My boyfriend and I (mid-late 20's) are planning a caribbean vacation for may. We were looking at Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos, & St. Martin. Few problems. We heard St. Martin is beautiful but $$$. Is it possible to do any of these 3 places for a week and not break the bank? Also, if anyone has been to these 3, which do yor prefer. Our main objective is fishing, lying on the beach, and excursions

St Maarten the french side. Orient Beach is the best!!!there is the regular side and the nude side. The regular side has comfy lounge chairs (about $5 and you get a drink with...barter)and there is an unbrella too. The food places are good and resonably priced. Cold Coke in a can for $1. Fine white sand beach. Sorry dont know about the hotels.

hi jaa317, may is the start of low season for the islands so that should help you out on cost. i don't normally advocate all-inclusives (i think it precludes truly experiencing the island you've traveled to) but one might work for you. enables you to know how much you'll spend before you leave home. if you drink much it could mean a significant savings. avoids need to taxi to restaurants, offers water toys for free use.

the caymans & t&c are known to be amoung the more expensive islands. st. martin not far behind. gc & t&c are dry arid islands with blingingly white beaches and excellent diving & snorkeling. st. martin more lush and hilly.

to give you any real help you need to tell us how much you can spend (not breaking your bank could mean selling the house to others...)
a lot of cost depends on where you fly from. it is difficult a/or pricey to get to certain islands from some US cities.
a useful site is kayak.com - it tells you most of the airlines going from one place to another with prices and times. ideally look for flights that get to island early in the day and leave the island as late as possible.

specifically what sort of excursions would you like to go on?

less expensive options might include maya riviera coast (south of cancun to tulum) or dominican republic (offers mostly all-inclusives) or maybe st. thomas or puerto rico.
all the above islands offer fishing, beautiful beaches and excursions.

I have been to both the Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman multiple times. I have never been to St. Martin so I am no help there. In both TC's and Caymans we rented through vacation rental by owner. We saved money by cooking meals at the apartment as opposed to eating out for every meal. This does take away from some excursion time, but was worth it for us. The Caymans have wonderful scuba diving so I would highly recommend looking into a guide. Restaurants and drinks are more expensive than most places in the U.S. In Grand Cayman, the best beach is 7-mile, although some in my family prefer rum point.

Thank you so much everyone for your help! We are just ao confused...lol. So many choices!

virginia--we actually did riviera maya for our last vacation. We stayed at Occidental Xcarat. It was beautiful and we loved it....but we just wanna go somewhere we haven't been yet.

We are also thinking of a cruise. But we would rather do a cruise where you dock at the island for a couple of days. My boyfriend swears you can do this....I can't seem to find one.

Oh! And I forgot...lol. We were also thinking of Anguilla b/c then we wud do the day trip to St. Martin. We had friends who just went to St. Martin and did the day trip to Anguilla and said it was breathtaking. Can anyone give me information on Anguilla? It seems like a relativley quiet island.