Ideas for vacation? Likely Caribbean

[Deleted]

How about St. John? Beautiful beaches and no currency exchanging!

[lb2006]

We honeymooned in Antigua - at Cocobay Resort. I'd recommend Cocobay! It's a very small all-inclusive with individual cottages instead of hotel rooms. VERY relaxing. You can find great hotel deals on www.luxurylink.com - i think there is a filter for under $1500 for resorts.

[Deleted]

We did our honeymoon in Aruba. It was fabulous. We stayed at the Bucuti Beach Resort... not all inclusive but I would NEVER recommend AI in Aruba, there are so many incredible restaurants on the island to choose from. Added bonus, no worries about hurricanes (even though October is the tail end of hurricane season) in Aruba.

[Deleted]

What about Puerta Vallerta? Not Carribean, but similar style place. It's a great town if you don't want all AI because there are tons of places to eat and things to do really nearby. The airport is really close to the main drag, too.

[chia]

Maybe Dominican Republic?

[zacksbride]

Jan 29, 2013 21:01:23 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

St John could be good... is Westin the only place to stay? It seems pretty pricey.

caneel bay is another place on st. john, but also pretty pricey.  very lovely - we stayed there for part of our honey moon. 

[Deleted]

I have to say I was not a huge fan of St. Lucia. This was in large part because there are no private beaches on the island, so cruise ships would take passengers on excursions to our resort's beach since there was good snorkeling there. The cruise ship passengers were very trashy and not the kind of people we wanted to encounter on our quiet island vacation. YMMV of course bur this really ruined it for me and I would recommend reading reviews for where you plan to stay to see if it's a popular destination for cruise ship excursions.

[vanillacourage]

If you are open to Puerto Vallarta, check out Casa Isabel. We have stayed there twice and it is great - 5 minute walk into town for the great restaurants and beach front bars, but the rooms have decent sized kitchenettes and come stocked with supplies, so we made our own breakfasts and had stuff for sandwiches for lunch if we didn't want to go into town. Also, you can buy your own drinks to keep in the room and drink at the onsite pool. Google it, and know that the pics don't even do it justice.

[huskymom]

In October, definitely Aruba. Or have good trip insurance.

[wanderlustmom]

My sister just stayed at Bucuti in Aruba for her honeymoon last spring in Aruba and loved it, she also loved Aruba's restaurants. Her favorite was Madame Genets. I could be spelling that wrong. Totally hear you on Cincinnati, used to live there, crappy connections and expensive airport.



I liked St. John and St. Thomas and the Bahamas. We stayed at Moon Palace AI and liked it, price was cheap, just didn't have good beach access. I have heard nothing but raves for Turks and Caicos.

[soozy87]

St. John also has Gallows Point Resort. We went there for our honeymoon. Very nice, not all inclusive, but excellent!

[anelms]

I'm partial to cruises. We are going on the carnival dream in march and I can't wait to see what a big ship has to offer.

[saywhatnow]

Another vote for Aruba and the Bucuti Beach Resort. Make sure you spring for a room in the Tara Suites wing. Wonderful places to eat all over the island. Have fun!!!

[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2013 22:35:49 GMT -5 saywhatnow said:

Another vote for Aruba and the Bucuti Beach Resort. Make sure you spring for a room in the Tara Suites wing. Wonderful places to eat all over the island. Have fun!!!

I would agree with this but I think it could be a budget buster if you go for more than a couple of days. Last I checked they are something like $400 a night even in the off season. The regular rooms are $300ish so even that could be too high for OP's budget.

[rikki]

I was going to suggest Aruba, too. I saw there last fall (I think late-September) and it was perfect.

[Deleted]

Color me jealous! Jealous that you don't have to fly 10+ hours. Jealous of a beach vacation to look forward to. Jealous jealous jealous!

(And look forward to living vicariously).

[Deleted]

Aruba is in their off season in October and you can get great deals. We spent around 4k total with DD for 7 days and would have spent a lot less without her bc we could have gotten a cheaper room (we had a suite), her flight, and obviously 2 less days. I think it's doable for your price range. We stayed at the Marriott surf club and they had rooms for $150/night in the regular hotel.

That being said, food in restaurants is $$. Madame Jeanette's cost us $200 (with booze and a $15 kids meal).

[mrssandro]

We are going to St Lucia but we aren't staying in a resort. Carmen's review is the first semi negative review I have read.

[holly116]

I would also steer clear of St Lucia for a short trip. We went there for our honeymoon (out of CVG, through ATL) and it takes forever to get there. Plus, most of the resorts are on the north side of the island and the main airport is in the south. So unless you want to take a helicopter, it's another few hours on bumpy roads. If you had say two weeks, maybe, but it's a whole day of travel to get there once it's all said and done. I told the same thing to some friends recently and they're still going because it was so cheap (using FF miles).

We've had several friends go to Costa Rica lately and absolutely love it, so it's next on our list for a tropical vacation.

Also, while there aren't many direct flights out of CVG (grrr Delta), you should be able to get anywhere you want to go through Atlanta. And it's looking up! We got Frontier this week!

[mrssandro]

Also I really truly enjoyed Aruba when we went for our honeymoon. Very laid back but the main scenic attraction is the beach since it is a desert with a shit-ton of cactus. I would not do AI here at all. You can't get really lost.

[chessie]

Aruba or Bermuda is where I would go in October. Trying to head out that month as well- but can't find a sitter

[beefjerky]

Jan 29, 2013 21:05:03 GMT -5 lb2006 said:

We honeymooned in Antigua - at Cocobay Resort. I'd recommend Cocobay! It's a very small all-inclusive with individual cottages instead of hotel rooms. VERY relaxing. You can find great hotel deals on www.luxurylink.com - i think there is a filter for under $1500 for resorts.

This exactly - we also honeymooned at Cocobay. It was awesome, very low key all inclusive.

[chessie]

Jan 30, 2013 8:27:10 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

Re: hurricanes, we often travel to Caribbean during hurricane season but just get good trip insurance.

We normally do as well.  Normally can go for a lot cheaper as well. Oct/November are perfect months to get away and its not too hot.

[lishie]

We had our wedding in St. Croix and I absolutely loved it. When we got married they didn't have any cruise ships coming at all, and that was wonderful. I believe they get a few boats now, but not a ton.

We stayed at the Buccaneer, which was not all inclusive, but it did offer a free breakfast (which was really good) and also had a really good restaurant for dinner. We rented a car and were a 5  minute drive from Christianstead, which had a lot of restaurants and bars.

We haven't made it back there yet, but it's high on my list of things to do. I truly loved it.

I'm also a big St. Maarten/Martin fan.

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2013 8:18:56 GMT -5 beefjerky said:

Jan 29, 2013 21:05:03 GMT -5 lb2006 said:

We honeymooned in Antigua - at Cocobay Resort. I'd recommend Cocobay! It's a very small all-inclusive with individual cottages instead of hotel rooms. VERY relaxing. You can find great hotel deals on www.luxurylink.com - i think there is a filter for under $1500 for resorts.

This exactly - we also honeymooned at Cocobay. It was awesome, very low key all inclusive.

I'm looking at pictures on the website and it looks dreamy!

[ssmjlm]

We did a stop in Aruba on our cruise and I would love to go back and do a vacation there.

Also, have you looked into a S. Caribbean cruise? The islands they go to are all pretty much out of hurricane alley. We did one that left out of Puerto Rico for our HM and even with flights we were under $3k. This was the 1st week in November. I would also recommend doing a day or 2 in PR before/after your cruise to explore.

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2013 7:50:33 GMT -5 mrssandro said:

We are going to St Lucia but we aren't staying in a resort. Carmen's review is the first semi negative review I have read.

I'll clarify my review in case it helps anyone.

I don't know about private beaches on any other island honestly. I haven't given them much thought or considered the implications for the locals. I have only ever heard about the public beach issue on St Lucia as it was brought up to us by the management and other guests of our resort.

The situation with the cruise ship guests on our beach was bad. Many of the other guests had complaints. We were at a secluded private resort, yet daily the beach would fill with very loud, drunk adults who made spectacles of themselves. They littered the beach with their beer cans, had lewd discussions; they were generally assholes and spoiled the quiet ambience of the beach that was there before they showed up and after they left. The management of our resort said they couldn't do anything about it because it was a public beach. It was just disappointing to pay a lot of money for a vacation and not feel comfortable at our own resort's beach.

Maybe it was only a problem at this resort (Ti Kaye) or at the time of year we went (April, though the rude tourists were not spring breakers). If other places I've been have had public beaches they have remained peaceful and quiet and unlike the experience we had on St. Lucia.

We did also spend a couple of days in a rented private villa on St. Lucia and that was gorgeous, but the beach was not accessible from our unit.

Anyway I don't think St. Lucia is a bad island or anything, but our experience there wasn't the greatest and with so many other islands to visit I don't think we will ever choose to go back.

[lb2006]

If my husband & I could travel to Antigua once every few years to just get away, have great food & cocktails - we'd go to Cocobay in a heartbeat I'm all for finding different places to stay & traveling to different islands...but that's one place we'd return for multiple trips! It is very relaxing

They have a great catamaran trip you can take, the Wadadli Cats - it goes around the island & has a break for snorkeling & a traditional Antiguan meal. It was a lot of fun and the cocktails flow on the return trip!

[liveintheville]

I'm with the others. That time of year I'd go Aruba or Curacao. 

[orangello]

Jan 30, 2013 9:12:06 GMT -5 liveintheville said:

I'm with the others. That time of year I'd go Aruba or Curacao. 

I was just about to say - go to Curacao.  Similar to Aruba, but MUCH cheaper, and the ABC islands hardly ever get threatened by hurricanes, which are a real problem everywhere else in the Caribbean.

We're staying at the Marriott in Curacao in April, so high season - a beachfront room is around $250/night.