Hi! My family is considering taking a family vacation over Christmas break, before Christmas. Basically we want to go somewhere we've never been, which is basically anywhere. We've been to Cancun a couple of times and loved it. We like to be beach bumbs while on vacation. It'll be two college age kids and my husband and myself.<BR>The catch is we need to do this for as little as possible, under $2500? Any and all suggestions would be great.<BR>Thanks!

Unfortunately, you picked one of the most expensive time to travel. We too want to spend New Year in the Caribbean but when I checked the fares from NYC, the cheapest fare I could find was $600 to Grand Cayman and $700 to St. Thomas. The sales for the fares in the Caribbean are only for the summer so you might want to wait for the fall sale. I was planning to wait till November before I book so I can take advantage of the last-minute fares. If you don't want to wait at the last minute, do a search on Orbitz for flights to the Caribbean so you'll have an idea how much they are from your hometown. And once you see how expensive they are around Christmas, your choices on where to vacation would be few based on your budget.

Jill; Before you get discouraged, maybe a cruise ship to the Bahamas or other caribbean island would be ok. You could get their itinerary, and hit the beach when you land. I think there is a website to book into inexpensive cruises, kind of like the expedia.com of the jet airline industry. Try: Americancruiselines.com<BR> If this isn't it, just tap into Yahoo and search under cheap or inexpensive cruises. If well-planned, you may be able to do it for the price. Hope this helps. Robert

For 4 people it would be extremely expensive with the airfare. Suggest take a cruise to save money-have taken Royal Caribbean cruise and that was a lot of fun--went to St. Thomas, Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten. The least expensive cruise would probably be Carnival Cruises--look at their online site.

Jill; Expedia just notified me of a Florida and Bahama cruise, car rental, airfare, and 2 Disney World tickets for $599, and to call 1-866-883-1508, Ext. 100. Just for your info. It's for 7 nights. Robert

Check out isla-mujeres.net<BR>IM is a small island 10 miles off<BR>Cancun<BR>If you e-mail us we will e-mail you back our 27 page brouchure on the island.<BR>Assuming you are doing 7 days you should have no problem getting 2 rooms and staying under budget excluding air fare.