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Summertime vacation, need some opinions *Update: Finally booked*

T

trmiv

Lifer
My wife is about to finish her first year as a teacher (while still being a student herself) and is stressed beyond belief. So we want to take a nice relaxing vacation in August. We're planning on going to an all-inclusive, but we're not set on the destination. We went to an all-inclusive in Jamaica on our honeymoon, so that's a consideration, but I kinda want to try something different. We're looking at Jamaica again (went to Montego Bay last time, maybe try Negril this time), Antigua, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Nassau, Cozumel.

My preference is Antigua, but it's a little expensive. The best price by far (like by $500-700. We can get a 4-start in Puerto Vallarta for $400 total cheaper than a 3 star in Jamaica) is for going to Puerto Vallarta since the flight is much cheaper for us from California. But, what is Puerto Vallarta like? Anyone been and enjoy it? Any other suggestions? What about Ixtapa?

Update 6/4

Well we FINALLY booked a trip. Ended up spending more than I would have liked, but whatever. We're going to the El Dorado Beachside Suites All-Inclusive. Riviera Maya Mexico (specifically in the Kentenah area).
 
Sandals, Club Med. Go to AAA. I book all my vacations through them and they are very good. The service is 60 bucks which is well worth not have ing to go through the headache of planning your own vacation.
 
As I always suggest ... Aruba.

and I would not do all inclusive and would explore the island instead. check the pics in my sig for like over 400 pics I took there. the place is amazing and I would love to go back soon, but my next trip is going to be to Belize (never been there).

EDIT:

Direct Link to Aruba pics.
 
I'm not a fan of all inclusive. Been there, done that. Not a good value in Cancun at least.

Might I suggest Thailand? What's your budget? I found that it would have been cheaper, even with airfare, to fly to Thailand and spend a week there rather than the 4 days all inclusive in Cancun at a 5 star (might have been 4) resort.
 
We're definitely doing an all-inclusive. We're not really interested in exploring, just relaxing at the resort, and not having to worry about where to eat, money for drinks, what to do, etc. The all-inclusive we did on our honeymoon was very relaxing.

I agree, Aruba looks great, but it's a bit out of our price range. I'd like to keep this under around $2100, I probably should have said that. 😀 This is kinda last minute, and I'm contractor so I don't get paid for time off. I'm trying to time it so I only have to take off 3 days, Friday, Monday, Tuesday. So places way far away are out of the question.
 
I fourth the recommendation for Aruba.

My wife and I just got back from there (some of you may remember my passport thread), and we loved it.

There was lots to see and do, lots of new restaurants to try, but you could just lie on the beach all day if that's what you wanted, too.

We stayed at the Renaiscannce resort there, and they have their own private island with private beaches (so no having to get up at the crack of dawn to reserve a spot on the beach).
 
The reason I brought that up was because I found the flights to be rather frustrating. They had one stop and were all late and overbooked. They also left at midnight. I got bumbed to 2am. It was ridiculous. From the get go I wished I had just flown the opposite direction to either Hawaii or SEA.
 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: Aharami
try Aruba. http://www.aruba-bb.com

absolutely amazing island
Click to expand...

So hold up ... you already went dude?!? PICS STAT! And hwo did you like it?
Click to expand...

yea went 🙂 and came back 🙁. havent sorted thru the pics yet...took like 1600 pics. thats right...1600 + some vids. I will create a thread when I finish sorting thru the pics (real busy with work right now).

as far as how I liked it? I LOVED it. loved loved loved loved it! such a small island and yet so many things to see and do there. next time you go, you have to rent a car and check out the following (if you didnt in your last trip)
mangel halto beach - very calm and very remote. felt like i was in the pool 100 yards out from the shoreline
casibari rock formations...pretty damn cool
jeep safari tour - one of the coolest things to do on the island. you get to see the entire rugged north side of the island - from California lighthouse to natural bridge to the ostrich farm (feed the ostriches)
seroe colorado lighthouse-highlight of the trip. im not even gonna try to describe how aweome and remote the place is. pics i took wont do it justice, but they will have to do
baby beach-another awesome and remote beach.

in my opinion, the beaches by the hotels (palm beach, eagle beach) dont even compare to the remote and empty beaches.
 
Originally posted by: Aharami
Originally posted by: purbeast0
Originally posted by: Aharami
try Aruba. http://www.aruba-bb.com

absolutely amazing island
Click to expand...

So hold up ... you already went dude?!? PICS STAT! And hwo did you like it?
Click to expand...

yea went 🙂 and came back 🙁. havent sorted thru the pics yet...took like 1600 pics. thats right...1600 + some vids. I will create a thread when I finish sorting thru the pics (real busy with work right now).

as far as how I liked it? I LOVED it. loved loved loved loved it! such a small island and yet so many things to see and do there. next time you go, you have to rent a car and check out the following (if you didnt in your last trip)
mangel halto beach - very calm and very remote. felt like i was in the pool 100 yards out from the shoreline
casibari rock formations...pretty damn cool
jeep safari tour - one of the coolest things to do on the island. you get to see the entire rugged north side of the island - from California lighthouse to natural bridge to the ostrich farm (feed the ostriches)
seroe colorado lighthouse-highlight of the trip. im not even gonna try to describe how aweome and remote the place is. pics i took wont do it justice, but they will have to do
baby beach-another awesome and remote beach.

in my opinion, the beaches by the hotels (palm beach, eagle beach) dont even compare to the remote and empty beaches.
Click to expand...

Hahah glad to see you had a great time man, I told you it was fvcking awesome there! Yah when I went like I told you before, the only thing I had wish we did was rent a car to explore more on our own. We didn't get to go to those remote beaches like you did because the bus or cab rides just weren't worth it, especially since we had a lot of other stuff we had in mind.

Well I can't wait to see your pics man, PM me when you post the thread in case I'm not around. I agree about the eastern side of the island, SSOO much different. I really liked the horse back riding tour that took us to the natural pool. it was surreal how rough that side of the island is compared to how calm the other side is.
 
My wife and I really wanted to go the all-inclusive route as well, but after we looked at how much extra we were spending for an all-inclusive over just a room we realized we could use that same amount of money to eat and drink wherever and whenever we wanted and end up spending LESS.

Unless you go to a really nice all-inclusive, lunches and dinners will have a cattle-call feel to them... and why would you want to pay extra for that??

 
Originally posted by: MathMan
I fourth the recommendation for Aruba.

My wife and I just got back from there (some of you may remember my passport thread), and we loved it.

There was lots to see and do, lots of new restaurants to try, but you could just lie on the beach all day if that's what you wanted, too.

We stayed at the Renaiscannce resort there, and they have their own private island with private beaches (so no having to get up at the crack of dawn to reserve a spot on the beach).
Click to expand...

anything special about that island? we wanted to check it out until we found out that they charge $50 pp for a day pass
 
My wife and I honeymooned at the
Wyndham Sugar Bay All-Inclusive Resort on St. Thomas. Amazing view where you can see St. Johns across the water. Absolutely beautiful. The grounds were pretty nice as well though the private beach seemed a bit small.

I liked St. Thomas almost solely because we could to any of the islands there and didn't have to worry about exchange rates or passports.
 
Originally posted by: Queasy
My wife and I honeymooned at the
Wyndham Sugar Bay All-Inclusive Resort on St. Thomas. Amazing view where you can see St. Johns across the water. Absolutely beautiful. The grounds were pretty nice as well though the private beach seemed a bit small.

I liked St. Thomas almost solely because we could to any of the islands there and didn't have to worry about exchange rates or passports.
Click to expand...

i heard good things about St. Thomas so I wanna check that out next.

gf and I stayed at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach in Grand Bahamas. all inclusive resort...food was awesome and the beach was awesome (id say its 2nd in my favorite vacations list, right behind Aruba). id say one of the most relaxing vacations Ive had
 
Originally posted by: Aharami
Originally posted by: MathMan
I fourth the recommendation for Aruba.

My wife and I just got back from there (some of you may remember my passport thread), and we loved it.

There was lots to see and do, lots of new restaurants to try, but you could just lie on the beach all day if that's what you wanted, too.

We stayed at the Renaiscannce resort there, and they have their own private island with private beaches (so no having to get up at the crack of dawn to reserve a spot on the beach).
Click to expand...

anything special about that island? we wanted to check it out until we found out that they charge $50 pp for a day pass
Click to expand...

Nothing extra special-- it has two private beaches (one for kids, and one tops-optional one for adults). Flamingos roam all over the adult beach, which was kind of neat. Waitresses will take your order and bring you drinks on the beach, and there is a little beach restaurant there.

The nicest part about it was how secluded it was and how uncrowded it was-- it was easy to find a lounge chair, beach hut, or hammock-- which was great for just relaxing.

I didn't even know they allowed non-resort guests to visit the island-- are you sure you're not thinking of DePalm Island?
 
I'm selling a timeshare in my sig. Basically, I have a week there for anytime this year as long as I book and give them 30 days notice. If you click on the link, you can get the 2006 all inclusive rates. Not too bad getting all the alcohol and food covered and the best part about this resort is there aren't any kids running around...21 and up. They have 2 pools....a nice quiet one and one with adult games....a third pool is for tequila volleyball, basketball, and scuba diving lessons.

Check it out and let me know if you're interested. Pre airfare, the trip is around $1500 for the week based on a double occupancy. I have more pictures of the resort too, but it would take some time to come up with them...they're at home.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far guys, I'm searching on a lot of different places. I've noticed that expedia will give you two different rates on the same place if you search in two different windows at the same time. Bastards.
 
Originally posted by: Aharami
Originally posted by: Queasy
My wife and I honeymooned at the
Wyndham Sugar Bay All-Inclusive Resort on St. Thomas. Amazing view where you can see St. Johns across the water. Absolutely beautiful. The grounds were pretty nice as well though the private beach seemed a bit small.

I liked St. Thomas almost solely because we could to any of the islands there and didn't have to worry about exchange rates or passports.
Click to expand...

i heard good things about St. Thomas so I wanna check that out next.

gf and I stayed at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach in Grand Bahamas. all inclusive resort...food was awesome and the beach was awesome (id say its 2nd in my favorite vacations list, right behind Aruba). id say one of the most relaxing vacations Ive had
Click to expand...

That pretty much describes our time there. We spent one day on a daysail/snorkeling trip. Spent another day exploring St. Thomas. Another day exploring St. Johns. And the rest of the time at the resort relaxing and doing what newlyweds do.
 
Aharami, Quesey, you guys like those Wyndham resorts? They got not that great reviews on expedia. The complaint was the same for both, the places looked rundown and needed updating. Was that your experience?
 
Originally posted by: MathMan
Originally posted by: Aharami
Originally posted by: MathMan
I fourth the recommendation for Aruba.

My wife and I just got back from there (some of you may remember my passport thread), and we loved it.

There was lots to see and do, lots of new restaurants to try, but you could just lie on the beach all day if that's what you wanted, too.

We stayed at the Renaiscannce resort there, and they have their own private island with private beaches (so no having to get up at the crack of dawn to reserve a spot on the beach).
Click to expand...

anything special about that island? we wanted to check it out until we found out that they charge $50 pp for a day pass
Click to expand...

Nothing extra special-- it has two private beaches (one for kids, and one tops-optional one for adults). Flamingos roam all over the adult beach, which was kind of neat. Waitresses will take your order and bring you drinks on the beach, and there is a little beach restaurant there.

The nicest part about it was how secluded it was and how uncrowded it was-- it was easy to find a lounge chair, beach hut, or hammock-- which was great for just relaxing.

I didn't even know they allowed non-resort guests to visit the island-- are you sure you're not thinking of DePalm Island?
Click to expand...

no we visited DePalm island as part of the jeep safari tour (2nd half of the day you get to chill on De Palm island if you choose the full day jeep tour). I liked snorkeling on DePalm because of all the parrot fishes there (they swim right up to you..some even brushed by me). Thought reniassance (sp?) might offer the same. I just wanted to go there for some snorkeling but decided against it when the hotel concierge told us that since that's a private island, there's a $50 fee.

anyhow, anything good to see on the adults beach besides the flamingos? 😉
 
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