hi bon, if you want to stay on st. thomas take a look at www.secretharbourvi.com. its a wonderful mid-sized condo style resort. near grocery, has good restaurant, fun beach bar, excellent beach with good snorkeling right there. quiet location (very quiet compared to most of island)great safe atmosphere that will make your family comfortable. the units are quite large and each has full kitchen. all come with deck or patio. beachfront is nice but the buildings behind are cheaper and only a 2 min walk to sand.
you would be close to red hook where you could take the ferry to st. john for day trips. also near coki world - a very cool marine park and coki beach with more good snorkeling. shopping available in charlotte amalie if anyone wishes. if you stay on st. thomas or st.john you must take the www.newhorizonscharters.com excursion. very fast boat takes you to the baths on virgin gorda, then for a yummy lunch on tiny marina cay at pussers, next snorkeling at guana island and finally to the soggy dollar bar which you will swim into ( beach has couple t-shirts and ice cream too).

Thanks JimC and Virginia for the good ideas, We rented homes on the Big Island for our last vacation and it worked out really well for us. I'd like to try it again.

hi again, i love to stay in villas so i understand your choice. i don't know the name of the house but on the east end of secret harbour beach is a rental. so you could have the house and still walk over and use the restaurant/bar, etc of the resort. the house has a small portion of beach which is separated from the rest by a short wall. surely a rental agent from st.t will know of this villa.
and of course st.john is mostly villas so you might want to stay there and take the ferry to st.t if you wanted of day of busyness. that bvi power boat trip will pick you up on st.john too. agree w/jimc about having air in the bdrms, which are often in the back of the house away from tradewind breezes.

i live in arizona where it's over 110 this month. stj was refreshing in june! :) enjoy your trip to the caribbean.

bon,
If you pick an island with tradewinds...it should not be too hot.Maybe Aruba.

We enjoyed Grand Cayman in May.Not sure about the weather in June or July but it was not as hot and humid as other places that we have visited.

Christie

jackiehammond,
My family is planning to move to Arizona..near Phoenix.What town/city do you live in? (if you do not mind me asking)

We now live in NC and we are tired of the wicked humidity.My husband got a great job offer and we are excited about the move.He is going to go ahead of me and the kids and start working and to see if we truely want to live there.

I feel that we will love it as we do not like Winter.

Christie

bon,
Grand Cayman is a great place to go for things to do with the kids.There are some unspoiled spots to explore and the snorkeling is great and diving is known to be the best in the Caribbean.(I also think that for snorkeling...so far)

We rented a condo on the beach which saved alot of money and it was great to have a pool and snorkeling right in front of you.

If interested...we stayed at www.discoverypointclub.com

It is on the quietier part of 7 Mile Beach AKA West Bay.


Christie

Christie: Well you won't get much humidity there. :S-. Best of luck. Its hot but I think you get used to it. I worked with a gal whose family moved to Saudi Arabia for a few yrs. and after some time she mentioned that when the temp was in the 80's she wore a sweater. :-)

Hi everyone, sorry about not posting for so long, I had a thesis to finish.
Virginia, I checked out that vills you mentioned, it looks beautiful.
Christie, we are from northeast so we get humidity in July/August, but nothing like the south/southwest. When the temps here go over 90 for two days they call it a major heat wave.
The Caymans sound good too, there are just too many islands to choose from.
the only island in the carribean that we won't go to again is Jamaica. The only way to have a good time there is to stay in an all-inclusive resort because some of the locals are very aggressive with tourists. We like quiet, not busy, places, and like getting to know the people who live where we vacation.

Jacketwatch,
Well..my husband just got back from Arizona and did not like it there.So we will be staying in this area.I guess that there is "No place like home!" ;)

Christie

Christie: Was it the weather or other things that he didn't like? Actually I once heard of a study that showed a large majority of people end of permanently residing w/i 100 miles (I think) of where they were born. Interesting I think. Cheers. Larry :-)

Caribbean for the next summer is a good idea. Don´t forget that usually the weather here is around the 80F and 90F with a high humidity. That´s why a beach property should be your choice. Summer is a great time to travel to Puerto Rico you can choose from the different hotels around the island that are ocean front properties or even better preffer to go to Vieques or Culebra Island. Try visiting: www.gotopuertorico.com and you will find all the information that you might need for your family travel.