My son and daughter-in-law are looking for something in the Caribbean that is a direct flight from Ft. Lauderdale, preferably, or Miami. They have traveled to French Polynesia and Hawaii and loved both. They want to avoid places with blatant drug pushing, panhandling, or severe poverty. The key word here is direct flight. I don't know how to search for that criteria. Would appreciate any comments and/or suggestions.

Offhand, both Grand Cayman and Providenciales are direct (non-stop) flights from Miami and would meet your son's and DIL's criteria.

there are many places direct from Miami. Provo (PLS) is turks and Caicos-and while it's a complete opposite of FP and Hawaii, the water is actually prettier!! 8-)
Grand Cayman is similar to Provo. My best recomendation for them, is direct flight to St. Thomas, then ferry to St. John. Make sure they day trip to Virgin Gorda-it's stunning. St. John is hilly, with gorgeous beaches, and terrific snorkeling, and colorful buildings, and cool beach bars. None of the 3 suggestions have blatant drug pushing, no real panhandling nor severe poverty.

Keep in mind, Caribbean is completely different from Pacific islands-I personally love them the same, sometimes even more!

The airlines to check out with direct flights from Miami, the biggest is AA.com. (They also have a direct to St. Martin and Puerto Rico.) You may also want to check out Continental, they fly from Ft. Lauderdale to the Out Islands of Bahamas, which are rustic and stunning. Spirit Air flies to islands from FLL, as does JetBlue too.

As a point of clarification you should know in airline parlance a "direct flight" flight means while you stay on the same plane you will make one or more intermediate stops before your reach your final destination. A "non-stop flight" is just that you fly non-stop from your depature airport to your destination. A "connecting flight" means you change planes one or more times during your trip.

From Miami, there are lots of "non-stop" flights to the Caribbean, some but not many "direct flights" and just about every island with an airstrip can be reached by connecting flights.

For ease of planing you'll find that your son & DIL can fly non-stop from Miami to most major islands including St. Thomas, Providenciales, Aruba, Antigua, Barbados, St. Kitts, Grand Cayman, St. Martin, St. Lucia, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. They can also reach several of the Bahamas Out-islands either non-stop or direct.

As was previously pointed out the Caribbean is quite different from French Polynesia and Hawaii. Your son and DIL should spend a little time on this web-site reading about the various islands (use the Destination link at the top of the page) so they can determine which islands might appeal to them (they are all different). After doing some basic reading it will be much easier to begin narrowing their choices.

Great suggestions and information, thanks Callaloo, Blamona and RoamsAround. I will forward on to them. And I never knew there was a difference between direct and nonstop flights, thanks!