jenL Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Next year, dh and I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary, and we've decided to take a trip by ourselves! We've never been to any place tropical, and the options are quite overwhelming. So, that is where the Hive comes in as I know some of you have been to some amazing places. Due to budget constraints, we know we'll have to stick to the Carribean area as the South Pacific, Fiji, or some place like that will be too expensive with airfare and all. Hawaii *may* be a possibility if we can find a good price. We're not sure if we want to cruise as we're not overly fond of crowds, and we've heard some ports may include 3-5 ships stopped at a time. However, we'd like the all-inclusive aspect of a cruise, so we're thinking a resort? We like relaxing on a beach, but we couldn't do this exclusively for 5-7 days. We enjoy hiking and anything having to do with being in nature; we like historical places as well. We're looking for the perfect balance of romance, activity, relaxation, and beauty. Suggestions? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtnTeaching Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 In the past, my dh and I have had the opportunity to go to Hawaii a few times and also to the Carribean. He used to work at company that would send it's top sales people on these great trips. I do miss that very, very much.:sad: Anyway, one the absolute best times we have ever had was on a trip to St. John island. We stayed at the Westin which is on it's very own adorable cove. We had access to jet skis, and water toys. We rented a small motor boat and cruised along the coast of the island, stopping to snorkel or just lay on a secluded beach. We rented a jeep and cruised all over the island of which 60% is a national park. The hiking is awesome and the little town of St. John is a hoot! There is a ferry at least every hour that heads over to St. Thomas (which has an airport). You can head over there to hit the farmer's market or the night life. (My dh and I preferred the quiet, local ambience and exploring St. John to the big city feel of St. Thomas, but it is fun to visit.) Also, St. John is US territory- no need for a passport! I would go back there in a heartbeat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtnTeaching Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I forgot to say that St. John is part of the US Virgin Islands. Fun, fun, fun. If you like exploring nature, playing in the water, feeling like you are a local, and not having to dress up every night. I would highly recommend St. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Costa Rica has the best of both worlds. Jungle expeditions and breathtaking beaches. You want to watch the rainy season, but it's paradise. It's also on the central time zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anita in NC Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Recently I've been researching visiting Belize. It looks great, you can get a direct flight (pretty sure) from Charlotte. There are really nice resorts. You can go snorkeling, cave tubing, zip lining and all kinds of other fun stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 I've received recommendations from friends IRL who have suggested either St. John's, Costa Rica, or Belize! I will look into those... For now, keep the ideas coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylou Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Recently I've been researching visiting Belize. It looks great, you can get a direct flight (pretty sure) from Charlotte. There are really nice resorts. You can go snorkeling, cave tubing, zip lining and all kinds of other fun stuff. I used to live in Belize. That's where I would go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in OH Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Costa Rica has the best of both worlds. Jungle expeditions and breathtaking beaches. You want to watch the rainy season, but it's paradise. It's also on the central time zone. :iagree: We stayed on the Pacific side in the rainforest area. Here's a link to the national park nearby at Manuel Antonio. http://www.manuelantoniopark.com/mapk/default.asp You can hike trails in the park, and you can also hire a guide with a telescope to help you find the wildlife high in the trees. (We saw toucans, sloths, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, and lots more.) We also did a canopy zipline tour--the company picked us up at our hotel and then took us to a location about an hour away for the zipline tour. One day my dh went and did a really neat jet ski/snorkeling tour that he really enjoyed while dd's and I lounged by the pool. Best vacation ever, and the natural beauty was incredible. It's also not spoiled by tourists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestavern Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 DH and I went to St. Lucia as a last hurrah before our firstborn arrived (I was 7 mo pregnant!!) and we loved it. There's hiking; there's a rainforest; there are tons of water sports. We stayed at an all-inclusive and each unit had it's own pool (small, but it was great having our own private pool), as well as many others throughout the resort. We had a wonderful dinner in town as well. There is not much to see in the town itself; there is so much poverty, but the natural spaces you can visit and the activities at the resorts are definitely enough to keep you busy for 7 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meena Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Another vote for Costa Rica! DH and I went there in 2008 and loved it! We visited three areas: Jaco, Arenal Volcano, and San Jose. The country is beautiful and diverse, relaxing and exciting. We are planning on going back and hopefully taking our children with us this time. If you decide to go to CR, let me know--I can give you specifics on where we stayed and places we visited that were big hits. We visited Belize in 2009. We flew into Cancun and took a bus to the border, then crossed the border on foot. That was a small adventure in and of itself. Our visit there wasn't a traditional one, in the sense that we didn't do the tourist sites there. We were there to visit a missionary friend who lived in the countryside (in a primarily Mennonite area). We did go swimming in a river there and visited Mayan ruins. We enjoyed Costa Rica more, but our opinion might have been different had we seen more diverse areas of Belize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugarfoot Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 My DH and I leave Sun. for Grand Cayman to celebrate our 20th anniversary! We've been there once with kids, but this time, it's just us. We're staying at the Ritz-Carlton, right on the beach. It's absolutely gorgeous there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhonda in TX Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I was going to suggest Belize. A friend and her DH went there last summer for their 20th. They had a great time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairytalemama Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I forgot to say that St. John is part of the US Virgin Islands. Fun, fun, fun. If you like exploring nature, playing in the water, feeling like you are a local, and not having to dress up every night. I would highly recommend St. John. I haven't been there, but one of our friends who used to fly for Cape Air has been to all the islands in the Caribbean and opted to get married in St. John because it was his favorite island. I can't think of a more glowing recommendation than that! Just remember to get your passports if you're not going to a U.S. location. My husband and I just went on our first alone vacation and actually just stayed at a very nice QUIET resort --- the golf location (not the beach location) of the Westin in Hollywood, FL. We don't even golf! All we wanted was peace, quiet, a pool, and no kids. We got a great deal on Hotwire and the location was gorgeous and everything we were looking for. Hope your holiday is grand no matter where you choose! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kari C in SC Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I forgot to say that St. John is part of the US Virgin Islands. Fun, fun, fun. If you like exploring nature, playing in the water, feeling like you are a local, and not having to dress up every night. I would highly recommend St. John. :iagree: We have been there twice for our 15th and 16th anniversary. The first time we rented a villa - absolutely beautiful. The second time we did a budget trip and rented a studio. Still great since we didn't spend that much time in the room. We prefer to rent a jeep and explore the 8 mile island on our own. We snorkeled a different beach everyday. We also hiked to the sugar mill ruins. We shopped in town and ate out a couple times. You can take the ferry back to St. Thomas for more commercial things. The water is crystal clear blue with mountains jetting out. We swam with sea turtles, sting rays, and every beautiful fish you can imagine. I love this place. So much that we have just booked a trip to take our two youngest with us. We haven't been in 5 years. After the devastating year we have had, we decided we needed a beautiful and peaceful family vacation. There is a book called St. John Feet, Fin and Four Wheel Drive that gives a ton of good info on the island. Oh and you don't need a passport to go there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kari C in SC Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Recently I've been researching visiting Belize. It looks great, you can get a direct flight (pretty sure) from Charlotte. There are really nice resorts. You can go snorkeling, cave tubing, zip lining and all kinds of other fun stuff. We stopped in Belize on our cruise. We did not like it at all. It was very scary. They advised us not to go beyond the walls for our safety. Of course, my dh had to go out the wall because you know he is a man and all. He said their were people immediately pushing and pulling on him. It was a bit nuts. At one point we walked to some outdoor vendors near the fence. The women were trying to get me to bring my kids to them. They were reaching through the bars - screaming for me to bring them my babies! We shopped for about 2 hours and then went back to the ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kari C in SC Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I haven't been there, but one of our friends who used to fly for Cape Air has been to all the islands in the Caribbean and opted to get married in St. John because it was his favorite island. I can't think of a more glowing recommendation than that! Just remember to get your passports if you're not going to a U.S. location. My husband and I just went on our first alone vacation and actually just stayed at a very nice QUIET resort --- the golf location (not the beach location) of the Westin in Hollywood, FL. We don't even golf! All we wanted was peace, quiet, a pool, and no kids. We got a great deal on Hotwire and the location was gorgeous and everything we were looking for. Hope your holiday is grand no matter where you choose! We flew Cape Air to St. John on our first trip. My husband kept calling it Cape Fear! LOL! It was a little puddle jumper plane with roosters on board! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy in C-ville Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 DH and I went to St. Lucia as a last hurrah before our firstborn arrived (I was 7 mo pregnant!!) and we loved it. There's hiking; there's a rainforest; there are tons of water sports. We stayed at an all-inclusive and each unit had it's own pool (small, but it was great having our own private pool), as well as many others throughout the resort. We had a wonderful dinner in town as well. There is not much to see in the town itself; there is so much poverty, but the natural spaces you can visit and the activities at the resorts are definitely enough to keep you busy for 7 days. We went to St. Lucia several years ago as well and loved it. The resort where we stayed (Rendezvous) has relationships with several other resorts and you can visit them for the day. We took a helicopter from the airport to our resort and the was REALLY neat. We hiked through the rainforest, toured around a shield volcano, and got our scuba certification. I did the basic and did one dive. DH took more classes and got another level of certification and another dive. I chose to read on the beach and get a pedicure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 These are great ideas, ladies! I'm so excited, and I still have a year or so to wait! A friend suggested St. George's Caye in Belize... anyone familiar with that? Another suggestion I received was Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic... thoughts? I looked into St. John, and it seems very expensive. Those of you who have been there, would you agree? Different tripadvisor.com reviews spoke of high taxi fares, how there were only 3 resorts and they nickle and dime you to death, etc. There are SO many wonderful options! I'm a huge researcher, so if you have more ideas, keep them coming... it takes me a while to make a big decision like this. Also, if you recommend a specific resort, I'd love to look into that as well. Thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 My DH and I leave Sun. for Grand Cayman to celebrate our 20th anniversary! We've been there once with kids, but this time, it's just us. We're staying at the Ritz-Carlton, right on the beach. It's absolutely gorgeous there! Happy Anniversary! Enjoy your trip!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawn in OH Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Another vote for Belize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Next year, dh and I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary, and we've decided to take a trip by ourselves! We've never been to any place tropical, and the options are quite overwhelming. So, that is where the Hive comes in as I know some of you have been to some amazing places. Due to budget constraints, we know we'll have to stick to the Carribean area as the South Pacific, Fiji, or some place like that will be too expensive with airfare and all. Hawaii *may* be a possibility if we can find a good price. We're not sure if we want to cruise as we're not overly fond of crowds, and we've heard some ports may include 3-5 ships stopped at a time. However, we'd like the all-inclusive aspect of a cruise, so we're thinking a resort? We like relaxing on a beach, but we couldn't do this exclusively for 5-7 days. We enjoy hiking and anything having to do with being in nature; we like historical places as well. We're looking for the perfect balance of romance, activity, relaxation, and beauty. Suggestions? :) DH and I did a cruise of the Eastern Carib back in January. We had a really nice time. We're not crowd people either, but the ship we were in rarely felt crowded. Maybe just when we were getting off the ship right after coming into port or the day we checked onto the ship. There were so many little places to hang out on the ship where you couldn't be with tons of people. Our favorite was a table near the stern. We had sun and a view of the ocean and were only steps away from coffee or dessert or rolls with smoked salmon from the buffet. We love to snorkle so we signed up for several snorkling trips. These were nice. I wish the weather had been slightly warmer, but we still had a blast. The snorkling wasn't world class, but having lived in Hawaii we're rather hard to impress. Still after two years of my not snorkling, I had a great time. If you're thinking about a cruise, don't miss the forums at Cruise Critic. There are tons of good advice there. We were on Ruby Princess. I would love to do another Princess cruise. In fact I'd almost go right back on the same cruise or a similar on in another corner of the caribean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puma Mom Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 We really enjoyed Belize. We had friends who stopped there on a cruise, and it was as scary as was described above. However the rest of Belize is completely different. We split the week between the beach and the jungle and had a blast. We stayed at Robert's Grove in Placencia on the beach and DuPlooy's Jungle Lodge in the jungle. At the beach, we mostly snorkeled and did a fascinating day trip to the Monkey River. In the jungle, we canoed to San Ignacio, rode horseback, visited Mayan ruins, went to a blue morph butterfly farm, and saw lots of nature. We also enjoyed Cozumel which is less touristy than Cancun but still close enough to do some day trips like the Mayan ruins in Tulum, and Cozumel itself has great snorkeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 If beautiful weather/water/beaches/nature/animas are a large part of what you are aiming for, you might consider the Florida Keys as well. When we went to Cayman Island, it was certainly beautiful, but not more so than the Keys, imo. The Keys are much more similar to the tropical islands than to the rest of Florida. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 If you want to relax and be alone and not feel like you are in a tourist trap try looking at St. Kitts. It is conceivable to have a bit of beach completely to yourself. When dh and I were there we snorkeled and hung out on a beach for 6 hours and never saw another person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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