Hope you find somewhere lovely. Personally as a parent of a 3 1/2 year old I tend to believe that if a hotel offers childrens facilities such as playground, kids club, etc and doesn't specifically say Adults/couples only then children and welcome and can be expected to behave as children.

We are off to the Ocean Sands/Blue, DR in 2 weeks and are very excited

Have you got an idea of which island or region of the Caribbean you fancy ?

The Caribbean has quite a few adults only hotels (like Sandals and Couples), so pretty much all the rest are family friendly.

Barbados is a lovely island and has some great family friendly hotels - Almond Beach Village/Casuarina, Turtle Beach, Crystal Cove etc. Relatively short (8 hour) flight too.

Beaches Resorts in Jamaica are fab, but a bit pricey. Very family friendly though, if you've ever done Sandals, it's Sandals with kids and terrific.

Mexico is that bit further but has some lovely hotels. You can't drink the water though and that can lead to a few stomach troubles as some of it inevitably finds it's way into your mouth.

Ditto the DR, but again has some great hotels such as the Iberostars and Rius, is reasonably priced and very popular on this forum.
BA start flying there in October which will mean more flexibility in duration and might mean the big-boys such as Kuoni start featuring it.

Hi, we went to jamaica in may this year with our 8yr old daughter and she reckons its the best holiday she's ever had !! lovely island, lots of kid friendly excursions, though not sure some of the ones we did would be ok for your 4 yr old !
we stayed at starfish trelawney, which , to be fair, is only a 3 star, but the facilities for kids was fantastic, hence us choosing it ! For example, it has 2 waterslides in 2 of the pools, pool tables in one of the pools, a climbing wall, ice skating rink, trapeze, games room, big telly in the lobby showing disney, popcorn on tap, I could go on !!
If you would like any more info on this place, I'd be happy to help !
good luck,
juby

Ditto to what the others have said. As long as it's got a kids club, you'll be welcome.

We took out 10 month old to DR in April and had a great time and it was great value. We found Antigua and Barbados very clean more built up if you were looking for a more developed island.

Lisa xx

Wow LisaMJ, that is pretty brave taking a 10 month old all that way, well done.
Curious as to whether you all took malaria protection ? The malaria thing has always put me off the DR, particularly with the kids, but I get the impression that if you stay in the resorts it's not necessarily required ?