born2explore

Hubby and I have invited our children for a one week vacation to celebrate our 40th anniversary (December 29th) not considering that this is the busiest and most expensive time of the year. Hubby likes an AI and thinks prices will come down if we wait until October or November to book.
I hate waiting around and am trying to decide between 3 places:
a rental house on St Lucia (Marigot Bay), close to the beach, ferry ride to get there, with pool and all kinds of nice amenities.
I also found a house on Roatan - beautiful, with pool, but it does take a car to go everywhere.
Little Cayman sounds fantastic, on the beach, all food, bikes cayaks included. Needless to say, it is the most expensive.
How do we decide? I need all you experts to help out.
We are a family of 6 adults, love to snorkel, explore, hike, interested in birds and plants. We do not mind cooking, so a house might be fine, but have never done it. We have been to Mexico - both coasts, Curacao, Jamaica and do not like to go back to the same places.
Any thoughts and advice will be greatly appreciated

StanKase

Little Cayman limits 90% of hiking and flora opportunities though it is almost as good as Roatan for snorkeling except in roatan off the beach snorkeling is at the best spots only fair while at Little Cayman it is fairly good. St lucia snorkeling from the beach I have read is almost a zero but the hiking and flora opportunities abound as well as birding. Roatan has some hiking opportunities and a bit of flora but not it's strong point by far.
If you are willing to go on snorkel tours and sails and snorkeling is quite high on your list I would say go to roatan. I have been to anthony's Key Resort offers snorkeling to it's guests twice a day for 90 minutes and takes non-guests as well. i guess they charge $40/person max because it is short. but each day they go to different spots so 2 or 3 opportunities might fit the bill. but, I must tell you on Roatan as you drive around you will pass villages that are very poor though not frighting by any means. That does not exist on Little Cayman partly because there are not many people. I would guess you would not find very much of that in St. Lucia.from natural beauty Little cayman are not anywhere on the chart compared to St. lucia but you probably know that already. I would guess the cost of eating out would be double in st. Lucia vs, Little cayman (very..very few choices. hope some of the above helps.

roatanvortex

If your looking for a place to go that you can enjoy snorkeling, beaches, and lots of options for dining and adventures. I suggest Roatan. I don't know what part of the Island the house you found for rent is on. But it is a fairly short taxi ride to most areas. There are also always places available close to or right on the beach. Sundancer Cabanas in Sandy Bay is a good example (beach, dock and pool) http://roatanvortex.com/2010/02/26/i...hem-seahorses/ this is one of the many stories about day-to-day life on Roatan at http://roatanvortex.com

West End is the area you will find a lot of the restaurants and nightlife (very laid back.) West Bay is on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, lots of options there too.

There is a large expat community on Roatan and visitors can experience the feel of living here even if you are only staying for one week.

born2explore

Thank you StanKase and Roatanvortex. I appreciate all information. One concern I have about Roatan: how is the weather end of December? I am just worried that we might run into rainy, cold days and be stuck at the house. Aside from that, Roatan sounds great and would be the most reasonably priced. St Lucia seems to have most of what we love, so I guess we will have to do more negotiating in regards to AI.

StanKase

You do not have to orry about cold weather though the water temperature will be 4-6 degrees lower than in August, The rainy season is tailing off but anywhere in Central Ameruica a daily shower or two for 30 minutes is to be expected. But many are in the evening or lare afternoon. The deal time to visit Roatan is Feb.-April but that is not your schedule. Go for it. If you stay for 7 days you should have 5 good days or more.

progress

St. Lucia is wonderful anytime through out the year. Never a dull momment. The island is true paradise the islanders are very friendly checkout serenitytvl.com for more info. They are a local tour operatour on the island. Hope you choose St. Lucia.

Knowing

You have a choice here. We have been in St Lucia 12/26 through the first week of Jan. Not only is the snorkeling not good, neither was the weather. It rained - a lot - when we were there. We have friends that go there every year to spend New Year's Eve and they said it was like that every year. So, it would not be somewhere I would choose.

dominick2

I disagree with Knowing. I've spent the last 10 Christmases and New Years in St. Lucia and, for the most part, we've had beautiful weather -- occasional rain, but nothing out of the ordinary. There is generally more rain in St. Lucia than in a place like Aruba, but December-January is not considered the rainy season. The water at some of the beaches has been kind of rough (especially this past year) but that is not uncommon for any north-facing Caribbean beach during the winter months.