If you're looking at one week you should have no problem with £1000.
Two weeks is a bit more difficult on the budget, but as an example Eclipse have the 4 star plus Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica departing LGW on 01/10 for £1056 per person or 15/10 for £1036 per person.

We went to the Grand Bahia Principe Coba (Junior Suites) in Mexico at the end of September beginning of October. 2 weeks AI for £850 each. We booked through the Caribbean Warehouse. Last time I checked the web site let you browse the hotels but you had to phone for pricing, which put me off a lot. Trawling the Eclipsedirect/thomson/thomas cook sites for a bargain just gave me a headache, so in the end I phoned to see what they offered. They turned out to be very knowledgable on the area I was looking at, most of their office having been there, and they didn't appear to mind me "browsing" as I queried different hotels and different coutries.
I found that they can any available planes and this can affect the price. In our case we opted for the mytravel plane rather than the First Choice plane. OK the on board entertainment wasn't as good and the seats were slightly closer, but I think there was a 3 figure difference in prices so I was prepared to "slum it". For some reason we were the only people on board to have named food!
The option with the FC flight still worked out considerably cheaper than the Eclipsedirect price!
May be worth checking to see if any of the hotels particularly interest you and then phoning with your budget to see what comes of it.

Does the figure include trips? I think we could have easily forked out between £100 and £200 each for trips.

Thanks for the replies guys.

The 1000 is for 2 weeks and does not include trips, just getting there and the hotel.

I looked and the Gran Bahia Principe but have been put off by the reviews of crime and corrupt staff

Carabbean warehouse, i hadnt heard of but 'll have a gander and see what i can see!

Just checked the reviews and there aren't any recent ones. I don't like adding the review as I don't like to present a jaded report but to provide a complete one takes too long and so I usually give up after a half hours carefull typing and still nowhere near finished.

I would not have recommended the hotel to you on the grounds of food. There seems to be a confusion over food warming in this hotel in Mexico. The food should leave the kitchen hot and then be placed on the warmers to keep it so. In this hotel the "hot meat" leaves the kitchen stone cold and is placed on the warmers to heat up, which it never does! I thought it was me as I spotted the chap putting out the meat and thought "At last". Grabbed the meat being careful not to touch it and burn myself as he left. I went straight back to the table as pleased as punch and it was stone cold!

I left my stuff all over the room and they did tidy it up everyday!

Great holiday bar the food really, mind you the non English people even enjoyed that, but I was mentioning it as a price guide more than anything.

good Luck in your search

thanks for the reply Stevebell001. I think we have pretty much removed this from our list for numerous reasons.

I'm concidering Mexico but am wondering about the amount of daylight and weather in mexico. I've read conflicting things and the first chice brocure says only 5 hours of sunshine?! My other concern is that mexico, riviera maya in particular, has things to do outside the hotel. This means more money is needed and 2 of our party are on a strict budgit.Does anyone know whats outside the hotel and whats worth doing? I'd be gutted to get there and find theres loads to do but we cant do it because of cash constraints.

Failing mexico it leaves us with Dominican Republic!

Mexico has wonderful weather....... Sunny, hot most of the time.
Have a look at http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/76590.html?bannertypeclick=infobox
I picked Cancun just as a for instance, but put whatever area you're interested in and look at 'History and Almanac'- you can find out the weather history for the dates you plan on traveling.
5hrs of sunshine a day? Where does that come from, I have seen other people on this site quote that but ??? where the brochure got that idea!

I've forgotten the prices but the main things to do in that area are:
Xcarat park, expensive but memorable with the evening show.
Xel Ha ecological park, much cheaper and good fun.
Chichen Itza, now one of the modern wonders of the world.
We also went Deep Sea Reeling with Captain Rick's. Cost a packet and basically you sit in the boat while it goes back and forth. Sometimes a line twitches and so the crew take it out of its holder, sit you in the chair and give you the rod. You reel as fast as you can and eventually a fish gets near to the boat at which point they take the rod off you and haul the fish in, holding it up in front of you if you want a picture. That's it 'til the next twitch.
Tulum ruins are just along the coast and cheap to get into, COBA ruins are supposedly better as you can still climb the steps but you will have to get transport.
Free entertainment: bus to Akumal and swim in the sea with turtles; bus to playa del carmen; bus to cancun. I think the bus is $2 each no matter where you go, but as there was a bus full of us we did not get round to risking it.

The GBP complex is actually 3 large hotels with individual entertainments, pools, beaches, bars and restaurants and guests can use any or all. We, and there were 11 in the party, did not get bored at all as there was always somewhere else to try.
Not sure what would have happened if we had been confined to just one hotel for the entire period.
We left on the 3rd October but the Sun was up before I was and we were still on the beach at 5 so it wasn't dark. It is hotter over there and so you don't need to see the sun like you do over here. There were a couple of stormy days which probably didn't do the sun appearance figures much good.

Only been to Bayahibe (IHD) in the DR, but the Saona island trip was about £25, the Santo Domingo trip was about £40 and the Monster Truck (back of lorry with seatbelts) was similar price. We went there in June so can't comment on the temperatures and weather but it will be the same sort of latitude as Mexico and have similar or slightly shorter days.

I think our problem with the food was cause by the previous visit to Playa Pesquero which left a high standard to reach

Thanks guys for your input.

Stevebell001, I was at playa pesquero last May but cant say I was struck on the food at all. I'm a bit of a foodie and found a lot of what they did pretty average, although the lobster was very good! They also didnt cater too well for vegitarians outside the vegitarian al a carte. But i digress.

I think the main problem that I'm concerned about is if we did go to mexico, would there be loads of nightlife, bars restaurents and shows outside the hotel that we'd be missing out on? For example, if I went to tenerife and went all inclusive i'd be missing out on all the bars, restaurents and attractions outside the hotel. I wouldnt go all in cin tenerife so if mexico was the same i wouldnt go. I'd wait until the people with the cash constraints were not going with us. I hope that makes sence.

I think we're looking for a hotel based holiday but we would certainly go on excursions but wouldnt have masses of spending money to eat out most nights ect.

Hi Mr Parsons

Dont give up on Jamaica we will be staying at the Riu Tropical Bay it gets great reviews on TA and is AI with a great beach and lovely calm clear sea, lots going on at the hotel day and night. We are going in June for two weeks and got it for just under a £1000.00 each and I am sure it would be cheaper still in October.

Also the Riu Negril a bit further up the beach is slightly cheaper but a bit to large a hotel for us which is why we plumped for the RTB in the end.

Check out Thomas Cook and Thomsons they both do the hotel

Anyone wishing to add their review may do so HERE.

Thanks.

Pippy