Hurricane Season Travel

Did you realize hurricane season runs from June 1-November 30 every year? This doesn’t guarantee there will or won’t be tropical storms or hurricanes, but it means there is a greater risk. Sometimes it can affect your travel, and it just affected my most recent trip. Here are some tips I always give and some new things I learned about traveling during a hurricane.

Travel Protection

I always recommend protecting your trip with a travel protection (or sometimes called vacation protection) plan regardless of the time of year and especially if you are leaving the country. You are spending your hard earned money and this plan is often the only way to protect your investment. I often hear people say they don’t need a plan because “they are definitely going on this trip” but not all vacation plans have a cancel for any reason clause. The plans I recommend include protection for your actual travel, like luggage loss or delay, travel delay, weather, and medical. You never know what might happen when you are on your trip and trust me when I tell you it is extremely expensive to visit a hospital outside of the US. In the case of weather, if you need to leave early or can’t go at all, you are more likely to get some sort of compensation. 

What if weather arises while you are in destination?

If you can, you should try to depart for home before the weather is scheduled to hit. This is best done directly with the airline, but your travel advisor can usually assist you in some capacity. Airlines don’t like to talk to someone who isn’t the actual traveler, but I always advise my clients on the best next steps and rebooking if possible. I find it easiest to start on the airline’s app or website, then move to the chat feature and call on the phone. The queue may be very backed up because of the amount of people trying to adjust their travel plans, so please be prepared for a long hold time.

What if you can’t find a flight home before the storm hits?

This was the situation I was in while I was in Grenada during Hurricane Beryl. Flights to that particular island are more limited than some others, so that added a bit of a challenge. Since we were unable to get home, we followed all safety precautions given by the resort. They will absolutely do their best to protect their guests. This is one of the reasons I recommend staying in a resort versus an AirBNB or vacation rental. It is IMPERATIVE to follow the direction of the resort to keep yourself safe.

I want to speak directly to my personal experience at Royalton Grenada during Hurricane Beryl:

I felt extremely safe the entire time and felt reassured and confident we were in the best place to weather the storm. The general manager, Audrey, called a meeting for all guests at 3pm and went over all the procedures the resort was putting in place for guests.

The staff had been preparing all day, moving and securing outdoor furniture and working behind the scenes to ensure guests were well taken care of. The resort made sure their staff was safe, too, and sent people home to prepare their own homes and make sure their families were safe. 30 resort staff were going to shelter on property in order to help the guests.

They kept the buffet open for dinner the night before and stopped serving alcohol at 9pm to ensure everyone was able to make safe choices during the actual storm since they weren’t sure when exactly it was going to hit. They also asked all guests to shelter in their rooms beginning at 9pm. 

They delivered boxed meals to our rooms to make sure we had food. I had also taken a few things from the buffet that would keep in my room and I am glad I did because the box I was given was not great. It would have done in a pinch, but I ended up only eating the fruit. When it was safe the next morning, I had more water and a breakfast box delivered. They did stop delivery during any significant rain or wind, so the staff was only out when it was safe.

Stocked Fridge

Breakfast Box

I couldn’t see the water from my room since I had a resort/garden view, but some of the others on my trip took some videos when it was safe.

The Royalton Grenada never lost power due to the high powered generators on property. Audrey, the general manager, told the guests at the meeting it is capable of lasting up to 2 weeks. They also filter their own water and have a huge tank so there was no worry of running out of that, either. I had TV, WiFi and air conditioning all day in my room and I feel very fortunate. The resort pushed updates through the TV to all guests every 2  hours updating on the current situation.

We got word once the worst had passed that they were opening the buffet for dinner starting at 4pm. We ate and then walked around the resort to see how things looked and there was very little damage beyond some storm debris.

Waves were much stronger after the storm passed

We were extremely lucky, as the small island of Carriacou north of the main island of Grenada got a direct hit and has a lot of devastation. Grenada is not a usual location for these type of storms, so it is usually a very safe bet to travel here during hurricane season. I would definitely recommend

Our flight home was scheduled for Tuesday, and thankfully they were able to open the airport that day and we arrived home without any issues. I know some people were still stranded on the island due to their flights being cancelled, but the resorts should have a disaster rate available if you need to extend your vacation because of airline cancellation (this is also another reason to have travel protection). 

Do you have any questions about travel during hurricane season or questions about my experience? Leave them in the comments below.