St.Lucia or Antigua?
 

Hi there- planning a trip late April for my family of 5 ( me, my husband, three kids age 16, 13, 8 ). We have a flight voucher with Jet blue that we have to use. We live in Boston, but it seems the less expensive nonstop flights are all out of JFK so we are planning to drive to NYC to take advantage of that. It's a big savings with 5 people!

We are looking to go to the Caribbean for three nights. We want to relax, go to the beach and stay somewhere that is close to the beach has a great pool. We don't want to have to rent a car, we are just going for warm weather, white sand and really blue waters. Although we do like fun activities and adventure, this trip will be short, so relaxation and beauty is more important. I think my kids would be happy to snorkel for three days.

At first, I thought St.Lucia was the winner, but from what I've read, it seems this island is more rugged and better for an adventure type trip ( perhaps like Costa Rica ? ) and Antigua is more stereotypical blue water and white sand beaches. I'm open to other options as well, but must be nonstop flights on jet blue from NYC. Right now, the nonstop flights in April are between 400-500/pp which seems pretty good compared to, say, Aruba. As much as I would like to go to Aruba, the flights are just too expensive.

Any recs for beautiful hotels with great pools and easy access to the beach are welcome. I think All inclusive would be nice but prob too expensive and we don't drink much and my kids are not big eaters so prob not worth it.

The north of St Lucia around Reduit Beach, Rodney Bay is not like Costa Rica. Reduit Beach is a long beige coloured sand beach. It is the south of the island which is rugged and where the Pitons are. I would have thought 3 nights in the south (or north for that matter) would be heavenly, a real rest by a beautiful beach. The beaches are dark volcanic sand in the south, quite beautiful and the water clear, great for snorkelling. The below hotel is on a stunning beach with a marine reserve.

https://ansechastanet.com/

Antigua has alot of beaches with light sand and hotels to choose from.

Turks & Caicos could be another option, Grace Bay is stunning, its an easy island popular with Americans, it would be good for a 3 night break where there really isn't much to do or see, main activity is doing nothing on a beautiful beach or water activities.

Barbados is another great option, the west coast is all white sand beaches and blue sea, another really easy island to be on. Perfect for 3 nights.

St Maarten - could go and stay on the French side of the island around Grand Case, beautiful beach with views towards Anguilla, walking distance from several hotels to restaurants for the evening.

Jetblue have quite a network to the Caribbean, almost any of their destinations would be good for 3 nights.

Thank you so much for the great suggestions @balthy! We ended up picking St.Lucia after all. I love the look of the Anse Chastanet hotel but it looks like you can only have 4 per room and also the kids must be 10+ and my youngest child is only 8. It looks STUNNING though and I would definitely consider a trip there another time.

We are staying at The Landings. https://www.landingsstlucia.com/
This is on the north west coast.
I found it interesting that after searching the internet all day long for hotels I never came across this particular hotel on this forum or trip advisor or anywhere else. I only found out about it because a friend told me she stayed there and loved it. It looks perfect, fits a family of 5 and the price is right :). Just posting this here in case it helps someone else!

You wrote that AI hotels are probably not worth it for you so that could be why it was not mentioned. Its not right on the beach either although you said easy access to the beach is fine for you. Location-wise, it is a away from the centre of Rodney Bay where all the bars/restaurants are but as you are AI, you won't need to go out looking for places to eat

I went to The BodyHoliday in St. Lucia over New Year's - it's right above the area where this hotel is located. It looked like a condo complex from the road, and it was very close to the area, which had a large mall/lots of traffic. The only other issue is that if you are really pressed for time, it's over 90 minutes from the airport to the hotel. That could take up a big chunk of time, depending on what time you arrive. I also flew non-stop from NYC, which was very easy. It is nothing like Costa Rica unless you leave the resort in search of adventure activities. I would definitely try to see the Pitons at some point, but maybe either on the way to or from the airport, as they are in the southern region of the island and not near where you are staying.