Help suggest a caribbean AI
Aug 14th, 2006, 07:22 AM
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Help suggest a caribbean AI
My husband and I would like to plan a 5-6 night trip to the caribbean sometime early next winter. Although we're not big drinkers, we still prefer the walletless worries and no hassles of deciding where to dine that an AI offers. Our budget is somewhere around $2600 NOT including airfare.
Past AIs we've visited included Sandals Whitehouse, Sandals Grande St Lucian and the Palladium Mayan Riviera. We enjoyed the Sandals vacations and even found the food to be pretty good despite the bad rep they have on this forum. The one thing that annoyed me a little about these AIs is that they seemed to attract large groups of travelors, ie, extended families and multiple couples. No offense against travelors who wish to travel this way, in fact, it'd probably be a blast if I could logistically arrange it myself, but as speaking from a couple standpoint, I sometimes felt like an intruder upon a family wedding with all the poolside lounger savers and multiple table hoggers at the restaurants. Are all the Sandals resorts like this?
Criteria we're looking for: a well maintained, clean resort, moderate in size which offers large beautiful rooms overlooking a GORGEOUS beach with crystal clear water. Wasn't impressed with St Lucia beaches so no desire to return there. We don't care about nightlife or most water sports except swimming and the hobie cats. We're not too hung up upon getting fabulous gourmet food, just a reasonably good variety with good service.
Royal Planatation which might be above our budget looked very nice although we also enjoy large pools and their pool and beach area looked very dinky. Other islands we might be interested in include Turks & Caicos, Anguila, Antiqua, Barbados and the US Virgin islands. We're not opposed to retuning to Jamaica either.
Any suggestions much appreciated.
Past AIs we've visited included Sandals Whitehouse, Sandals Grande St Lucian and the Palladium Mayan Riviera. We enjoyed the Sandals vacations and even found the food to be pretty good despite the bad rep they have on this forum. The one thing that annoyed me a little about these AIs is that they seemed to attract large groups of travelors, ie, extended families and multiple couples. No offense against travelors who wish to travel this way, in fact, it'd probably be a blast if I could logistically arrange it myself, but as speaking from a couple standpoint, I sometimes felt like an intruder upon a family wedding with all the poolside lounger savers and multiple table hoggers at the restaurants. Are all the Sandals resorts like this?
Criteria we're looking for: a well maintained, clean resort, moderate in size which offers large beautiful rooms overlooking a GORGEOUS beach with crystal clear water. Wasn't impressed with St Lucia beaches so no desire to return there. We don't care about nightlife or most water sports except swimming and the hobie cats. We're not too hung up upon getting fabulous gourmet food, just a reasonably good variety with good service.
Royal Planatation which might be above our budget looked very nice although we also enjoy large pools and their pool and beach area looked very dinky. Other islands we might be interested in include Turks & Caicos, Anguila, Antiqua, Barbados and the US Virgin islands. We're not opposed to retuning to Jamaica either.
Any suggestions much appreciated.
Aug 14th, 2006, 10:45 AM
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jlbrn,
I'd suggest looking into Couples Swept Away in Negril. We just went there in May & thoroughly enjoyed it !! The beach is fantastic (white sand & swimming-pool clear, blue water). We had an Atrium room (had shutters on all 4 walls -- VERY tropical feeling). The food was very good & plenty of variety.
This resort & Secrets Capri in Mexico are now just about my 2 favorite Adults Only/AI resorts, overall. Just for comparison, we've also been to Grand Lido Braco (4th trip in 6 days !!), Grand Lido Negril (2x), the former Grand Lido Sans Souci (2x) (now it's a Couples resort), Couples Negril, Secrets Capri, Secrets Excellence Riviera Cancun, Secrets Excellence Punta Cana (2x), Sandals St Lucia, Sandals Grande St Lucian, Aventura Spa Palace, Iberostar Tucan, Breezes Bahamas.
We also did not like the atmosphere @ the 2 Sandals we've been to & have vowed to not return to one. The 2 Couples that we've been to totally did not have that obnoxious Sandals atmosphere that we encountered. CSA (& CN) is a very relaxing resort, w/ plenty to do if you so choose.
I have pics of our CSA trip if you're interested:
see the folder "Couples Swept Away-May 2006"
http://photos.yahoo.com/jmrperotto
Jackie
I'd suggest looking into Couples Swept Away in Negril. We just went there in May & thoroughly enjoyed it !! The beach is fantastic (white sand & swimming-pool clear, blue water). We had an Atrium room (had shutters on all 4 walls -- VERY tropical feeling). The food was very good & plenty of variety.
This resort & Secrets Capri in Mexico are now just about my 2 favorite Adults Only/AI resorts, overall. Just for comparison, we've also been to Grand Lido Braco (4th trip in 6 days !!), Grand Lido Negril (2x), the former Grand Lido Sans Souci (2x) (now it's a Couples resort), Couples Negril, Secrets Capri, Secrets Excellence Riviera Cancun, Secrets Excellence Punta Cana (2x), Sandals St Lucia, Sandals Grande St Lucian, Aventura Spa Palace, Iberostar Tucan, Breezes Bahamas.
We also did not like the atmosphere @ the 2 Sandals we've been to & have vowed to not return to one. The 2 Couples that we've been to totally did not have that obnoxious Sandals atmosphere that we encountered. CSA (& CN) is a very relaxing resort, w/ plenty to do if you so choose.
I have pics of our CSA trip if you're interested:
see the folder "Couples Swept Away-May 2006"
http://photos.yahoo.com/jmrperotto
Jackie
Aug 14th, 2006, 04:08 PM
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Jackie, what was the difference between the Couples resorts & the Sandals resorts? I don't know what you mean by saying you didn't like the "Sandals atmosphere" but I have far less experience in travelling. What makes the Couples resorts better in your opinion? Our 25th anniversary is in May 2007 and we're leaning towards the Sandals Royal Bahamian because we wanted to go somewhere besides Jamaica, and St Lucia seems to get more rain than we want. Thanks for your insight !!
Aug 15th, 2006, 07:36 AM
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BadgerRedd,
Well, at both of the Sandals we've been to, alot of the other guests were....... well.... just kind of loud & overbearing. They talked loudly & seemed to either want everyone else to hear them talk or else they just didn't care that they were being loud. The groups of friends/family that we saw, liked to shout back & forth across the pools to each other. Also, the Social Directors were constantly shouting into the microphones (games & announcements of upcoming games...). Something else I noticed at those 2 Sandals (that we've hardly noticed at other resorts we've been to) is that when we walked by other guests (walking to dinner, to the pool...) and smiled and/or said hello, we very rarely got a response from them (maybe it's just me, but I was brought up to smile back at someone).
We loved the actual properties themselves, just not the other guests so much. And I know that my thoughts are very generally-speaking, and of course there were other quiet people there, but the obnoxious ones are what left us w/ the bad impressions.
Couples, of course, has groups of people there together & some loud guests too here & there, but, overall, it was a much nicer, quieter atmosphere. And, the workers were so much more friendly at CSA & CN than at SSL & SGSL.
Anyway, these are just my opinions; I know there are lots of Sandals lovers out there. Maybe we just had bad luck at those 2 resorts & maybe the Sandals on other islands besides St Lucia are different...
Jackie
Well, at both of the Sandals we've been to, alot of the other guests were....... well.... just kind of loud & overbearing. They talked loudly & seemed to either want everyone else to hear them talk or else they just didn't care that they were being loud. The groups of friends/family that we saw, liked to shout back & forth across the pools to each other. Also, the Social Directors were constantly shouting into the microphones (games & announcements of upcoming games...). Something else I noticed at those 2 Sandals (that we've hardly noticed at other resorts we've been to) is that when we walked by other guests (walking to dinner, to the pool...) and smiled and/or said hello, we very rarely got a response from them (maybe it's just me, but I was brought up to smile back at someone).
We loved the actual properties themselves, just not the other guests so much. And I know that my thoughts are very generally-speaking, and of course there were other quiet people there, but the obnoxious ones are what left us w/ the bad impressions.
Couples, of course, has groups of people there together & some loud guests too here & there, but, overall, it was a much nicer, quieter atmosphere. And, the workers were so much more friendly at CSA & CN than at SSL & SGSL.
Anyway, these are just my opinions; I know there are lots of Sandals lovers out there. Maybe we just had bad luck at those 2 resorts & maybe the Sandals on other islands besides St Lucia are different...
Jackie
Aug 15th, 2006, 03:20 PM
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To JLBRN have you looked into Le Blanc in Cancun. Can't speak from experience yet, but booked it myself from the great reviews on Trip Advisors. On a great beach, very new and modern, extremely clean and quiet. No nightlife to speak of, but that works for us.
Also just have to add I've been to the Sandals Royal Bahamaian (mind you it was almost 10 years ago) and had the opposite experience of the other posters. VERY quiet, all couples either celebrating anniversaries or honeymoon. People kept to themselves but were friendly. No activity director yelling at the pool. It's still on our list to go back to.
Also just have to add I've been to the Sandals Royal Bahamaian (mind you it was almost 10 years ago) and had the opposite experience of the other posters. VERY quiet, all couples either celebrating anniversaries or honeymoon. People kept to themselves but were friendly. No activity director yelling at the pool. It's still on our list to go back to.
Aug 15th, 2006, 03:33 PM
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We've been to several Sandals and found the food at MoBay to be quite good as was the food in Antigua. We did find some of the groups in MoBay, but not many. I would say that not all Sandals are like that. Sometimes I think it may be a matter of when you visit a place. One of my cousins - a doctor - went to Couples and came back absolutely disgusted. She described it as full of pot smoking tatooed foul mouthed biker chicks.
You mention Turks and Caicos. They do have a Beaches there, which is part of the Sandals chain. Nice accomodations, nine restaurants, and the water sports you like. They also have a 4,000 squarefoot pool. This may be the answer for you to indulge yourself with.
BadgerRedd, I wouldn't worry about the Sandals Bahamian. We did see one attorney who had too much to drink one night and the staff took him to his room. We've made friends with people all over the country because of our vacations at Sandals and have remained friends to this day. We still travel together and fly to see each other and have even been -unfortunately - to a funeral of a friend that we met there. I would add however, that we did not find St. Lucia to be very charming.
You mention Turks and Caicos. They do have a Beaches there, which is part of the Sandals chain. Nice accomodations, nine restaurants, and the water sports you like. They also have a 4,000 squarefoot pool. This may be the answer for you to indulge yourself with.
BadgerRedd, I wouldn't worry about the Sandals Bahamian. We did see one attorney who had too much to drink one night and the staff took him to his room. We've made friends with people all over the country because of our vacations at Sandals and have remained friends to this day. We still travel together and fly to see each other and have even been -unfortunately - to a funeral of a friend that we met there. I would add however, that we did not find St. Lucia to be very charming.
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