a group of our married friends (late 20s-early 30s no kids) want to take a trip in late august/early sept for under $2000/couple. we're leaning towards ais and looking for a good beach. is this attainable? or should we look at mexico instead?<BR>thanks

would the $2000 include airfare? if so, where are you flying from?

yes it would and we'd be flying from atlanta. i've been looking around on the web and it's not looking too great-the airfare is what's getting me...

You can get a trip for that price range to either Cancun, Mexico or Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.<BR>Both have some of the best beaches in the Caribbean.

I would say that's definitely attainable, especially if you go with a package deal, perhaps Apple Vacations. I noticed that they do fly out of Atlanta. Mexico might be your best bet though. Not only for value but also for the variety of things to do in the area. I'd suggest Playa del Carman - perfect for your age group.<BR><BR>That is, however, hurricane season. You may want to consider Aruba which is out of the hurricane belt. I remember that the Divi and Tamarjin was in that price range. It's an AI but not as nice as the AI's you can get for the same price in Mexico.<BR><BR>Both places have nice beaches.

Flying out of Atlanta you should be able to do that for $2 grand per couple no problem. I'd suggest booking a package deal.. that works out better for us than booking air and hotel separately and usually includes transfers as well. <BR><BR>Funjet and GoGo vacations are two that come to mind immediately. It might be a little bit early to book a great deal for aug/sept. I would wait and keep your eye out on the Sunday travel section each week. You can snag some fantastic deals if you're diligent and study the ads each week. Beware of the fine print, you'll normally need to add close to $100 per person or so to the prices listed to cover taxes, fees, etc. AND you have to be flexible with your dates, often the best deal will be traveling on specific days of the week. And it will vary from company to company. For example we've found traveling on Thursdays is normally the least expensive for American Air Vacations and Tuesday travel seems to be cheapest for Delta Dream Vacations. And Delta is almost always less than American but with American you'll have to connect in Miami whereas Delta has lots of non-stops. If you choose Jamaica I'd recommend AirJamaica Vacations (if you book Delta to MoBay you'll end up flying AirJamaica anyway). <BR><BR>To give you an example of a typical deal, we went to St. John and stayed a week at the Westin last August and only paid $1354 for both of us including air and private ferry transfers and cancellation insurance. <BR><BR>Food is pricey on St. John but if you're careful you can find good prices. Woody's bar-b-q for example. <BR><BR>And you can always go with an All Inclusive to Jamaica. Renaissance Grande or Sandals Inn. You should be able to squeak by with either of those for $2 grand per couple when they go on sale which they do several times per year. Again, watch the Sunday travel section.<BR><BR>Anyway.. good luck, normally around March you start seeing good deals for summer travel.

While xx has a good point about watching the Sunday paper for specials, that may be difficult with a big group of people since the specials are for a couple of weeks away and many have to choose their trip dates in advance due to work, etc. But with Apple, if you book your trip and the price goes down you'll get the reduced rate. Apple Vacations does have a website that lists their specials as well, more than what they list in the Sunday paper. Aug./Sept. is the slow season so you should be able to get a good price.<BR><BR>I'm not praising Apple Vacations. While this and other package providers offer good prices, you do take a chance with being delayed at the airport seeing as they're charter flights. But to me, a slight delay is worth the money you save by getting the package deal.

Mary, I very respectfully disagree with you about the specials in the AJC Sunday paper. In Atlanta Air Jamaica and some of the other large vacation companies offer their specials as far as 5 and 6 months out. I do agree if you're able to wait until just a few weeks before you can often get a rock bottom price but there are also many good discounts out 5 to 6 months ahead. I've found this more and more since 9/11. The companies are offering the specials farther and farther in advance. And clgirls travel dates work perfectly. Aug/Sept are very inexpensive (because as you mentioned it's hurricane season). <BR><BR>btw, I just checked I still had the old email confirmation on our Westin trip. We booked it on March 11 for August 15th travel.

I have an honest question, I am not being snobbish or anything even close to that, but I have to know. How can 2 people go away and spend $2000.00? How can you go away with such a tight budget and where and what do you get for that, with airfare taking up a good portion of the budget? Is that for a week and does it include spending money for food, drinks and things like that? Maybe I spend too much on my vacations, am I doing something wrong??

I stand corrected. Thank you. That's good know when considering future trips. I actually haven't checked out the Apple website in some time.

Carolyn: It sounds like you haven't discovered package deals. <BR><BR>Yes, you can find an all inclusive package for around $1K per person (or non all-inclusive if that's what you like). Of couse the cost varies greatly depending on resort, destination and time of year. And yes, this includes hotel, all food and drinks, airfare, and airport tranfers. <BR><BR>Check with a good travel agent. I know with Apple Vacations at least, you can only book through a travel agent who contracts with Apple and you can't do it yourself via Internet or whatever.

My husband &amp; I had our honeymoon in Aruba in March. We booked through American Airlines vacations (aavacations.com) and it cost a total of $2500, including 6 nights and roundtrip airfare from Arizona. Considering this was prime season, you should be able to get at least the same deal, if not better. I would definitely try them. I don't think they post their vacations out more than 6 months, so keep checking their website. I've used them for several vacations and all have been problem-free.

Carolyn, the way the cheap packages work is this. Airlines and hotels sell seats and blocks of hotel rooms to vacation companies in advance at a discounted rate to generate instant revenue. Then those vacation companies resell them as package deals. They pass those savings on. In addition, you can find even more savings because what the vacation companies do is similar to a &quot;loss leader&quot; in the car sales industry. They purchase an ad in a newspaper and advertise a week vacation for example at the Westin St. John for $649 per person including airfare. That gets people excited and they decide to book it. But what happens is most people call a travel agent and say I want to go to St. John Westin on &quot;x&quot; date and stay &quot;x&quot; number of nights. Then the travel agent comes back with a price of $3,000 per couple. Some people say nevermind and think it was just a scam. But others because they've already gotten excited about the trip go ahead and bite the bullet and book it. <BR><BR>The catch to getting the great deal like the $649 per person price is maximum flexibility. You have to travel within certain time periods and fly on certain days of the week at certain times of the day, etc. But if you research it you can find tremendous savings. A lot of people don't have the time or energy and just pay the $3,000 price and are done with it. And that's how they can afford to actually honor those cheap prices they advertise to those who do the research and track them down. Plus there are normally only a few seats and rooms set aside for those special rates. Those of us who can't afford the $3,000 price tag have to do our homework but the savings are there if you have the time and desire to look for them and act quickly once you find them. Also a travel agent cannot afford to spend that amount of time looking for cheap deals and really has little incentive since they are paid on commision. The more the package costs you, the more they make.

&quot;How can 2 people go away and spend $2000.00? How can you go away with such a tight budget and where and what do you get for that, with airfare taking up a good portion of the budget? &quot;<BR><BR>Packages are one way to do it for sure. But it can be done &quot;ala carte&quot; too. We pay about $350 RT per person for airfare to Jamaica. (we fly from the midwest, Atlanta should be cheaper if you're flexible and can do midweek).<BR><BR>Say we stay on the cliffs of Negril at Blue Cave Castle - $50 a night, so $350. Very nice place, right on the water tho not super fancy.<BR><BR>That's only $1050 so far, leaving us $135 a day for food, drink, fun, traveling around...which is plenty for Negril.<BR><BR>You can spend a lot more and we often do especially with kids we've moved to villas/cottages that are more like $150-200 for 3 bedrooms, but our first trip to Negril was pretty much as I described.<BR><BR>I know people who do it for even less....they're the ones that go for 3 weeks 2-3 times a year!

PS: airfres are high right now. I wouldn't look for late summer fares to drop until early summer (but keep an eye out in the meantime).

I hate to keep babbling on (and sorry about that) but with Apple Vacations, the prices are listed in advance. You can obtain a catalog, for free, from your travel agent - be it for the Caribbean, Mexico, wherever. It lists the prices, for example, January through March, April through August, etc. - you get the picture. These are set prices but if the price happens to go down for the same week you are there, you get a rebate. That price, however, cannot go up. Even if it doesn't go down, you're sure to get a good deal with a package. <BR><BR>My point is, you can book a trip far enough in advance and still get a good deal and if you're lucky, it may even get better.

I try to avoid charters if possible. Plus I don't like that Apple Vacations doesn't allow direct bookings. I have found I get better prices if I book myself instead of using a travel agent. <BR><BR>American Airlines Vacations has some of the best prices I've seen. Air Jamaica is also good though they have the slowest check in people I've seen. Honestly if they moved any slower they'd be going in reverse.

I booked my Anguilla/CJ trip thru Classic Custom Vacations, they offer great deals on first class airfare (40-50% off). I am always very happy with Classic. I have never seen a $2000.00 vacation though. I never book myself(I use a TA) and always use travel packages,such as Classic. I am just amazed that it can be done, really astounded. I think that's great....do you contact a TA or do you do most of the work yourself and tell the TA where you want to go and how much you want to spend?? I'm not being stupid, but do you say I have $2000.00 for 2 people where can you send me? I think I do it the wrong way I say here's where I want to go how much will it cost....

Carolyn, I don't think the way you do it is wrong. If you can afford to tell a travel agent where you want to go and pay the price then that's super. But for those who have to stay within a budget you can still travel. <BR><BR>As for me I'm astounded that anyone would actually pay to fly first class. Even at 40-50% off. I think how many extra trips I get to go on by flying coach! <BR><BR>To each his (or her) own!