The fact that we have year-round near-perfect weather here in sunny Southern California has never stopped us from jetting off to even sunnier locales when winter comes around. From Cabo to the South Pacific, and Hawaii to the Caribbean, we like to get away and soak up hours of sunshine just as much as anyone, but we’ve never considered how much our time in the sun is actually worth, until now.
Sun-filled Vacation Rental: Casa Del Mar in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, is fully furnished and supplied with all forms of amenities and the service of a full staff.
» View Listing
Knight Frank, a real-estate consulting firm, took a look at 14 sunny spots around the world and figured out the cost of an hour of sunshine based on the average hours of sunlight per day and the average house price for a four-bedroom property in a prime real-estate location.
So what’s the most expensive luxury destination to bask in the sunshine this winter? Mustique, a 1-mile-by-3-mile island in the Caribbean, where the price for an hour of sunshine is a whopping $3,338.66.
Three other Caribbean islands are in the top five, including St. Barts (2nd, $1,641.45), the British Virgin Islands (3rd, $1,261.52) and the Cayman Islands (5th, 806.27). Mauritius, off the southeastern coast of Africa, is 4th ($917.32).
To get your biggest bang of sun for your buck, Florida, South Africa and Kenya are your best bets, among the 14 destinations studied; all come in under $300 for an hour of rays.
For more on the “Sunshine Index” and see the cost per destination, read the story here on the WSJ.com.
View our listing of vacation properties around the world.
