My husband and I are planning a 4 night vacation in June to the Caribbean. We're a little overwhelmed with all the choices, so I was hoping the Fodorites might give us some advice.
We're looking for an upscale resort, with nice, preferably oceanfront rooms. Relatively easy to get to from DC. My priority is a nice, relaxing beach and good food; my husband's main request is to play golf at least once. We're not averse to an all inclusive, but not bound to it either - I don't think we tend to eat/drink enough to make it necessary, plus this is a babymoon/30th birthday trip, so it'll be more low-key than usual. Besides golf, a good spa would be nice, and possibly kayaking or bike riding, but our main focus is a relaxing beach vacation. Price wise, we're looking for something around $400-500 a night if all inclusive, $350 or so if not. I'd prefer to keep our airfare (for both) around $1500.
We tend to prefer smaller resorts - we did Belize/Guatemala for our honeymoon (Turtle Bay, Blancaneaux Lodge and La Lancha) and loved it; recently tried the El Dorado Maroma in Riviera Maya and thought it was okay size-wise, but the food was a bit lacking.
Thus far, I'm looking at Galley Bay in Antigua, but I don't think Antigua's golf is the best. I looked at Cap Juluca in Anguilla, but it seems a bit hard to get to (both of these have deals on Jetsetter, so they fall in our price range). I'm considering Jamaica - maybe Round Hill - since golf is supposed to be good, but can't seem to pull the trigger.
Any thoughts or suggestions outside of these are welcome - time is flying so I have to make a decision soon!
Caribbean vacation - destination advice?
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Oops, I forgot to add, our preference is adults-only (since this will probably be our last shot at it!), though for the right place, we'd consider family resorts. We're going the end of May/beginning of June, so there shoudln't be that many kids, I would think...
Getting to Anguilla may be a bit of a challenge so I'd save that for a trip when you have more time and you are right golf on Antigua is just OK. Since you only have 4 nights you should confine your search to those destinations you can reach non-stop from the DC area. Keep in mind too, that the further north you stay the shorter your travel time will be.
Check out Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic - it has one of the best golf courses in the Caribbean (some say IT IS THE BEST), it has a very good spa, definitely will meet your definition of upscale and you should be able to get a room price in June that is within your $350/budget. Also, airfares to the Dominican Republic tend to be one fairly reasonable compared to other destinations and it can be reached non-stop in a relatively short flight from most east coast international gateway cities.
Also, you'll find scores of very nice "golf resorts" on Puerto Rico, many of which are also on very nice beaches. Flights to San Juan are often very reasonable but you'll have a "little extra drive time" to reach the resorts as many are and hour or two outside of San Juan.
One other suggestion - look into Bermuda - lots of great golf courses on that island and June is a terrific time to visit. Look at Elbow Beach, The Fairmont Southampton (great golf course right on premises), The Reefs or Cambridge Beaches - all should be in your price range.