The Caribbean Getaway: Spilled Milk #347

It's time to plan ahead and start thinking about a winter trip to the Caribbean, where you can escape the cold, snow and doldrums, feast on local delicacies and totally unplug.

Today’s newsletter includes:

• 12 Caribbean hotels where you can totally bliss out

• spa recommendations

• favorite dishes

• surprisingly affordable yacht charters

• the best vacation home rental companies

• a deep dive on Jamaica that’ll make you want to pack your bags immediately

If you want to escape winter properly — not with a space heater, a canned rum cocktail and a room at a Red Roof Inn in North Dakota — you go to the Caribbean. That azure, postcard-perfect sea isn't just a body of water; it’s a therapy session. A baptism. A come-to-sanity moment for anyone who’s been staring too long at a gray skyline or arguing about who last shoveled the driveway.

Now is the time to making plans for the winter if you want to get some fun and sun in one my favorite regions to unwind and recharge.

This is the land of shade-grown indolence and reef-protected hedonism. The air smells like sunblock, sugarcane and rum dreams. And unlike the Alps, it doesn’t require skis, wallets made of titanium or a basic familiarity with avalanches. The Caribbean remains the best antidote to seasonal despair because it’s both an escape and a return: to warmth, simplicity and the slower rhythms of people who know how to live well.

Great news, Spilled Milkers: “The Blue Food Cookbook” is available for preorder. It’s a celebration of fish and shellfish and will be your seafood bible.

Preorder it today through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or your favorite local bookstore.

Here, you can go from swimming with reef sharks to sipping Negronis in an infinity pool without changing out of your swimsuit. You can hide in a clapboard cottage on a hill or in a Bond villain-worthy villa with a private chef and an outdoor shower carved into limestone. You can sail to an island so tiny and perfect it barely has a name. The Caribbean is not just a destination; it’s a collection of poetic pauses. I have been going almost annually for 59 years, so trust me: There are no duds below.

This winter, don’t settle for seasonal affective lighting and a week of canceled flights. Trade your boots for bare feet, your inbox for a sailboat and your scarf for something shaken with lime. The Caribbean is calling, and it’s speaking fluent seduction.