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Data & rankings

Sam Ortega

Writes the method, the world ranking, the twelve month lists, the kids, teens, family, honeymoon, solo, dog, no-passport and budget lists, and the storm-season guide.

Published work

23 signed pages across 2 collections, biggest section first.

Rankings 21

The best islands in the worldPuerto Rico tops our 64-island ranking for American travelers: no passport, 41 US nonstops and San Juan rooms near $120. Curaçao and Jamaica follow. Every score is shown, factor by factor.Read
The best islands to visit in AprilApril is the last month of the Caribbean dry season and the first good one in Bali. Jamaica leads on value, Maui scores a near-perfect 9.8 for weather, and Zanzibar's long rains take it off the list.Read
The best islands to visit in FebruaryFebruary is the driest month on much of the Caribbean and the heart of the dry season in Thailand and the Maldives. Jamaica edges Curaçao; Fiji, Bali and Europe fall out.Read
The best islands to visit in JanuaryJanuary's top islands mix dry Caribbean weather, Hawaii's whale season and Thailand's peak months. Curaçao leads on weather and price; Fiji, Bali and the Mediterranean drop out.Read
The best islands to visit in JuneJune is when the list changes shape: Maui and Oahu peak, Fiji is dry, Sicily, Crete and Mallorca warm up, and the Caribbean enters hurricane season. Thailand's Andaman coast and Palawan drop out.Read
The best islands to visit in MarchMarch is the last full month of the Caribbean dry season and the best of the year for Palawan and Koh Samui. Jamaica leads on value; Fiji and Mauritius are still in cyclone season.Read
The best islands to visit in MayMay is the quiet sweet spot: the Caribbean is still dry before hurricane season, Maui is at its driest and Fiji's cyclone season is over. Thailand and the Maldives turn wet.Read
The best islands to visit with kidsTen islands where young children get calm, shallow water and easy logistics, ranked by our overall score. Crete wins on beaches and value; Barbados, Antigua and St. Thomas win on short flights.Read
The best islands to visit with teensTen islands where teenagers get surf, reefs, volcanoes and real days out, ranked by our overall score. Puerto Rico wins; Curaçao is the value pick and the Big Island is the volcano pick.Read
The best islands for a family tripTen islands that work for mixed ages, groups and villas, ranked by our overall score. Puerto Rico wins on access and variety; Martinique and Crete suit families who drive; Maui is the Hawaii pick.Read
The best islands for couples and honeymoonsTen islands for couples, ranked by our overall score rather than brochure photos. Curaçao wins on weather and value; St. Lucia is the view pick, Maui the no-passport pick, Exuma the empty-beach pick.Read
The best islands for solo travelersTen islands where one person can get around without a car, meet people and stay safe, ranked by our overall score. Puerto Rico, Barbados and Oahu lead; Zanzibar, Bali and Palawan are cheap but far.Read
The best islands to visit with a dogTen islands where a dog from the US needs paperwork but no quarantine, ranked by our overall score. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are simplest; Curaçao, Martinique and the EU islands follow clear rules.Read
The best islands to visit in JulyJuly is dry season in the Mediterranean, the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean, and early hurricane season in the Caribbean. Crete, Fiji and Curaçao lead a list built from ten years of weather data.Read
The best islands to visit without a passportThe ten best of the 13 islands Americans can visit with a REAL ID instead of a passport, ranked by our overall score. Puerto Rico wins on variety and value; Maui and Oahu are the Hawaii picks.Read
The best cheap islands to visitTen islands where a good room is cheap and the island is still worth the trip, ranked 60% on hotel value and 40% on overall score. Jamaica and Curaçao lead; the Asian and African picks are cheap to sleep in but far to fly.Read
The best islands to visit in AugustAugust is peak summer in the Mediterranean and peak dry season in Bali and Zanzibar. It is also the month Atlantic hurricane risk climbs, which is why no Caribbean island made our top ten.Read
The best islands to visit in SeptemberWarm seas, fewer crowds and the hurricane peak: September splits the map. Greece, Italy and Mallorca take six of our top ten places, and no Caribbean island makes the list.Read
The best islands to visit in OctoberOctober is when Hawaii moves to the top: summer weather, falling prices and the tail of the hurricane season. Maui, Oahu and Bali lead; Crete and Rhodes hold on as the Mediterranean cools.Read
The best islands to visit in NovemberNovember is Hawaii's month on our numbers: dry, warm and past the storm risk, before the holiday price peak. The Caribbean improves as hurricane season ends, and the Indian Ocean has its last dry weeks.Read
The best islands to visit in DecemberDecember is when the Caribbean comes back: the hurricane season is over and the dry season begins. Curaçao, Antigua and Jamaica lead, with Hawaii, Zanzibar and Thailand's Andaman coast close behind.Read

Guides 2

About Sam

Sam owns the numbers. Every ranking on this site comes from one scoring program that reads the same data for all 64 islands, and Sam keeps that program, its inputs and the method page that explains it. That covers ten years of Open-Meteo airport weather, the sea temperature archive, the storm-season deductions by ocean basin, the access and value formulas and the crowd figures.

Sam also writes the lists that cut across regions: the world ranking, one list for each month, the lists by who you travel with, the no-passport and budget lists, and the hurricane and cyclone season guide. The working rule is that the writer explains the order but never sets it. When a list looks wrong, the fix goes into the data or the formula, and every list is recomputed, not edited by hand. When an input is missing, as with the thirteen islands that have no reliable visitor count, the page says so and leaves the factor out.

Sam is an editorial persona. The research, the sourcing and the arithmetic behind these pages are real; the privacy page explains how our bylines work.