Have a look at the Dominican Republic, you should easily get somewhere at that price . I've just returned from my 7th trip out there and love the country. I was there in Jan/feb this year for 5 weeks and the weather was great, a few early evening showers but great sunny beach days.
sam

Need help as well..We want to go away next easter, been to Mexico, Dom Rep, St Lucia and now want to go somewere else, but canr decide were..dont want to do Cuba, we will do that 2010..we have a budget for around £3000 for the two..anybody got any suggestions as to were we should try..
Thanks...

Rob

Have you considered Egypt; though cool at night is a nice 23-25 degrees during the day and there are lots of all inclusive deals for about £500 each for January?

Otherwise best deal on quick search on Thomas Cook Site will get you 4* in punta cana for 599 each around about 8th January.

Happy hunting

Tracey,

You don't say if you are particuarly looking for beach/caribbean or just long haul in general.

If just after long haul in general then you could consider Las Vegas; there are a lot more resort style holidays there now for 7 and 14 nights; and there is always florida - daytona beach or miami.

If you don't mind it not being carribean then for somewhere different you could try Bermuda which is a destination not yet overly spoiled by tourism.

Otherwise there is always the other carribean islands; antigua; st.kitts and barbuda; jamaica; barbados.

Also have you thought about going in the other direction - though you may need to look into weather etc; ie Goa, Maldives, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Thailand etc.

It really depends what it is you are after.

Hi thanks for your reply..have spent last night and tonight going over places...been to l vegas..now thinking on maybe cape verde..we want it to be warm..looked at Goa, but dont know anyone who has been...Would love to do Barbados...but seems so expensive..and am abit scared to do Antigua.. The hol will take place over Easter..am a childrens nanny, so need to go when the kids are off school..so alot of places more expensive..
thanks for replying...
will carry on looking...
Tracey...

For the OP looking for sun in January: We have been to Sharm a couple of times in December and the sea water is warm (enough for me). The unheated pools are freezing but I can just walk into the sea.

The weather is often windy but there are usually plenty of wind shelters and behind them it is nice and warm. The sunbeds are always occupied by people sunbathing.

The clincher for Sharm is the snorkelling, even if you are non swimmers it is possible to get cheap life jackets and snorkel.
I was absolutely amazed on my visit to the Conrad. The sea looks fairly normal and as you walk along the jetty you can see the odd fish swimming about. As you get to the end there may be a few more but still interesting not stunning. You are now on a square jetty over the edge of the coral and looking into the water you can see a few more fish .. but ...

climb down the steps into the water and (using a face mask) stick your head into the water and it suddenly comes alive with colour. It is just like being in a lifesize tropical fish tank. The fact you have entered the water is not unnoticed and you find yourself surrounded by thousands of fish, large and small. And that is still just hanging onto the jetty! We were stunned. Some other guests told us that they used to go to the Great Barrier reef until they discovered the Conrad and now only go there as they felt it was better and certainly easier access.

If you fancy the experience, do the research, find a hotel that has its own jetty to the coral and try and find recommendations. In our case we felt that the LTI Grand Azure was a better hotel experience than the Conrad, but the Grand Azure jetty is over 800m long and still stopped 50m short of the coral
One of the other popular hotels has its own jetty but it doesn't appear to go to the coral only a sandy plateau, although I may be wrong.
If you like swimming in the pool in January make sure you find a hotel with a heated pool to give yourself a fighting chance.
The quality of the hotels is excellent although unlike the Caribbean AI does not include the room minibar so keep out of the fridge in the room!
Sharm should be able to give you a good hotel well within your budget and it is also a much shorter flight and not far adrift from our time zone, two big pluses for a weeks holiday.

Thanks for all your advice, we have still not found somewhere to go yet but are looking into a few possibilites.

Has anyone been to Margarita? Did you have a nice time?

hi rob,we went to margarita 2 years ago,never again!stayed in margarita village resort,it was awful,the island was really dirty,and we felt very unsafe.We met a dutch couple who were on honeymoon who had taken there wedding rings off as the night before they had been in a resteraunt and another couple had been robbed at gunpoint.We got ripped off when changing money,they counted the money out then asked to double check it,we then jumped in a taxi as we din't feel safe carrying so much cash & whenwe checked it again realised they had removed all larger value notes,they were so quick we just didn't see them doing it.We did go over to angel falls &that was a great day aswas adays safari.It looked to us as though things were on the up about 5 years ago,new hotels etc.but i think there was some sort of political unrest,&now the hotels are derilect.Have since been to Goa 4 times (love it)Baja California(mexico) is good & are trying Thailand November.Hope this has been of some help.Manxcat

We went to Margarita 2 years ago and had a fantastic time, stayed at the Dunes hotel which I would recommend. Margarita isn't as well developed as places like Mexico but I guess that's reflected in the price you pay to go there. Our hotel was in the middle of no where but had a great beach so ideal if that's all you're after. We did venture out alone in taxis and felt safe but we took precautions like only using the taxi's linked to the hotels and arranging for them to pick us up at certain times etc... We were forewarned not to change money other than at official money exhange places as it's illegal otherwise and we heard of people being short changed and not being able to do a thing about it. It is the kind of place where you need to be a bit careful.

Like the previous poster I would also recommend that you consider Goa. Nice beaches, good prices, great people and very safe - we're going back for the third time in November.

Hi..thanks for your replies..Have decided to do a Greek holiday next June..Of to Santorini..and then Skiathos in the aug..
Happy Hols!!

Hi Tracey,
excellent choice. I love Greece (just back from Crete) and am only in this forum as we've booked Dom Rep for next year. We stayed in Santorini a couple of years ago - but that's another forum

Hi Shirley..thanks..so do we, we just come back from Cyprus..been to Crete twice and a few other places in Greece..Went to dom Rep 3 years ago..we loved it there! so many places to choose from!!!