<p>:D Last week I booked a June trip for H and myself to Grand Cayman! :D</p>
<p>(please, no woulda-coulda-shoulda’s for me) - We’re so excited! First real vacation away since 1988 - and we’ll celebrate our 25th anniversary!!</p>
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<p>Fun! Be sure to swim with the stingrays.</p>
<p>Justamom: We just celebrated 25 this past November! Went on a major cruise toward Aruba, Curacao…excellent. SO relaxing.</p>
<p>You’re gonna LOVE Grand Cayman…gorgeous! Toledo: good suggestion. We also swam with the stingrays…actually you kinda stand there in the water and the stingrays swish between your legs…they are slimy! We did that a few months before Steve Irwin died from getting pierced by one…oy, just be careful. Swimming with the stingrays is quite popular in Grand Cayman and usually not very dangerous.</p>
<p>7 Mile Beach in Cayman is one of the top Beaches in the world. Wait till you see it, just breathtaking, like a postcard.</p>
<p>Kathiep: Great minds think alike! :D</p>
<p>Yes - My inlaws took the family on a cruise in 2004, we stopped in Cayman then and spent a day on seven mile beach. Absolutely Beautiful - the day we spend there was probably the best of the cruise. This trip, we are choosing to stay way over on the east end of the island, away from the crowds. If we get lonely for Seven Mile we can drive over and spend a day. Can’t Wait!!</p>
<p>The best part? Supposedly, there’s a dunkin donuts across the street from our hotel…ahhhhhh…we’re easily amused…</p>
<p>Looks pretty quiet at the moment!</p>
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<p>Great site, Marilyn! Thanks!</p>
<p>We just got back two days ago from Rincon, PR. It was a fabulous time! Two of our three kids had spring breaks that lined up so we decided pretty last minute to go. My H and S love to surf and Rincon is a great surfing destination. I found a really comfortable condo on the beach (Corsega) which had great swimming and sunsets and the really good surfing was a short drive away. We rented paddle boards too. There are a number of adventures nearby but we decided to just enjoy the surfing and waters sports b/c we only had five days. We had great dinners out and enjoyed having the ability to grocery shop and have breakfast, lunch and happy hour snacks/drinks at our place. I used Vacation Rental by Owner.</p>
<p>Hi everyone … I just took a quick vacation so have been offline for a few days. On my December vacation planning, I think we are leaning towards Puerto Rico, but if the costs add up too quickly we may do a Cozumel or Cancun. I really want to go to Cuba, but can’t convince my H to drive to Montreal and then go to Cuba. </p>
<p>I can’t book plane tickets for a while, so I won’t lock and load until I can compare costs. With two in college we’re watching the cash flow until they at least have their bachelor’s degrees in hand. </p>
<p>p.s. I’m in SC right now visiting family … golf was tough but I did get some nice sun out of the deal.</p>
<p>Thanks for so many vacation suggestions. I’m now comparing flights and costs because I can see prices now. Costa Rica, Cuba or Jamaica? The last one has the cheapest flights fro starters.</p>
<p>I need to do more research on costs, safety/security, music venues and access to quiet beaches. I</p>
<p>Snowflake! You’re back! yay!</p>
<p>Why Cuba? I have done extensive traveling and that has never been on my radar. With a dictator in power there for soooo many years, the place is probably very primitive. Just speculating, don’t really know (or care to know).</p>
<p>Puerto Rico, Jamaica, sound great! Did you guys rule out a cruise? The Bahamas are wonderful…they do have flights directly to San Juan these days…</p>
<p>CCC, Cuba because of the music and because it is old school. I still need to check out lodging and beach access, but the college-age kids in my house rank that the highest.</p>
<p>We did rule out a cruise, only because we just want to plop in one place on this break. The kids want to be able to go to the beach during the day and clubs w/ music at night. The H and I like the beach, but also like to hike, golf, shop, eat, and explore. We want the kids to be able to do stuff w/ or w/o us. </p>
<p>My pilot friend said he recommends Costa Rica or Jamaica over PR … his reason was that in PR they are not as friendly and welcoming … kind of like, ya, thanks for your money, now go. Did you sense that?</p>
<p>p.s. After a few sunny hours here in the Northeast, I am so ready for sun! My S graduates from HS this year so we are doing a last minute push on house projects before the relatives show up to celebrate in 2 months. We had a family meeting (kind of) and decided that we will travel after New Years since both kids have finals right up until Dec. 22nd and they want to celebrate New Years here in VT. Sun Sun Sun here I come in January!</p>
<p>Snowflake - I will ask my colleagues about hotels in Cuba.</p>
<p>Was in Puerto Rico in October. Admittedly it was a work visit so didn’t get to do all of the touristy things. But did some. But reminds me of Mexico. The homes were surrounded by fences with barbed wire and were run down. There was a lot of liter and police patrolled at night with their lights flashing. But the weather was beautiful, the water gorgeous and the resort beach clean and nice.</p>
<p>I’d go back I suppose. We did just go to Key West a few weeks ago. (Only 90 miles from Cuba. They said on our jetski trip that we were closer to Castro than a Walmart. Haha). Also beautiful weather and water. Not a lot of great beaches. Great sailing, snorkeling and jet skiing. But if you want to hang on a beach with big waves, probably not the place to go.</p>
<p>We have not been to Cuba or Jamaica or Costa Rica, so cannot comment on those except that I’ve heard that Costa Rica has many problems with robbers and pickpockets. Heard that they actually have held up passengers leaving the cruise port during their one day stay there.</p>
<p>We have not gone on many vacations where you just “sit” at an all-inclusive resort, so I really can’t help there either. We had an awesome time in Puerto Rico. We found the people there to be warm and inviting. We’ll actually be there again at the end of June as part of a six stop cruise.</p>
<p>Sounds like you are doing all the right things by doing homework on what interests you & your family. Good luck making a decision! Let us know where you’ll end up! Good idea about going after New Years. The crowds should hopefully be a bit less by then.</p>
<p>Can I tag along on this thread? We want to go somewhere over Christmas vacation (which starts Dec 22nd for us). We were first thinking about doing a cruise but having a very hard time finding one that works over our break days and has an itinerary that doesn’t go to Mexico. We have been to Mexico enough and have no desire to go back. So, what about an all inclusive somewhere? Puerto Rico is out as the kids are going there next spring with school. Grand Caymen sounds interesting. I know DD will like it but what about teenage/young 20’s boys? Is there stuff to do to keep them busy?</p>
<p>Open to any and all suggestions pretty much anywhere in the world. We would like to keep the budget around $1000/person-is that realistic?, give or take, but for the right place, more is ok.</p>
<p>Also, if anyone has any good travel sites to search for vacations I would be interested in those too. I have been looking at Travelocity and Expedia but find their search engines a bit clunky for vacation packages.</p>
<p>SteveMA … Costa Rica was also recommended to me. I remember you are a golfer from another post … do you plan to golf or more beach/explore/shop?</p>
<p>We took a delightful trip to Aruba a few years ago. Had a lovely time. I’ll dig out details if you need it.</p>
<p>Golf is always good, beach, explore, shop are also just fine. Our one son isn’t much of a golfer though so when we go on family trips we try to limit how much golf we do, if at all. He will play sometimes but I don’t want to spend $400/green fees for him either.</p>