Mrs H, it would help to know what your budget is and what kind of holiday you would enjoy. When are you thinking of going?

Many of the resorts in parts of the Caribbean are very isolated with poor transport links so are more suited to a beach/pool relaxing holiday whereas some of the Caribbean islands have good local services and its safe to hire a car making getting about possible.

I would start with setting your budget, as costs can vary enormously island to island.

Generally the Hispanic islands such as Dom Rep, Mexico and Cuba are cheaper than islands such as Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua.

You also need to think about whether you want to stay all-inc or go for room only, although it's nigh on impossible to do the latter on the Hispanic islands if you're booking a package. If you go room only, bear in mind that sometimes apartments are quite isolated and you may need taxi's to get to restaurants. Also food and drink can be quite expensive out there.

I would certainly recommend Barbados, lovely island with some great hotels, ultra friendly people and all in all a good one to start with. Also Antigua and St Lucia are excellent, the Sandals resorts are elegant but fun, but there are many quieter resorts too such as East Winds (St Lucia) and Galley Bay (Antigua).

Not sure I'd recommend Jamaica as a first visit to the region. The island is lovely and probably has the most to see and do, but you do suffer a lot more hassle outside of hotels than on other islands, and for my first visit it nearly put me off the region.

Of the Hispanics, we're trying Mexico next Easter, but Cuba also looks great. Dom Rep is cheaper and has some good hotels. Stick with established chains like Iberostar and Riu and you shouldn't go far wrong on those islands.

Browse through the HOTEL REVIEWS and RESORT REPORTS

Pippy

Thanks for your replies. Regarding budget, this is a bit more than a holiday for us next year as we will be celebrating significant birthdays and wedding anniversaries. Is a £5000.00 budget per couple realistic?
Am I right in thinking the best time to go is between Nov - April?
Was wondering about a 2 centre holiday i.e 1 week Barbados & 1 week St Lucia.

That sounds like a good budget and you're right about November to April being the best time to go, when you're well past hurricane season and there's less rainfall/humidity. Christmas, Jan, Feb and Easter are the most expensive times during that period.

The bargain time is the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas, when there are some great deals to be had before the (ultra expensive) Christmas rush.
A quick look shows 2 weeks at either the Almond Beach Village in Barbados or the Jalousie in St Lucia (both all-inc) coming in at about £3500 per couple, so adding in your LIAT flight between the islands you should still be well within budget during that period.

I would grab the Virgin brochure and see what takes your fancy, then try an online specialist like letsgo2.com for a price.

Hi Mrs H,

For my 50th we went to St Lucia and Barbados - one week in the Jalousie Plantation and one week in the Royal Pavilion. It was a fantastic holiday and I can highly recommend both hotels.

We went back to St Lucia this year and popped in to see the Jalousie - it was a bit more developed down by the beach (restaurants etc) but still in a perfect setting. It's in the south of the island, right between the Pitons, and so nightlife is limited to the resort itself or dining at the famous Dasheene restaurant at Ladera resort or perhaps Anse Chastanet. Not a problem at all, unless you wanted to paint the town red, in which case you'd be better staying somewhere near Castries in the north.

The Royal Pavilion was also a superb hotel, on the west coast near St James, and there are lots of other hotels and good restaurants nearby. Probably the most expensive places to eat that we've ever been to (£100 per night average), but hey you're only 50 once!!

We got Thomas Cook to arrange it all and it cost something like £5,500 all in - and that was 7 years ago! This year we booked independently, which would have been fairly simple if BA hadn't decided to cancel all their Sunday flights to St Lucia after we'd booked the hotels. My tip - fly Virgin!!

Have you thought about a cruise. We did 2 weeks earlier this year and visited 9 different islands, including Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua. It was certainly a great way to see the caribbean for the first time, waking up at a different island every morning.

I did the same thing last year. It was wonderful crusing the caribbean for two weeks......bliss

We visited Margarita, Aruba, Tortola, Grand Cayman, Antigua, St Lucia, Catalina Island and Barbados.

Have also stayed at Barbados a couple of times. Thats definitely worth considering and so is Antigua.

Kath HT Admin

Am not sure about going on a cruise and I expect there is only 1 way to find out! Do you actually have enough time in the resorts to really get a feel of the place??

I am going to get some brochures to plough through this week.

Thank you all for you replies.

Well, you are only at each port for an average of 8hrs- so a 'taste' is what you get,depending on what excursion or exploring you do. You can get an idea of places you would definitely want to go back and spend more time and some not so much. If you want to cruise and spend more than a day in one place take a look at Royal Caribbean and NCL's cruises to Bermuda.... the planning is half the fun.

We too were unsure about a cruise but when someone I work with went and came back raving about it, we decided to give it a go. We went on the Crown Princess. which we thought was lovely. It can be as formal or informal as you like - my OH doesn't like having to dress up too much when he is on holiday, so on the formal dining nights, we just went into the buffet restaurant instead. We usually spent about 7 or 8 hours in each place, which gave us a good taste of what we liked and what we didn't. We have decided that at some point we will go back to St Lucia and to Antigua. Go on, give it a go - I'm sure you won't regret it. Just make sure that you research the cruise lines and ships as some may suit your tastes more than others.

You'll find further cruise info HERE.

Pippy

We went to Couples Swept away in January and had such a wonderful holiday we are going back to Couples Sans Souci in November. we are both in our 50's and it is within your budget
this is their web site
http://www.couples.com