The sister towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo sit at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. The towns themselves are mostly given over to luxury hotels and boisterous nightlife, but the surrounding landscape is characterised by arid arroyos, bristly cacti and rocky coastal outcrops.

Situated on a peculiarly shaped peninsula on the Gulf of Nicoya, Puntarenas is a popular weekend beach destination for residents of Costa Rica’s capital, San José. The port itself is not pretty, but the beachfront Paseo de los Turistas is a nice place to relax with a drink or enjoy a seafood lunch.

The port of Fuerte Amador sits at the southern edge of Panama City, near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. The shining skyscrapers of the Panamanian capital are a testament to the city’s status as a key financial centre, while the tiny Casco Viejo is home to pretty colonial streets, hip hotels and happening bars.

Cartagena was founded by Spanish conquistadors in 1533, and the beautifully preserved centre is a real highlight of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The walled old town, the Ciudad Amurallada, is a camera-friendly collection of cobbled streets and colourful, colonial-era buildings.

These days Fort Lauderdale is a sophisticated place awash with upmarket hotels and excellent restaurants. The glorious weather and swathes of golden beach are still a huge draw, but there are also plenty of cultural attractions, such as the Museum of Art and the Museum of Discovery and Science.

The Samaná Peninsula provides a different perspective on the Dominican Republic to the overdeveloped east coast, offering both unspoilt natural beauty and glimpses of everyday life. Between January and March the bay is a popular location for spotting humpback whales, while the town of Las Terrenas is known for its sophisticated nightlife.

The tiny Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, located just off the coast of Venezuela, lies outside of the hurricane belt, meaning it enjoys a largely dry climate, and boasts some of the best beaches in the region, if not the world.

Gustavia is the chic and petite capital of Saint Barths, a tiny French Caribbean island that’s renowned as a haunt of the rich and the famous. You can certainly live well here if you’ve got the means, with an array of gourmet restaurants and luxury boutiques aimed squarely at the A-list. The beautiful beaches, on the other hand, are free and open to all.

The busiest and most developed of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas is nevertheless blessed with typically Caribbean good looks. The main town, Charlotte Amalie, is situated on a perfect natural harbour, and in its colonial heyday its warehouses were filled with indigo, tobacco and cotton.

Hamilton is Bermuda’s charming capital, filled with pretty pastel-hued buildings and bursting with British colonial history. Learn more about this past at the Royal Naval Dockyard, take a stroll along colourful Front Street, or relax on one of Bermuda’s beautiful pink sand beaches.