travelinallie

We are in our mid-late thirties are likely leaving kids behind to travel with another couple, from Boston in February for 5 days. We have been to Aruba twice and Turks and Caicos before. Liked them both for different reasons but wanted to research other islands. We like some activity, good food, nice places to stay and of course a beach to day dream about as we shovel snow. I've been reading a bit about 7 mile beach/Grand Cayman, Barbados, Tortola, St. John, and could easily go back to Turks and Caicos again! Thanks for the help.

xkenx

T&C could be dicey for weather and water temperatures in Feb.
Barbados as varied as an island could be, and guaranteed summer in Feb. Best beaches on St.John.

GeorgeR

Seven Mile Beach/ Grand Cayman would be a good choice. If you and the other couple want to share a 2 bedroom condo, you can stay at a very reasonable rate. Also, most condos on the beach are relatively uncrowded.
The restaurants on Grand Cayman are very good.

qwovadis

maho.org spg.com the Westin St John my fav

deals for me from $80 in the past bidding priceline

Great vibe connections good from BOS in Feb spirit.com

first class for price of coach via FLL.

Hard Rock or Excellence puntacana.com

rockhousehotel.com Jamaica or Couples Swept Away Negril.

roundhill.com luxurylink.com good deals.

Happy Hunting,

Caribzack

T & C in Feb is warm ...we have been many times that time of year..hot while at the beach and the water is warm enough to swim. LOVE that time of year, X-mas rush is over!
Check out deals at The Somerset ...for a 2 bedroom condo.

SandosSandles

Have you considered going on a cruise. I have been on two carnival cruises, and stopped at a lot of the places you are looking at.
We went on Carnival Victory last winter and went to St Thomas, Barbados, St Martin, St Lucia and St Kitts. This was a fabulous cruise. We met some really fun people and had a blast. If you register on www.cruisecritic.com you can meet other people on your cruise and make some vacation buddies.
In the spring we did another cruise as carnival was having a great sale and since our last cruise was so fun, we couldn't pass it up. This time we went on the Carnival Legends and went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Belize and Roatan. Again, so much fun. Definitely register for the roll calls on cruise critic,though. i think it made a big difference, it was like we were meeting old friends onboard. We pre-arranged our shore tours before we went on the cruises. The ships tours were more expensive than tours i booked myself. I think that is why they put their cruises on sale, just to get you to take the vacation, then they over charge for the other stuff to balance it out. We wound up booking almost every tour with http://caribbeanshoretours.com/. We used them for our first cruise and only had to book St kitts separatelly. Since the first cruise worked out so great, we used the same company again for our spring cruise and were able to book every port with them. If you like to snorkel, don't miss the stingrays in Grand Cayman. they looks a bit scarey, but it is a lot of fun!

KVR

If you liked Aruba and T & C, than Grand Cayman is what you are looking for. GC has a fab beach and less touristy than Aruba, but a little more than T & C. Make sure you chose accomendations on 7 Mile Beach. Excellant snorkeling and one of the main attractions is swimming with the sting rays.

The only problem with a cruise is the amount of beach/port time you get. If your wanting a true beach vacation, not really doable.

sharona

Well, with only 5 days you need an easily accessible island. Unfortunately, non-stops to the Caribbean out of Boston are few and far between. And then throw in the fact that you want to travel in February. I hope you are avoiding February vacation week when all of Massachusetts can be found on some sunny beach in the Caribbean.

I've been to all of the islands you mention and all of them offer what you say you are looking for: some activity, good food, nice places to stay and wonderful beaches. I think first of all you need to look at what flights might be available for your time frame and then go from there. I know it probably seems you are starting your planning early but, not knowing your dates of travel I plugged in some random dates in February and the flight choices are very poor for some popular destinations (Barbados, Aruba, St. Thomas, St. Martin): 14-26 hours traveling time, many with overnight stays! Clearly many flights, especially those leaving in the early morning, are already sold out. We have some friends who a few years ago finally gave up trying to vacation in the Caribbean and went to Costa Rica. Another went to Bonaire as that was the only reasonable flight they could find. Both of these sets of friends were traveling over February vacation, however, so if you can avoid that week you can increase your odds of finding flights.

I would suggest that if you can't find flights that you look into the charter trips offered through TNT or GWV but I'm pretty sure those are week-long trips, usually Saturday to Saturday.

So my suggestion is to go to kayak.com and plug in your dates and start putting in different islands to see what flights are available. Then when you find acceptable flights come back here and we'll try to help with accommodations, restaurants, etc. Good luck!

jayce

Have you considered Anguilla?

travelinallie

KVR your feedback on GC as it relates to Aruba and t and C were extemely helpful. I hadn't considered Anguilla Jayce, there are almost TOO many choices!

Thank you for your help everyone, looks like I better look at flights more realistically!