Looking for "Hidden Gem" beach vacation destination
 

My husband and I have just gone totally "debit free"! To celebrate, we would like to take a cost efficient beach front vacation. We don't need a fancy resort but people that speak english would be preferred. We are not limited to the Caribbean...we live in Houston so Mexico might be more cost effective. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If you are looking for a hidden gem look at Bequia. It is part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. You can fly to Barbados then either fly into St Vincent and take the ferry over to Bequia or over to Barbados then to Bequia on a small plane. It is a beautiful island with great beaches. You will not see any large resorts. The people of the island are wonderful. It is English speaking. The accommodations and food is not very expensive. The only high price will be the flying to the island.

Thanks so much for your quick response. I can't seem to find any flights leaving from Houston to Bequia....this is very strange. The island looks beautiful though, but if we can't get there.....

You'd have to fly to Barbados first, then take a local commuter flight to Bequia. You could also fly to St. Vincent and ferry over to Bequia. Both options are very expensive, but the upside is that Bequia is inexpensive one you actually get there. Expect to spend at least one full day in transit in each direction to get there, possibly having to overnight either or both ways. Even coming from the east coast we didn't get to settled into our Bequia hotel until nearly 6:00pm.

There's a woman named Scubamom who has her own website dedicated to her travels, and she features the Gingerbread on Bequia as one of her places she recommends in the Caribbean. She also travels from Texas, so perhaps she has some travel tips you can use. www.scubamom.com. She generally stays at very high end resorts that her husband designs and maintains websites for, so read her reviews with at least a tiny grain of salt. Overall she has excellent advice and her photo reports really do give a nice overview of the islands and resorts she has visited, though.

Look into the island of Roatan, Honduras. Continental flies direct from Houston. I'm going there in September. We booked the Sky Cabana #4 at Foster's Resort www.fostersroatan.com for $800 for a week. The view of the Caribbean from the cabana can't be beat! It seems like a very laid back kind of island. And very cheap!

Turtle Nest Inn in Grand Cayman is rated one one of the world's top hidden gems I believe.

Also, not hidden, but if you book through VRBO, a unti at RWI in Turks and Caicos would be a great place to stay.

WOW, Y'all, thanks so much for everyone taking the time to respond. It looks like I have some research to do now! Will let y'all know soon......thanks again (^-^)

Check out the islands of Culebra or Vieques. They are still relatively "undiscovered" so accomodations are comparatively economical, they are uncrowded and only a short ferry ride or island hopper flight from Puerto Rico (which you can reach non-stop) from Houston.

south of cancun in akumal is the akumal beach resort. not upscale but on a nice beach with snorkeling and walking distance to the small town of akumal. there are a couple fun restaurant/bars nearby. also close enough to tulum ruins (under an hour drive) to go see them. and close to playa del carman if you want to check out a larger town than akumal.
we have a poster named statia who has a sister. are you that sister???

I was wondering if anyone would catch that...yes, that is my sister. I was also curious if anyone was going to suggest her island since it truly is a "hidden gem". I will check out akumal, that may be the one! Thanks again for everyone's help. Will keep you posted.....

Montserrat & tell your sis I said hey. The other one high on my list that I've not visited is Dominica.

Providencia, Colombia. Although some don't speak English. Beautiful island, and I'm guessing it's what the Caribbean looked like 30+ years ago.

Nothing but small hotels, a few restaurants and some awesome beach bars.

Tough to get to, have to fly to San Andres first, either through Panama or Bogota (maybe Cartagena). Worth the hassle.

I want to thank everyone for their awsome input. We are looking at Akumal or Zihuatanejo. As the airfare to Mexico appears to be the lowest (for destinations) from Houston, we don't want to get back into debit over this! So, again many thanks to all of you and will keep you posted once confirmed.....

I know you have seemed to settled on two options but let me add some confusion but a place that may fit your needs to-a-tee. There are are 2 resorts in Hopkins, Belize that cost $1500-$188/person for 7 nights with 3 meals. The accommodfations are good (with (A/C) the food is good to very good, the activities included in the price can be in-land tours or diving/snorkeling including some of the best of that in the Americas. You can fly non-stop from Houston to Belize City and they fly you to Hopkins 20 minute flight) included in the price from Belize City. It's a very interesting option for about $3000 for 7 nights plus air.

You can also checkout St. Lucia in the Caribbean. It is very beautiful only island with Twin peak Pitons and a drive in Volcano. Beautiful hotels and great package deals. I always reserved with serenitytvl.com. They have an excellent ambassador service and the staff are on your beck and call. The night light will be the high light of your vacation.

We LOVE Akumal & visited it on a day trip from an all inclusive near there. We all decided next time it was going to be Akumal we stayed at.. Go to the Locogringo website & you can get lots of great info on where to stay. Akumal beach resort looks great from what we saw & also a lot of condos & smaller hotels that would be excellent also. Congrats at getting out of debt!

OMG....I love www.playa-escondida.com maybe next time we can plan for that one. Well, I think we have decided that we are going to stay local in Texas, South Padre.:-( I am very concerned about a hurricane hitting us here in Houston or Mexico and not being able to get back and "batten down the hatches". At least if we are somewhere that we can drive from, we have the option of getting home on our conditions. The hurricane thing has always been a concern of mine, but I guess when things were getting closer to becoming a reality of actually booking everything, it just weighs too heavy on me. But, in this process I have found SEVERAL great places that I look forward to visiting in the near future, just not in the peak of hurricane season! Again, I want to thank all of you for your respones and the time you took.

You can't spend your time (or life) worrying about what may happen... get out of Texas.

The weather is very unpreditable that time of year whichis understandable. Had we listen to bad weather info, we would have never had a vacation in the Caribbean. Two years ago when we first decided on travelling to St. Lucia mid October the internet was plastered with bad reviews about hurricanes but we never fell for any of it. We had the time of our lives and will visit the islands anytime of the year especially St. Lucia. The hurricanes don't only target the Caribbean but Florida and other parts of the states as well.