Serene, smooth, snorkeling beaches
 

let's try this from a different angle...

Looking for a rental house, AI or hotel on a great beach. What are your favorite beaches that are generally calm, not too many rocks, good for swimming and snorkeling, & family friendly? Southern or western caribbean preferred, but I can be open minded.

There are a lot of Virgin Gorda fans here who would recommend the rental houses on Mahoe Bay. The area meets your criteria well -- though the houses are not cheap to rent.

hi - how many bedrooms is optimal?
and some indication of your budget will help narrow down suggestions?

i agree about virgin gorda if you can rent on mahoe bay. outstanding beach for swimming & snorkeling from the beach. i've been looking at those houses for sometime now. perhaps adagio would work for you. several fodorites have stayed in that particular house and liked it very much. http://www.adagiovilla.com/index.php
you can look through all of them at:
http://www.virgingordabvi.com/villas/mahoe-bay/
and here's a tiny map showing where each house is: http://www.caribbeans.com/gifs/mahomap1r1.gif

there are loads of villas on provo, t&c. grace bay beach is long, blindingly white sand, and gorgeous. fringing reef keeps the bay very calm for little ones to swim. if a 4 br with no pool but fenced sandy backyard to beach is good you might look at http://www.atlanticbeachfrontvillas.com/
and next door another 4br w/pool is
http://www.bellasurmer.com/
a bit down the beach towards some of the best snorkeling on provo (at smiths reef) are several more houses 3 of which are available on
http://www.northshorevillas.com/beach_villa_sandstone/
look at sandstone, turtle beach villa and paprika.

there is not a lot of shopping on either of these islands, but very safe for families. provo has an excellent grocery store. vg is lush, provo is arid and flat. the water temp on vg will be a bit higher.

much further south st. vincent & the grenadines is known for snorkeling on most of their islands. in particular an area known as tobago cays, which is boat to snorkel only. have not been yet so can not recommend any specifics except palm island which is nice but not kid friendly.

Calm water is somewhat seasonal and dependent on the weather. We went to St. John once in the winter and found very little calm water for snorkeling--Grace Bay T & C over Christmas 07 was a bit churned up. When are you planning to visit?

Try the Cayman Islands.

Number of bedrooms - three to four.
Price range - something between $1K and $3K per week would be great if possible. It would be over New Year's so I'm expecting the high end.

thanks for the suggestions - I'll check into some of those.

hlphillips2 we go to the Carib for Christmas each yr and unfortunately you'll have a tough time in that price range. We usually stay in AXA and last yr. tried Provo. There are often extra charges & minimum stay requirs & things will be pretty booked up by now. For future reference Sunshine House www.sunshinehouse-tci.com in Provo meets your price requirement, has great pool area and views but is booked. Woburn Villa in AXA is on a nice beach, large, not fancy and is available for $4,200 wk. We have looked at villas over that time period in GC, Grenada, VG, Tortola, St. John, Vieques, etc and the prices are much higher than your $1-3,000 wk range. People say good things about Bequia which is not over-built yet but it's not easy to get there. Good luck, I hope you find something.

The Ritz Carleton on GC is very comfortable with impeccable service.
Snorkeling and swimming are cool in the Cayman Islands and the water is very calm.
Best of luck with your travel plans.

A beachfront 3-4 bedroom villa for the week of New Year's is going to be nearly, if not downright, impossible to find in the $1,000-3,000/week range. I'd say you need to be thinking about a minimum of $5000/week.

Some islands that are very expensive to get to but will have relatively low prices once you're there include Grenada, Bequia, St. Vincent, and Carriacou. Vieques and Culebra near PUerto Rico might also be good starting points. You might want to narrow your search down to those places.

We put considerable effort last year into looking at 3 bdrm villas in Vieques and Grenada (a place we have been to numerous times and love) and the prices for a 3-bdrm villa are much higher over the holidays than the $1-3,000 budget.

We were very fortunate to find a reasonably priced place over xmas a few years back for around $3K with no minimum stay over New years as well. So I've been hoping we could get just as lucky this time.

Thanks for the suggestions on the beaches. I can search for hotels & AIs (as well as homes) but really need direction narrowing down the beaches. I think we might have better luck with a hotel than a villa at this point. Thanks again - and any other beach thoughts are appreciated!