Need Help: First time to Caribbean.
 

My wife and I are wanting to take a much needed vacation to the Caribbean sometime between March - May, 2012. We are getting very frustrated trying to find an island and hotel to visit. We would very much appreciate any help you could offer. Here are some of our criteria:

- 5 night stay
- Less than $400/night for lodging
- Beach front hotel, resort or boutique close to a town for dining and adventure. (we like the idea of a boutique hotel)
- Not All Inclusive
- Pool
- Reasonable distance to hiking/adventure
- Not too touristy of an area
- Safe

We visited an all inclusive resort in the Mayan Riviera for our honeymoon and enjoyed it because it was our honeymoon. However, we probably wouldnt go back to that part of mexico again and probably wouldnt do an all inclusive. We'll be flying from Atlanta, GA using skymiles. Here are some of the places we've been interested in, but reviews of turned us off for one reason or another (please feel free to expound on why these are good places):

Costa Rica (too far away? difficult to get to?)
Dominican Republic
St. Maartin (Couldn't find the right place)
St. John (Couldn't find the right place)
St. Lucia (Expensive?)
Turks & Caicos (Expensive?)

It looks like there are 5 days available in April at The House of Open Arms on St John. The villa has a pool. We have not stayed there, only at Sailview (no pool) but I know it comes highly recommended. We love St John and we love to snorkel. What as easy trip from Atlanta!

lixirylink.com

has a tonne of great stuff
on sales of a boutique nature
in the price range you are looking for.

my favs

pinksandsresort.com
ansechastenet.com jademountain.com
Grace Bay Resort
Caneelbay.com littledixbay.com The Westin St John
GREAT pricepoints for me bidding priceline.com
in the past.Provo most expensive for me in the past.

Happy Hunting!

www.pinksandsresort.com/rates.htm
One bedroom villas right on the beach
5th night free just under $400/nt
briland.com supercute very uncrowded safe
closer to US my fav for a 5 night kickback
from ATL. runawayhill.com more of a B&B
also nice there.

www.luxurylink.com deals on www.roundhill.com
a little more croeded but very nice for price
also fairly close to ATL for air on the other
side of Cuba.

Agreed qwovadis!

Luxury link has great deals for less than $400/night on both St. Lucia and Turks and Caicos, both of which I think meet your criteria for not too touristy and close to nature, and not too far to fly. Saint Lucia is a much bigger island.

http://www.luxurylink.com/fivestar/h...ls/Saint-Lucia
http://www.luxurylink.com/fivestar/h...Caicos-Islands

I've stayed at Jade Mountain on St. Lucia and it's simply amazing, but definitely more than $400/night

I think that if you're looking strictly at the US Virgin Islands, your best bet would be Gallows POint on St. John. It's a 3-5 minute walk to town from there, it's a boutique style resort with a very good restaurant on site, pretty good snorkeling on site, a pool, and a concierge.

The units at Gallows are spacious for a couple and the staff is very pleasant and helpful. I wrote a trip report about our stay there in October 2011 and the link to day 1 is here, if you might find it helpful: http://asthecrowefliesandreads.blogs...ohn-day-1.html

Have you considered Puerto Rico? We are planning a trip to Fajadro, aprox 25 miles from the airport; not all inclusive, rain forest near by, beach front (sort of), not .too touristy..Flights to Puerto Rico were reasonable for us.

Good Luck