Due to its proximity, French Guiana is often associated with the French West Indies.

The French Caribbean (or Francophone Caribbean) includes all the French-speaking countries in the region. It can also refer to any area that exhibits a combination of French and Caribbean cultural influences in music, cuisine, style, architecture, and so on. The Francophone Caribbean is a part of the wider French America, which includes all the French-speaking countries in the Americas.

However, the term varies in meaning by its usage and frame of reference. It is not used much in France, unless the speaker wants to refer to every French dependency in the Caribbean region. This term is thus more ambiguous than the term "French West Indies", which refers specifically to the islands that are French overseas departments, which means they have overall the same laws and regulations as departments on the mainland of France. Collectivities can be included too.

The following Caribbean regions are predominantly French-speaking and/or French Creole-speaking:

(*) = gained independence from Great Britain. English is its official language, but French-based Creole languages are widely spoken by the island population due to a period of French colonization

For example, many dances and certain cultural occasions were born in Africa. The Junkanoo Parade in the Bahamas emerged from African musical traditions during the 17th century in the form of masked dancers moving to the rhythm of percussion instruments. The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival — one of the most renowned in the Caribbean — also preserves the meaning that this festival had for Africans who danced their desires for freedom at a time when their practices and social expressions were prohibited, prior to emancipation in 1838.

One of the best known kinds of Caribbean music that has gone beyond national borders is reggae from Jamaica. Pushed to the international level by the iconic figure of Jamaican singer Bob Marley, reggae was fed by musical ancestors such as ska and rocksteady and became known for its social content and its distinctive bass and percussion.

The rumba, meanwhile, is synonymous with Cuba, though like other Caribbean musical genres it has not lost its African musical origins. Today, the rumba goes on with new forms — guaguancó, columbia and yambú —and is often part of folklore performances that are part of efforts to preserve Cuban heritage.

Without question, the genres discussed above, as well as meringue and salsa — which are linked to the Spanish islands — and the rest of the list of Caribbean rhythms are evidence that the Caribbean is an archipelago that continues to radiate musical joy and quality, not only to its own islands, but to the entire world.

Hurricane season is from June to November, but they occur more frequently in August and September and more common in the northern islands of the Caribbean. Hurricanes that sometimes batter the region usually strike northwards of Grenada and to the west of Barbados. The principal hurricane belt arcs to northwest of the island of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean. A great example being recent events of Hurricane Irma devastating the island of Saint Martin during the 2017 hurricane season.

Water temperatures vary from 31 °C (88 °F) to 22 °C (72 °F) all around the year. The air temperature is warm, in the 20s and 30s °C (70s, 80s and 90s °F) during the year, only varies from winter to summer about 2–5 degrees on the southern islands and about 10–20 degrees difference can occur in the northern islands of the Caribbean. The northern islands, like the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, may be influenced by continental masses during winter months, such as cold fronts.