My husband and I are teachers and looking for a vacation that will not break the back. I was looking at all inclusives in the Caribbean. We have an eleven year old son and looking to go April 7, 2006. Any recommendations?

I spent Easter week 2005 on St. Thomas with my family, kids the same age as yours and loved it. Easy to get to, not too busy, not too quiet, convenient to shopping & restaurants.

We stayed in a condo on Sapphire Beach. Crystal Cove condos, booked through bestbeach.com is right on the beach. Great location close to St. John ferry. Sapphire has good snorkeling right from the beach. Full kitchen made it cheaper and more convenient than restaurants (including all incl.)

I've posted numerous bits and pieces of reports on the trip if you search back 2-3 weeks under my name.

I, too am a teacher (music), so I know how it is! We go to St.John and rent villas. We go through Privatehomesvi.com and because they have beautiful homes with great kitchens, we bring food in a big cooler and save money by staying in some nights and cooking dinner for ourselves. Everywhere in the carribean will have drastically reduced prices right around the time you are looking at. If you were to book through "private homes" beginning on the 8th of April, you would save alot of money. We have stayed at Tree House, Viewtiful (which is right next door to tree house) and tesseract. Tree House is the cheapest because it does not have a pool...but it is still absolutely beautiful! For the week it would only cost $980 if you began the vacation on August 8th. This is extremely low! The agency is very reliable and professional. Good Luck!

Thanks to all for your reply. We would like to be on the ocean so we can swim and have other activities available for our son.

Have you looked at the Wyndham Sugar Bay in STT? They are an AI with a private beach. They have windsurfing lessons, iguana feeding, pool basketball, a bird show, beach volleyball, Jumbo Jenga, a tug-of-war on the beach, sand sculpting, movies,and a bonfire. And the pool area is very lovely.

We never did an all inclusive until we had kids. When the kids are younger I think the all-inclusives, particularly the family oreiented ones, are great. There's always other kids around, there's supervised activities for the younger kids, there's usually some contests and sports for the older kids, no cash is needed, and best of all, when the kids are hungey, they can always grab a snack or a meal.

Now my kids are now both teenagers, and I am more comfortable with them navigating a resort on their own, and finding ways to entertain themselves. This summer we're doing our frist family carribbean vacation not at an all inclusive (in San Juan). We've been to AIs in Jamaica and Mexico.

We went to Aruba last year (2004) for spring break. We stayed at the Marriott hotel(not all inclusive).Aruba has great restaurants so there is no desire for all inclusive. There were many families there vacationing as well. We traveled with another family. There was a family with older teens and one younger 12year old. The 12 year old went banana boating and tubing with my girls the same age. The pools were really nice. I have never done an all inclusive although it looks so much easier. Friends of mine just went to Beaches in Jamaica and loved it. Her kids are 11 and 13. I have never wanted to go to Jamaica because of stories I heard. But she raved over the resort.