Best Bang for the buck
 

Hello -I am looking at planning a trip mid August & am looking at 7 - 10 days. We are a family of 5 - active & outdoorsy. The kids are 17 (boy), 16 (girl), and 14 (boy). I’m spinning in circles trying to come up with a destination - we live in PA and end up in the keys (marathon, islamorada) a lot for vacation. Does anyone have suggestions for a destination in the 5 - 7k range? I’m also willing to consider any non -Caribbean locations that would be on you list if recommendations.

These are things we like/do on vacation
1- eat - we like seafood a lot and are happy to eat fresh fish as much as possible - even every night and enjoy little shacks with frozen drinks & steamers, blackened grouper sandwiches etc. as well as upscale creative restaurants
2​​​​​​- we always try to do some fishing - but this is not mandatory if it’s not something common where we go
3- easy/close access to beach .
4- access to some fun Watersport activities for the kids (jet ski rental, boat tour, ziplining etc)
5. and most important is safety. We plan to supervise the kids as we always do & use situation specific parental judgment , but I don’t want to want to have to worry if my daughter is out of my sight or my 17 year old son wants to go for a run alone. If I’m worrying, I’ll end up driving them crazy the whole time which will make for a less fun time.

any insights anyone has would be awesome.

THANK YOU!!!

I'd suggest looking at the Caribbean coast of Mexico (aka "Mayan Riviera") - you'd fly into Cancun then can go on to Playa del Carmen, Akumal, Tulum, etc.). Pretty sure generally speaking you will get more "bang for your buck" in Mexico than the various Caribbean islands.

I'm confused about the "non-Caribbean" qualifier. Is that because of concern about hurricane season?

Last year I spend a week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in Hatteras and Manteo. There was plenty to do. Of course August is also hurricane season but I wasn't affected. I flew into Raleigh Durham but there are closer airports.

Hello,
No, just mean if someone knows of an awesome beach destination outside of the Caribbean I’d like to hear about that too. Thanks for the info NC too :)

By the way, on that trip, I met up with friends from Pennsylvania. They drove down.

In Hatteras, we all stayed at the Breakwater Inn, there are two classes of rooms, but only one room type in the Fishermnan's quarters can accommodate 5 people. You'd want to lock down accommodation pretty quickly for August.

Puerto Rico matches up pretty well with your list of things you like to do on vacation.

Be careful with Cancun/Playa del Carmen The Mexican Peso pretty strong right now, and August is still sargassum season.

I would worry more about a hurricane on that side of Mexico, more scary than too much seaweed on the beach... in August that is.

While anywhere in the Gulf and Carribbean and Atlantic coasts are at small risk for hurricanes during hurricane season, it's quite unlikely that one will hit during the time you are vacationing there. Cancun,for example, has been hit by two hurricanes in the last 30 years so, while there is a risk, it's very slight. The sargussum, on the other hand, is more of a risk of actually occurring.

I would worry much less about a hurricane in August on the Costa Maya than the sargassum ruining beach activities. Hurricanes are not so "scary" if you follow the weather forecasts. They typically don't blow up out of nowhere by the time they reach the Costa Maya. Other parts of the Caribbean, Florida, Gulf Coast and the OBX are at higher risk. Such things are less scary to me than tornadoes, LOL.. Not much warning with those.

Said as someone who grew up in hurricane country.

I was curious about the last two hurricanes to hit Cancun and Dr Google says

"The last two hurricanes to hit Cancun were Hurricane Gilbert on September 5, 1988, and Hurricane Wilma on October 21, 2005. October is the peak month for hurricanes, so if you are nervous about the small risk, consider an August or November vacation."

I remember Gilbert as a good friend was home in Jamaica when that one hit.