty damn nice in September.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:46 PM on July 23, 2013

Most forecasters are calling for a more active season than normal and in the very early going, we are ahead of pace (the letter "D" storm was just named today.)

Get some travel insurance against your plane tickets and then enjoy being there in the low season, though, I say. Just bookmark www.nhc.noaa.gov (the National Hurricane Center web site).
posted by gazole at 12:47 PM on July 24, 2013