Погода: Розо, февраль

February is carnival, and in Martinique that is not a sideshow - most of it happens in downtown Fort-de-France, and the forum's practical warning is about supplies rather than weather, because the shops largely close during it and groceries become hard to find. The set piece people name is Bet a Fe, the night parade of lights, costumes and music that starts around seven in the evening. The weather underneath is dry-season Caribbean, and our row shows its shape: 15.3 precipitation days carrying only 44.5mm between them, which is passing showers rather than wet days, under a steady 22 kph trade wind. The record: 26.7C days that feel like 29C, 23.9C nights, 10.7 hours of sun and a 26.4C sea.

Dominica's forum is upfront that October sits in peak hurricane season, so the odds of a tropical wave or storm affecting a trip are real, though a direct hit remains the exception rather than the rule. As a lush rainforest island, it's genuinely going to rain somewhere on Dominica most days, but posters describe showers as typically brief and scattered, heavier up in the mountains than down in Roseau itself, with a lot of the rain falling overnight. October through December is actually recommended by some specifically for the World Creole Festival, drawing visitors despite the storm risk.

Forum posters consistently describe Dominica, 'the nature island,' as the most rainforested of the Eastern Caribbean islands - genuinely rainy somewhere on the island most days, which posters point to as exactly why it stays so lush and green with so many rivers. Posters are equally consistent that showers here tend to be brief, usually followed quickly by sunshine again, and one visitor's multi-week April-May stay in Roseau itself saw no rain at all, even as areas just a few miles inland got frequent heavy downpours. Posters generally name the December-through-April stretch as the main dry season with the calmest seas, and specifically recommend April for hiking, noting that conditions only get hotter and wetter as hurricane season approaches in the summer months.