Covers 25 islands from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cozumel and Roatán, with prices, flights and entry rules checked at the source.
UpdatedThis page carries dated prices, schedules or seasonal facts checked on the date above, and that window has now passed. Re-check the sources at the foot of the page before you book.
December is when the Caribbean switches back on. The Atlantic hurricane season closes on November 30, according to the NOAA National Hurricane Center, so December carries no storm penalty in our scores. The trade winds return, rain falls away across the north and east, and winter flights start up from the US.
The ranking is one of the tightest of the year. Curaçao leads, but Antigua, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Martinique are within 0.11 points of it, and St. Thomas and St. Martin rejoin the list as the northeast Caribbean dries out. With weather this even, the choice comes down to price, flights and how early you book for the holidays.
Score = 55% this month's weather + 45% the island's other five factors. How we score
| # | Island | Score | High °F | Sea °F | Rain (in) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Curaçao | 8.9 | 85 | 83 | 2.4 |
| 2 | Antigua | 8.9 | 83 | 82 | 1.9 |
| 3 | Jamaica | 8.9 | 83 | 83 | 2.6 |
| 4 | Puerto Rico | 8.9 | 82 | 82 | 3.1 |
| 5 | Martinique | 8.8 | 83 | 83 | 2.6 |
| 6 | St. Thomas | 8.8 | 81 | 82 | 1.9 |
| 7 | St. Martin / Sint Maarten | 8.7 | 81 | 82 | 1.7 |
| 8 | St. Lucia | 8.7 | 83 | 83 | 2.8 |
1Curaçao leads December with a 9.8 weather score: about 2.4 inches of rain as its short rainy season ends, 85°F (29°C) days and an 83°F (28°C) sea. Its year-round profile does the rest, with rooms from $62 in Willemstad and beaches and things to do both at 8. December is a good month for the UNESCO-listed old town after dark and the west-coast coves by day. You need a rental car and the free Digital Immigration Card.
2Antigua is second, tied with Jamaica on 8.87, with a 9.9 weather score: 83°F days, an 82°F sea and about 1.9 inches of rain. Its beaches, 9 out of 10, are the best on the page; Dickenson Bay, Ffryes and Pigeon Point are calm and sandy. It ranks below Curaçao on value: the cheapest beach-strip room was $222 in our January check. December opens Antigua's driest, busiest season, when prices peak. Fill in ArriveAntigua before you fly.
3Jamaica ties Antigua on 8.87. December weather scores 9.5, with about 2.6 inches of rain and 83°F days, and its year-round profile is the best here: rooms from $53, nonstops from 24 US airports and room to spread out. Reopenings continue, with two Montego Bay Sandals resorts due back December 18, 2026, and Breeze adds Tampa from December 19. Seven big Montego Bay resorts are still listed for 2027, so Negril remains the surest base.
4Puerto Rico is fourth, 0.09 behind the leader. December weather scores 9.4, with 82°F days and about 3.1 inches of rain, the most in this top eight. It has the most to do here, scoring 9, and nonstops from 41 US airports, with Frontier adding Houston and Cleveland from December 17, 2026. No passport is needed. Old San Juan is busy with cruise passengers through the winter. San Juan's cheapest 3-star room was $120 on our January date.
5Martinique is fifth, with a 9.6 weather score, 83°F days, an 83°F sea and about 2.6 inches of rain. Its things to do score 8.5: Mount Pelée, Saint-Pierre, the Jardin de Balata and rhum agricole estates. It is less crowded than most islands on the list, with about 572,000 staying tourists in 2024. It loses ground on access, since only American flies nonstop, from Miami. Rooms in Les Trois-Îlets were $102 in mid-January. Prices are in euros, so use a card without foreign-transaction fees.
6St. Thomas rejoins the list at sixth, with a 9.9 weather score and one of the driest Decembers here, about 1.9 inches. Days are mild at 81°F, with an 82°F sea. It is the second no-passport island on the page, with nonstops from 16 US airports and Breeze adding Tampa on December 16, 2026. Charlotte Amalie rooms were $93. Things to do score 6.5, so plan a day on St. John by the 15-minute Red Hook ferry. Magens Bay is calm for children.
7St. Martin is seventh, with the driest December on the list, about 1.7 inches, 81°F days and an 82°F sea. Its beaches and things to do both score 8: Orient Bay, Mullet Bay, Grand Case dinners and ferry trips to Anguilla. It has nonstops from 13 US airports. What drags it down is crowding, the worst in our Caribbean data, as the cruise season gets going on the Dutch side. Simpson Bay rooms were $134 in our January check.
8St. Lucia is eighth, with a 9.6 weather score, 83°F days and about 2.8 inches of rain as its dry season begins. It is the couples' pick on this list: Piton-view hotels, the Gros Piton climb and Sulphur Springs, scored 8.5 for things to do. Its beaches, 6.5, are the weakest here. Rodney Bay rooms started at $81 in mid-January, among the cheapest on the page. US jets land at Hewanorra in the south, so allow for the long transfer north.
In this guide
December weather counts for 55% of each score: daytime high, sea temperature, rainfall and sunshine from our climate dataset, with no storm deduction this month. The other 45% is the island's year-round profile, our editors' beach and things-to-do scores plus access from the US, hotel value and crowding. Islands rated conditional on their own pages lose 0.4 points on that half. Antigua and Jamaica tie on 8.87, and Antigua is listed second. The full method is on how we score islands.
Our winter hotel checks are for Wednesday, January 13, 2027, after the holidays. The cheapest 3-star-or-better doubles that night ranged from $53 in Montego Bay and $62 in Willemstad to $134 in Simpson Bay and $120 in San Juan. Christmas week and New Year's fall in US school holidays, when demand is highest; we did not price them, so treat the January figures as a floor, not a forecast.
Early December, before schools break, is likely the best-value part of the month. If you can travel in the first two weeks, you get the dry-season weather without the holiday demand. For January dates, see the January ranking.
Several routes start in December 2026, according to the airport tables on our island pages. Breeze begins Tampa to St. Thomas on December 16 and Tampa to Montego Bay on December 19. Frontier starts Houston and Cleveland to San Juan on December 17. Seasonal services listed for winter 2026/27 include Boston, Detroit and Minneapolis to Montego Bay and Chicago O'Hare to St. Thomas.
Some cheap links are gone: Spirit Airlines shut down on May 2, 2026, ending its Fort Lauderdale and Orlando flights to St. Thomas, and JetBlue's JFK to Antigua route is listed as ending October 31, 2026. American keeps JFK to Antigua.
December is a turning point for Jamaica's recovery. The Jamaica Tourist Board lists Bahia Principe Grand Jamaica reopening on December 1, 2026 and two Sandals resorts in Montego Bay on December 18, 2026, and the tourism minister's target is all 33,000 rooms back by December. Seven large Montego Bay all-inclusives remain listed for 2027. Negril and Ocho Rios are the safest bases for a holiday booking; check the list before paying a deposit.
Two US territories make December's top eight. Puerto Rico, fourth, has nonstops from 41 US airports and the most to do in the region; St. Thomas, sixth, has one of its drier months, about 1.9 inches. Neither needs a passport, but you need a REAL ID-compliant license or a passport to fly, and TSA charges a $45 ConfirmID fee without one. Cruise season is in full swing, too: most of Old San Juan's 1.6 million cruise passengers in 2025 arrived between November and March, and Magens Bay on St. Thomas fills on ship days.
It is short for the price and has no hotel pickup. A good option for non-swimmers who want to see the reef.
Rating as shown on Viator
Lunch, drinks, snorkel gear and the Stingray City entry are included. The Atlantic side can be rough; not for anyone prone to seasickness.
Rating as shown on Viator
Admission to both sites is included; meals, water shoes and tips are not. Pickup is free around Ocho Rios but costs extra from Montego Bay, about 90 minutes away.
Rating as shown on Viator
Booking through these links supports this site at no cost to you. Prices move by date, so we do not print them here; the official prices we checked are in the page above.
On our December scores, Curaçao, at 8.95, then Antigua and Jamaica, tied on 8.87, Puerto Rico and Martinique. The top five are within 0.11 points, so pick by price, flights and beaches.
No. The Atlantic hurricane season ends November 30, according to NOAA's National Hurricane Center. December carries no storm penalty in our scores. See our hurricane and cyclone seasons guide.
Every island on this list. December highs in our dataset run 81°F (27°C) on St. Thomas and St. Martin to 85°F (29°C) on Curaçao, with seas of 82°F to 83°F. The Bahamas are cooler, with Nassau around 78°F.
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico ranks fourth and St. Thomas sixth this month. You still need a REAL ID or a passport to fly. See the best islands to visit without a passport.
Yes. Its airports and ports are operating, and the Tourist Board lists further reopenings on December 1 and December 18, 2026. Seven large Montego Bay resorts are still listed for 2027, so confirm your hotel.
Further reading
