Hi ladies! I hope everyone is enjoying 2011 so far! I know it's been awhile since I've posted but I wanted to get your advice.
DH and I are looking to take a 7-10 day all-inclusive anniversary vacation in March, but don't want to break the bank. So far we are looking at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Puerto Rico (open to cities), and Dominican Republic (open to cities) because all seem to fit the price range (would like to stay under $1400/person). We are not picky and just looking for a nice place to stay, be on a beach, and have fun excursion options to try so any other warm-weather destination ideas are welcome!
Does anyone have any feedback on these places or any resort reccomendations?
Thanks!
Re: Warm Weather vacation destination reccs?
I really really really really liked the resort where we went on our honeymoon (same place KM&BM went). It was all inclusive, not too big but not too small, and there were a few different options for excursions. I have some pics on Facebook I think if you want to check it out. It's near Playa Del Carmen.
El Dorado Seaside Suites.
I've heard El Dorado Royale is also awesome.
We went to El Dorado for our honeymoon and it was awesome! I've seen Kiz's pictures and it looks similar to the El Dorado. I recommend the Casitas if it is in your budget.
Dangit--I just wrote out a long recommendation for PR, and the nest ate it--boo. Don't have time to retype it, but I highly recommend PR--tons to do there! Personally I'd skip the AI and travel around a bit (or look for a resort that offers excursions). I enjoyed El Yunque (the rainforest, where I lived/worked for 4 months), the beaches/kiosks of Luquillo, the cities of Old San Juan and Ponce, and excursions to Vieques, Culebra and Mona Islands (Mona Island is probably not what you're looking for though).
My big regret was that I missed an opportunity to kayak/swim in the phosphorescent bays of Vieques and Fajardo... that's why I HAVE to go back someday!
My guess is that PR would be more expensive than Mexico and DR, but I haven't done any price checking to confirm this. From what I remember though (I was there in 2003), prices in PR are more similar to mainland US.
I just wrote an awesome rec for the resort we stayed at in Oct. High points: South of Playa Del Carmen, should be in your price range, all-inclusive (top shelf alcohol, a la carte restaurants, 24 hour room service, no wrist bands), great drinks, good to great food, awesome rooms, great free activities, close to excursions.
Dreams Puerto Aventuras--we booked through the Dreams website, but found competitive pricing through Sun Country vacations and cheapcarribean.com
http://www.dreamsresorts.com/drepa/
Happy Travels! We were more than satisfied here and will recommend any body (co-worker going there in a couple weeks) and can't wait to go back!
Nicole and Sam 10/3/09
expedia was running some amazing deals to mexico last month. lars and i are staying at this hotel, all inclusive package, for $1400 for BOTH of us.
check expedia to see if there are still great deals available. march will be tough price wise because it's spring break.
Thanks for all the reccomendations, ladies! All the places you mentioned look beautiful!
We ended up booking at the Riu Santa Fe in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 10 days all-inclusive for well under our budget - can't beat that!
Side note - in the past, I always used Hobbit Travel so had been looking on Cheapcarribean, Expedia, etc. this time around but actually found Midwest Travel Service, which was opened in St. Paul by 3 former Hobbit employees. Their prices were better than all the websites I checked and they were great to work with! I guess WCCO did a "from the ashes" story on them recently. Fingers crossed that everything turns out okay!