Looking for Vacation advice

[jamsmu]

Anyone been to anyof these? What do you think? What else do you recommend?

We're looking for:
-relaxation--with a beach, nice weather, pool, activities, watersports (esp sailing)
-Very nice rooms--we're spoiled hotel snobs
-all inclusive

any ideas?

[bostonsmama]

My mom took a vacation at XCaret Resort in Riviera Maya in Mexico this past fall, and she LOVED it. I believe it's a secluded, all-inclusive resort near Cancun, but far enough away that you miss the spring break crowd. She said there's a beautiful private beach, lots of watersports included, special restaurants w/ reservations only, alcohol included, a water-park type pool, and luxury rooms if you reserve in a high enough class. She toured some historic sites and had a great time shopping. The only thing that might have affected this is that they were hit by that hurricane a couple months ago, so there's no telling what kind of damage they sustained.

http://www.occidentalhotels.com/grandxcaret/index.asp

Personally, I'm not an all-inclusive fan ever since my crappy experience at a Sandals Resort in Jamaica (Ocho Rios). But I'm a food snob, so take it for what it's worth. I was able to have twice the vacation fun in Oahu, Hawaii (with dinners out, hiking tours, rental car, shopping, and luaus), than I did while land-locked in ghetto-ville Jamaica. For 8 days, the hotel, airfare, meals, transportation and leisure came to $3300 for two. For 7 days at a Sandals resort in Jamaica plus airfare it was about $3700 for 2, but it rained every single day and all the fun activities cost hundreds extra. But none of my ill feelings towards Sandals extent to the place linked to above. The pictures she brought back proved she had a wonderful time!


Larissa
***Cheers! Here's to better luck in 2006!***

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."
-James Baldwin

[DebbieJ]

What about somewhere on either coast of Florida? The Gulf coast in particular might be reasonably priced given all the hurricane damage. They probably have to lure back the tourists.

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
2 year check up: 25 lbs with clothes on and 35 inches!
BFARed for 20 months and 6 days
(Breastfeeding After Reduction is possible! www.bfar.org)

http://www.bfar.org/members/fora/style_avatars/Ribbons/18months-bfar.jpg

[hcsl]

We just got back from Atlantis in the Bahamas and loved it. It was an awesome family vacation. It's not "the Caribbean" since it's such a large resort (it could easily be anywhere), but we enjoyed it just the same.

I was there alone with ds (2 1/2) for a few days and dh joined us in the middle of the vacation. There are so many pools, so many restaurants (from sandwich shops to 4 star very expensive restaurants), the world's (allegedly) largest marine habitat... we all three had a good time. I found it to be very clean, even though there are tons of people there. It is a very large place, but the grounds are sooo beautiful and interesting that I never felt like the place was crowded. And we generally stay away from large resort places when we vacation- I much prefer boutiquey hotels. However, after our time there, I am really looking forward to going back next winter. DS had a ball and talks about how sad he is to have left Atlantis. I could go on and on about how awesome the pools are. Plus, in addition to the main beach areas, there are two protected lagoons that are great for children to swim in with no waves.

It's not all-inclusive, but you can purchase a meal plan that works the same way, and you can charge anything anywhere with your room key card. We didn't get the plan and I'm really glad, even though the food was a bit pricey. The nicest rooms are in the Royal Towers. I thought they wre nice enough, but seemed like youy standard fare with marble bathrooms and flat screen tvs.

You might want to check out tripadvisor.com for reviews. Some people seemed to hate the place, but I guess it just depends on what you're looking for. The atlantis website is atlantis.com and it's pretty comprehensive about listing every little thing you can do there. We somehow got a 2 for 1 sailing voucher but never used it.

My bottom line is that it was a great family vacation (I still can't shut up about how I glad am we chose this over Disney) and would probably be a fun couples place too, although possibly not my first choice. There are pools that don't allow children, a casino, a sports/rec center and an awesome spa.

[BeachBum]

The Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island is really nice. Plus, Amelia island is a great place, and there are many family friendly things to do. There is a nice historic downtown with cute shops, the intracoastal waterway at one end and the beach at the other.
I don't know about sailing specifically, but there are lots of boating options.
Oops, it wouldn't fit your all inclusive criteria. But you could still have all your meals at the hotel if you wanted.

[kozachka]

There is a special going on for Atlantis right now, $299 for 3 nights (per person?). Just check out fatwallet.com Travel Deals section for more info on it. Some pp prefer to use a hotel across the street from Atlantis to save $$ on the room, it offers access to all of the Atlantis facilities. And everybody complains about the cost of food. I am also trying to figure out a vacation destination for DH and I to go to at the end of January and Jamaica is not on the list. We stayed at Sandals there and while we managed to have an OK experience I don't want to go anywhere where you can't leave your resort.

Couple other places to consider in Caribbean are Saint Martin (French side has some nice restaurants) and British Virgin Islands.

ETA: We charted a sailboat with another couple from Moorings, BVI, about ten years ago and it's been our best vacation ever. You can get up to 40% discount if you purchase 'owners time'. Not too much of a risk since your contract is with Moorings and not the boat owner. We are hoping to repeat our experience this May.

[R2sweetboys]

How about Aruba? I know there's been a lot of bad publicity since the Natalee Holloway disappearance but it's actually known to be a very safe island with a low crime rate. We went there on our honeymoon years ago and had a wonderful time. The weather is almost always perfect and there's always a nice breeze. There are several hotels now that offer all-inclusive packages or meal plans. I think it's a beautiful island with lots to offer. It doesn't generally attract the spring break crowd which is nice. We saw people of all ages there, including kids. There are tons of water sports and the water is beautiful! Just a thought. :)

~Leslie

SAHM to...
Ryan 8/14/00
Matthew 2/14/03

[brittone2]

We enjoyed our trip to Aruba in 2002 a lot :) Very clean, I always felt very safe (again, there is the bad publicity from the Holloway case as the PP said, but I never felt unsafe), lots of great restaurants, etc. I wouldn't recommend all-inclusive for Aruba because we found we did much better (or at least broke even but had more variety) choosing our own restaurants. There are all-inclusive options at most hotels though if you are set on that.

If you've never been to Aruba, the water on Palm Beach is basically almost waveless while the North side of the island is very rough and rugged. It is desert-like, not lush and tropical (but IMO still beautiful).

[cara1]

Tell me more about Atlantis. We were worried that if the weather was bad that there would be nothing to do there.

[lizamann]

We were in Xcaret in April 2004. It's a beautiful resort, but the food was pretty awful - awful enough that I wouldn't ever go back unless I'd heard that the food was much improved. Even the special reservation restaraunts weren't good. I know I'm spoiled by living in a great food town, but we've been to the Iberostars in Riviera Maya where the food was much better. The pools at Xcaret are the best, though!

[hcsl]

I am not 100% sure, but I think Atlantis has stopped allowing people who aren't staying at the resort to use the facilities. As I understand it, there were too many complaints form paying guests. They swiped our room key each morning before we could get our pool access wrist bands and towles. I'm sure anyone could use the casino or shop in the shops, but not the recreational things.

One of the coolest things about the pools were these two sets of tiered pools that had slides from one level down to the next. The slides maybe had an incline of 3 degrees on them and ds (as well as children who seemed to be up to 6 or 7) loved going from one pool down to the next. Also, there is a 'lazy river' that was fun to float down in tubes. I was impressed that even on the lasy river there were life guards everywhere. There were life guards in the kiddie pools, too. The kiddie pools were neat because they had all these water spouts and fountains that children could play in. I think both of the kiddie pools had zero-entry (sloped) areas.

Some of the restaurants were expensive, but what do you expect from a hotel that has marble floors in all the elevators? It's not a Days Inn. Beers were $5-$7 each, less than what you'd pay in many cities in teh US. There were plenty of moderate places to eat. We ate at the Bahamian restaurant in the marina one night (not considered one of their expensive places), and for the three of us, salads, drinks and the mandatory 15% gratuity, I think it was just under $90. On the other hand, the buffet restaurant in the lobby of the Royal Towers (which had a line snaking out and around the corner for dinner each night) was $21 for breakfast, $23 for lunch and $44 for dinner. Personally, I think $21 for a breakfast is outrageous. That's why we didn't do the meal plan- if I had paid for it you better believe I would have been at that buffet filling up each morning to get my money's worth. Yuck. I just can't eat that much food at 7am (or 5, when ds woke up ready to go each day). We had a muffin and fruit from either Starbucks or another little place in the lobby. On the website you can view many of the menus and prices from the restaurants.

I'm not sure what there would be to do if it rained. There are free relatively recent movies each night, but I think the earliest show is around 5. Many of the aquariums are inside, so that's something that's always available and always interesting. There is a little touch tank in the exhibit called The Dig, and ds enjoyed thinking about touching the starfish, sea slugs, horseshoe crabs and sea cucumbers.

I've been to the Dutch side of St. Martin, and while Orient Bay is beautiful, I'm not 'chomping at the bit' to get back there any time soon, if ever. Right next door is Saba, and I've heard it's beautiful.

Ambergris Caye in Belieze is beautiful, and there are some all inclusives there. We stayed at Journey's End Resort several years ago and had a good time. There was an AWESOME French-Thai fusion restaurant next door in a B&B- I think it was called Rendezvous, or something. We ate there several times.

There are tons of all inclusives on Provo in the Turks and Caicos, and Grace Bay is beautiful but crowded. We've enjoyed our time on Salt Cay and Grand Turk (getting waaay away from it all) much more, though.

Sorry for the book. Travel is something I have always enjoyed.

[Tondi G]

Don't know if your interrested in Hawaii but my friend just came back from Maui and had a wonderful time with her DH and DS! They stayed at the Wailea Marriott

http://marriott.com/property/propertypage.mi?marshaCode=HNMMC

there is a great toddler/kids pool area with little slides and fountains.... like a mini water park idea.

when we were researching hawaii I spoke to a travel agent in Hawaii and she said she satyed there herself when traveling with her toddlers and recommends it to everyone with smaller children! We will stay here if we go in May!

HTH's you!

~Tondi
Mommy to Mason 7/8/01 and Aidan 5/4/05