This coming winter, many thousands of Americans will agonize over whether they can enjoy tropical vacations in the Caribbean of the sort they once knew. Should they even bother to apply for reservations in an area broadly damaged by hurricanes?
Fortunately, a majority of these famed islands was either unaffected by storms or else so moderately damaged that they can be restored and repaired in advance of the winter season. The publication read by professionals in the travel industry (travel agents, airline, hotel and cruise industry people), namely Travel Weekly, recently did a meticulous survey of conditions in each such island, and concluded as follows:
Islands totally unaffected by the hurricanes: According to Travel Weekly, such popular places as Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Haiti, Saba, St. Eustatius, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Guyana, Grenada, and Suriname have been totally unaffected by the recent hurricanes in the sultry Caribbean.
Islands only moderately affected, with most hotel properties reopened and operating: St. Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, Antigua, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Guadeloupe are all in this category, according to Travel Weekly.
Islands badly damaged, with repairs in progress (but a few resorts have reopened and are available for bookings) according to Travel Weekly: British Virgin Islands (British Virgin Islands); St. John, St. Thomas, and St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands), Puerto Rico, Dominica, St. Barts, Barbuda, and Anguilla.
Of course, we cannot avoid the possibility that an additional or future hurricane or hurricanes may yet break out in the Caribbean. But for the time being, the above listings are helpful in determining where you may probably vacation safely and pleasantly in the coming winter months.
An additional option for a tropical vacation is a Caribbean cruise. The cruise lines all claim that they have revised their itineraries to include port stops only in islands that have escaped major damage.