Hi everyone. We want to go to the Caribbean this New Year but the fares are incredibly high. I checked the fares from NY- Grand Cayman and St. Thomas and they are about $700-800pp. For those of you who's been to the Caribbean during the Holidays, is this the norm? Should I wait to book it till Nov. to take advantage of last minute specials? I'm thinking of trying Priceline but I'm a little nervous. We don't even care where in the Caribbean we go as long as we escape the Winter here. Thanks for any advice you can give.

You may find cheaper fares, but Christmas - New Years is a very popular time and hotels get booked up fast.<BR>

Tina, as you've discovered, the Christmas/New Year's season is the absolute highest of the entire year no matter where you go...it's also the busiest and most quickly booked because people CAN get away on vacation with their families (no school). I don't know what the fares are from your destination but I can give a bit of advice. First, unless we have an incident like Sept. 11 or a Stock market meltdown of enormous proportions, there will be extremely few last minute specials because most people are currently booking or have already booked. Where I'm from, Christmas is starting to book in Feb./March and is usually fully booked before the fall. Last week when I checked, there were only 6 seats left with a charter company for Christmas week. There were a few more seats available for those leaving just after Christmas. If you want to ensure that you're going somewhere, I would book very soon. From my location, the two most reasonable Caribbean locations are the Dominican Republic (I like Punta Cana if you want to see astonishingly beautiful beaches), or the Mayan Riviera/Cancun area. From your location, that might not be the best for price. Also, if you want to know ahead of time what your vacation will cost, you might want to try an all-inclusive resort. We have found that doing airfare and accommodation and food separately all adds up to a much great overall vacation price. Anyway, good luck and maybe you'll get a few more replies with information specific to your location.

We booked our airfare from Philly to Grand Cayman as soon as it opened up. Direct flight 12/25-01/02 is costing over $900 per person(USair). Friends were able to adjust their dates to get approx.$200 less each BUT they aren't there over NY's(22-30). I agree with the above poster --that time of year books up quickly. We've visited Aruba and St Thomas over that time frame and did find better prices. Good luck wherever you end up!

we go ny-grand cayman every year<BR>for the holidays. there are no deals...just sold out flights. it is amazing, as the economy goes south, so does everyone else.<BR>