all inclusive family resort, help please!
 

hello,

to celebrate our parents 40th anniversary, our family is planning a vacation together. we have some specifics wants/needs/likes/dislikes, but are completely clueless as to specifics.

if anyone is familiar with hawaii, what we'd like is Kona Village Resort without the cross country flight!

ok, here are our stats:

my parents, in their early 60's
my sister and her husband (mid-30's) and their twins who will be 3.5 at the time
me and my husband (also 30's) and our dd who will also be 3.5 (maybe a new baby for us, if we're lucky!)
my younger sister and her husband, late 20's.

we do not want jamaica

we do want all inclusive, fairly high end, but not exorbitant. we don't rough it in our family, let's put it that way.

we need a direct flight from the NYC area

we like good food

child care/kiddy camp is a HUGE plus

any help, whether its a specific resort, an island, or another website is much appreciated.

thanks!

Try Beaches in Turks & Caicos super resort.

kimberley, i requested their catalog, but then read all sorts of non-complimentary things about them here on this forum.

any other ideas,anyone?

Hi ediegirl,
Have you checked out www.windjammer-landing.com/ in St. Lucia. We are heading there in two weeks, it has had great reviews and seems to offer everything on your wish list.

We have alot of Sandals & Beaches bashers on this sight. Beaches Turks is a super resort, the beach is wonderful and to bad you wont give it a chance because of the bad rap it gets on this board.

If you're not dead set on an island, check out the area south of Cancun called the Mayan Riviera. Some specific resorts that have gotten mostly good reviews would be Palladium and Barcelo Maya.

There are great beaches, it is a mostly AI area, so there is a lot of competition to keep prices reasonable and quality high, and a lot of things to do in the area.

Its the only area that we do all inclusive, so its all I would have to recommend. We've been to Barcelo Maya twice and are returing this November. For detailing info about that resort, check out the www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.com website.

For information on the area in general, you can look at www.playadelcarmeninfo.com

The area I'm referring to is about 30 minutes south of Cancun and a wonderful family resort location.

Congratulations to your parents on their anniversary.

Ken

I agree with Mayan Riviera. Many awesome resorts. We also stayed at Barcelo Maya 2 years ago. Great beach.

One of my travel agent's recommendations has been Paradisus Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic if that is of any interest to you.
If no children were going then Galley Bay in Antigua might have been ideal.

thanks everyone! i found a good site called www.resortvacationstogo.com that allows you to search based on various qualifications, so ended up w/a decent list of AI's with kid clubs.

kimberly....thanks for giving it the old college try on beaches, but i've rarely been steered wrong by fodorites in three years planning a trip to ireland, a new england cruise, an anniv. weekend for dh and myself to NYC.

Lots of resorts say they have kids clubs, but many of these programs are pretty lame. Do your research before booking.

Beaches is overpriced and not for everyone, but it's hard to beat in terms of organized programs for kids. The beach in Provo is terrific.

From what I've heard about the Riviera Maya it sounds like a good possibility for you (we're heading there in Feb.). I know there are AI's there that are popular with families but I'm not sure which ones are best. Punta Cana has similar attributes but based on all I've read I would lean toward Mexico.

thanks cdt. we are not looking to dump the kids all day in the kids club, actually there are two main reasons behind wanting a kids club: we want to be sure kids are welcome and won't be the only ones there with kids.

AND we want to vet some of the kids clubs employees to use as sitters at night after dinner, during dinner, that kind of thing.

or to have an extra set of hands along with us moms during the day when the dads are golfing or whatever. or vice versa!

Since you mentioned golfing.....one of our favorite resorts is the Bucaneer on St. Croix, but there have been some mixed reviews lately on the quality of its kids' program. Might be worth a look.

The golf course on Provo is about 6 miles from Beaches.

Both Marriott and Hyatt have good kids programs and most have evening programs so the parents can go out to dinner. Took our kids to Puerto Rico when my son was five, and his favorite part of the trip was Camp Hyatt in the evening. If you decide not to go AI, both Marriott and Hyatt have great condo resorts which is really helpful with families (2 br/2 bath/kitchen) and to me is worth giving up the AI option, but that's just my opinion.

eileen, i can see where the condo thing is convenient, but to be honest, my sister and i, as at home moms of these toddlers, spend the majority of our lives as chief cook/bottle washer...LITERALLY! so we just relish a week where meals appear on the table, clean dishes are magically there for the next meal and the beds get made by helpful fairies.

thanks again to all who replied!

Try Ixstapa, Mexico
it is a great and safe place to bring children and experiece Mexico Bravaro is a great resort there. But most are.

I could also recommend the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. We've stayed twice at the Gala Beach Resort Playacar. It has a great Kid's Club - open 10:00 - 11:00 pm - tons of activities both inside and out. Our daughter loved it. We've tried many resorts throughout the Caribbean (including Beaches) and this has the best kids program. As well, the beach is beautiful and the location is great - close to town and many attractions if you get tired of the all-inclusive thing.