WARM FRONT

If you listen carefully, you may be able to hear the click of a thousand umbrellas being put away – and the sound of an equal number of parasols being opened. The noises are identical but they mean just one thing – now that December is here, the Caribbean has washed hurricane season right out of its hair and has sent itself on its way to the beach in its favourite pair of flip-flops. It invites you to follow its lead as well. For there is no better antidote to the British winter than a week on a sunny island 4,000miles west. Like, say, Antigua, where seven all-inclusive nights in January at the four-star Verandah Resort & Spa cost from £1,809pp, with flights, via tropicalsky.co.uk.