Hi All,

My wife and I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Now that our youngest is over 2, he is no longer free to travel and as you can imagine, 4 tickets for an all inclusive vacation can be pretty expensive for a decent resort. We just love all-inclusive vacations and used to go on 2 a year before we had kids and even found it manageable with our first child. But $4,500+ for 1 week in paradise is now looking a little prohibitive.

We're wondering if anyone has any hidden gem resorts that they enjoyed at a more reasonable price, we are open to all ideas! We're not picky about which island we travel too as long as it is clean, safe and fun. In the past we have gone to Playa del Carmen and have loved everything about it. I have looked into some resorts where kids stay free under 11 years old but haven't found one worthwhile yet.

Lately I have also been looking into other options like going to Florida but once we add up renting a decent place with a kitchen, car rental, meals etc it gets pretty expensive as well.

I've always gotten great advise on this forum so any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Look at The Buccaneer Resort on St Croix. Our family loved it. It is not A-I, but includes a fabulous hot/cold breakfast buffet in a gorgeous open-air dining room overlooking the property. They loan their canoes and snorkel gear for free. It's a lovely, family-owned resort with lots of history. Its small-ish and charming. It has waterside cafe and grill, as well as the main restaurant in the big house.
https://www.thebuccaneer.com/about/

How about an airbnb and cooking some meals at home? I don't know where you liv, but Norwegian Air has some very cheap flights to Martinique. Our son's family of three spent the last two winter vacations in Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman. This year, they took advantage of Norwegian, approx. $200 RT from JFK (and they may have other locations), got an airbnb a short walk to a great safe beach. They bought pizza (good pizza) and ice cream out, but cooked most of their other meals. They just returned from a great and inexpensive vacation.

I've been extolling the virtues of the French caribbean for years, Martinique and Guadeloupe are beautiful islands and some French people like to vacation in a modest way, using AirBnb or as they do in France, https://www.gites-de-france.com/en there is alot of inexpensive accommodation. The French supermarkets are great, croissants etc for breakfast from local bakeries, pizzas and food from lolos if you don't feel like cooking.
Grand Case in St Martin is another great destination but I am unsure of how it is faring after the hurricane, as it was badly impacted. There are or were lots of apartments for rent on Grand Case beach and walking distance to many restaurants and lolos, supermarkets, bakeries and pharmacies.