Find Summer in the Southern Caribbean!

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The Southern Caribbean lures travelers with itineraries jampacked with gorgeous tropical isles.

Whereas on an Eastern or Western Caribbean 7-night cruise, you can expect to spend three or four days at sea, for Southern Caribbean itineraries cruising from San Juan, Puerto Rico, you might have one or two sea days.

That translates into more beaches and unique islands to explore in that week, and that always includes some islands you can't visit cruising from Florida, Texas or one of the other US mainland home ports.

What's the catch?

San Juan tends to be a considerably longer and more expensive flight than Miami.  Residents of the greater New York area have access to regular non-stop flights to San Juan, but for most other regions of the country, you must anticipate air schedules with long layovers and often red-eye flights, unless you fly in a day or two early.

That's what most people do, and San Juan is a lovely place to start a cruise.  In addition to great music in beach bars and sunshine and sand by the shores, there is a verdant rainforest, El Yunque, and also historic sites.  If you choose to rent a car, you will find road signs, rules and driving conditions quite similar to the rest of the United States.

If the idea of long flights turns you off, and you have the luxury of time, take a longer cruise from South Florida and get lots of ports in the gorgeous Caribbean Sea, once you've covered the distance to get beyond San Juan by sea, and of course you have the same return trip.  Perhaps like me you enjoy sea days, in which case a 12-night cruise to the Southern Caribbean from Florida might be the ticket.

Julie and I have done seven nights from San Juan on a Carnival fun ship, enjoying a couple of nights in San Juan with a rental car pre-cruise and also twelve nights on "country club casual" Celebrity from Ft. Lauderdale.

The Carnival cruise was in the peak of hurricane season, but cloudy with a chance of rain turned out to be mostly sunny with a bit of afternoon rain to cool us down right when we needed it.  The Celebrity cruise was in February, when weather remained pretty ideal.  So, you might say, as Joni Mitchell sang, "We've looked at clouds from both sides now."

Whether you start in Florida, San Juan or one of the starting points outside of the USA, the Southern Caribbean is great for port collectors, who prefer memories of new and unique destinations rather than kitschy souvenirs.

Summer is just a flight to the right cruise ship away, any time of year.

I'll be happy to help you find the perfect cruise for you, whether you want to book now or book later.