we are planning a vacation Sept 22-30. <BR>this is still height of hurricane season, yes? <BR>are any islands less prone to being hit?

Southern caribbean - Aruba,Curacao,Bonaire

The further south you go in the Caribbean, the less the likihood of a hurricane. However, nothing is "guaranteed."

Yes, September is still considered prime time for hurricanes (July, August, September is prime). Hurricane season officially begins in June and ends at the end of October. The ABC islands are a good bet for avoiding them. Reason is that hurricanes don't usually have enough power to get that south. You may feel the after effects of them though if one does swing through the rest of the caribbean.

St Lucia is one, most of the southern islands are ok.

Wonderful deals at that time of year. Go to applevacations.com and look at there specials,almost cut 1/2 that time of year.

Hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30. I would say height of hurricane season would be August, September & October.

This exact question came up for me last year. We were married the last weekend in September and needed a caribbean honeymoon location which we hoped would be hurricane-proof as September is prime hurricane season. Our search revealed what some have already told you, Aruba is the best place to avoid a hurricane. Some people love Aruba, I had visited there on a cruise and did not partiularly care for it as I like tropical vegatation which Aruba definitely does NOT have (its a dessert). The next best bet is to look at a southern island (St. Lucia is a good bet) or an island with some protection such as Jamaica (Cuba is directly east as are the VIs so they take the brunt of any oncoming hurricane). We ended up choosing Sandals Dunn's River Falls as Sandals resorts provide a guarantee that if hurricane occurs while you are there you get another free trip! <BR> <BR>Another thing to remember is that hurricane season is also rainy season in the tropical areas. While we didn;t run into any hurricanes, it did rain 5 of our 7 days there. Really its not so bad though as it only lasted about an hour or so and was in the late afternoon all but one day. Hope you have as much fun as we did!

Quite a few resorts are now closing in September - mainly to refurbish their rooms and give the staff time off. Obviously September is a good month for that since it also avoids having guests during the height of storm season. <BR> <BR>Young Island in St. Vincent & the Grenadines IS open year around and a popular honeymoon spot. It is in the southern area and as I remember has never had a storm pass by. <BR> <BR>www.youngisland.com

The whole answer to your question is that hurricanes come from 2 areas and these two areas spawn hurricanes that hit two different parts of the Caribbean at 2 distinctly different times of the year. <BR>From mid-summer through September, hurricanes come out of the East Atlantic off the African coast, travel west and hit the northern Caribbean such as Antigua, the Virgin Islands, and Cuba. These hurricanes then arch north and hit FL and the east coast of the US. <BR>In the September and later periods of the year hurricanes are spawned in the southern Caribbean and come north into the Gulf of Mexico. These are the ones that usually leave small boat a mile inland in Alabama or Texas. They also hit those Caribbean islands of the Lesser Antilles, the ones that line up north-to-south on your map. <BR>There are pros and cons to vacationing in the Caribbean from midsummer onwards. The prices can be great, but you can bet that the regular price at a resort is inversely proportional to the chance of a hurricane. The risk is actually quite small, but there are a couple of very sound rules to follow: <BR>1. If you decide to book during the hurricane period, be sure to buy trip insurance. <BR>2. Do not imagine for an instant that if a hurricane is coming that the resort is going to take any responsibility for your safety. I don't say that to suggest that resorts are irresponsible---they aren't---but they're as much subject to this as you are. Their employees are going to bail out to take care of their own homes and batten the hatches. Expect the resort to let you know that a hurricane is expected and, perhaps, when the last ferry or plane is expected to be available to evacuate anyone who wants to be evacuated. <BR>There's an excellent letter here at Fodors that thoroughly covers how NOT to handle this situation. Do a search here on "Biras Creek" and "hurricanes" and look for the letter from the newly wed that blames his resort (Biras) for acts of God. (He could've blamed God, I suppose, but God definitely doesn't give refunds!) <BR>Have a nice vacation.

Just one other comment, Bill, that might be a consideration for you. It gets really hot in the Caribbean in the summer. I like the BVI, myself, and have been there many times, but have found that after April, the humidity if not the temperature become quite unpleasant, and I base that on being a SC resident. There may be some exceptions among the islands, but I would suggest that you stay out of the more southerly islands which from my point of view are unbearable outside of the dead of Winter. <BR>

I'd be cautions about St. Lucia -- when you look at rainfall stats, it gets much more rain than many islands (you might be safe from hurricane, but have your week rained out as we did -- the entire week!

If you worry about rain with these average rainfalls of <BR> <BR>August .73inches <BR> <BR>September 1.17 inches <BR> <BR>October 2.53 inches <BR> <BR>Aruba wins in my book hands down.

Take a cruise, they tend to sail around the bad weather as much as they can. During hurricane season many cruise lines change their itins during the cruise due to weather. I agree you are safer in the ABC islands or Jamaica which has islands to the East to take the brunt of the storm.

JAMAICA

The "Hurricane Season" in the Caribbean is from June 30 - November 30, and September is one of the highest risk months. Don't forget that it's the rainy season, for the same reason. Even if you don't have the bad luck to experience a hurricane, there is a very high chance of wet weather on many islands.<BR><BR>The safest - and dryest - islands are the "ABC" islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.