4-day vaca. to Turks & Caicos or another destination?
 

Message: Hi,
My friend and I are both in our late 20's. We only have 4 vacation days in May and would LOVE to go back to Turks & Caicos (Grace Bay Beach is beautiful), but the airfare is too expensive (don't want to pay $700 pp for airfare just for 4 days).
Can you recommend another vacation spot in the Caribbean or somewhere in Florida?
We are flying out of New York. We are NOT looking to party or do anything wild.
Here is what we are looking for:

1) Snorkeling
2) Beautiful beach with calm waters (would prefer an uncrowded, semi-secluded beach)
3) A few nice restaurants
4) A nice hotel (at least 3-star rating) within walking distance to the beach
5) Airfare from New York to be NO MORE than approx. $500/pp

Thank you for all your help.
Katie

Why don't you go to Don Cesar in St. Pete? You can fly non-stop into Tampa. Although the hotel's rack rates are expensive, I think you would be successful at getting a rate around $100-150/night if you went on priceline.com (read biddingfortravel.com; the hotel FAQ section, and then you can look at the St.Pete/Tampa/Clearwater section of the site for successful bidding strategies for the Don Cesar).

Agree with mah1980 - Don Cesar's is very nice and St Pete's beach is superb - but it's not the islands and doesn't touch Grace Bay Beach for peace and quiet or snorkeling. Try expedia.com and plug in flight & hotel for the St. Petersburg area, (also the Keys), and see what comes up, or go to a travel agent and enquire about Apple vacations to the islands - they have some very good deals.

cheapcarribean.com was offering a 4 or 5 day package to TCI (forgot which hotel, I think it was RWI) for $599 a person with air from most east coast cites.

hi katie, you could look at www.sunburstvacations.com - they are a charter trip company that services nyc. i'd like to suggest the riveria maya. you can leave jfk or newark at 7 or 8 and be in cancun by 12-1. the charter ppl will have you at your resort within 90 mins at most, depending on how for south the resort you pick is. early arrival and late plane home are important for such a short trip. the resorts are mostly really nice and on the beach, the snorkeling good. your whole trip should come in for 2-2500 for 2 ppl, for air,room and food. the charters are all ai.
for more $$ you might look at st. john. has all that you want and not to far to fly for 4 nights. bahamas might be chilly.

I booked my vacation (hotel and air) to T&C in May through aavacations.com and the airfare was around $450pp. There is a significant discount if you book the two as a package.

queenkatez:

I think packages to T&C significantly reduce the price. I second MNag's AAvacations recommendation. I booked a May T & C vacation (Sands) through the website. I think that they may still have avail. at the Sands and Royal West Indies. I believe it's a direct 3 hour flight from NY.

My week long vacation in May, incl. airfare, is $2k for two adults. And that's from New Orleans; it might be even less from NY.

Queenkatez, you should consider a package trip to the Bahamas. It's about the same distance as Provo. Freeport, which was hit by a hurricane in the Fall, is starting to look good again, and the beaches are nice. It's an easy nonstop flight from New York. But it's not really semi-secluded; the beaches can be busy. You might be able to get a decent package to Antigua, which has a lot of different kinds of hotels and enough beaches so that it's easy to find a secluded one.

Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all your suggestions. I will try and see if I can book a hotel/air package to T&C through AAvacations.com

Thanks!

I think you have chosen a great time frame to travel to the islands. Rates generally drop and weather is good. If you hunt around for a package deal I think you can do well for TCI. I would keep trying and I feel positive you can do it. You might also try Aruba although generally on the $$$ side it might be o.k. I think it is 4.5 hours from NY. Let us know.

Hi Diann,
Thanks for your advice. I will continue to shop around for a hotel/airfare package to T&C. I priced out the 3-night vacation via AAvacations.com. It came out to a little over $1660. I wonder if that price will drop, or if it will only increase. I don't really have too much time left (about a month before my trip). Guess I should finalize my trip soon.

Thanks,
Katie

Again, CheapCaribbean.com is offering a 5-night package at Ocean Club for $689 p/p with air from NY. Probably can back out the additional nights. Not sure if you need a Saturday night stay anymore to make airfare cheeper (seem to remember that this rule may have recently been nixed); but that might be making your airfare price higher, if you are going mid-week?

Hi,
If we go to T&C, we'll definitely want to stay at The Sands.

Thanks,
Katie

Thanks to everyone for their advice.
I've booked my trip to Turks and Caicos via aa.com
Was able to get a reasonable price for airfare from NY.

Thanks again,
Katie