Suggestion for a girls' getaway?
 

My friend and I have travel vouchers on Jetblue good for anywhere they fly, and we want to go to a gorgeous, warm beach. We are in our late 20s, live in NYC and have endured 6+ months of bad weather, hence the desire to head south. The downside: we only have until June 10th to use them, so we're scrambling. We also only have 4-5 full days for the trip because we both work full time.

That said, here's the real rub: we don't know where to go! We've narrowed it down to a handful of places, but could really use your advice. St. Lucia? Dominican Republic? St. Maarten? Aruba? Turks & Caicos?

We want to go somewhere that's not heavy on the spring break vibe (aka low doses of half naked co-eds) but still has some activity at night. At the end of the day, we are pretty low key. We'd love to fill the days with swimming and relaxing at the beach, have some kind of sightseeing/activity (historic sights? boat tours? No scuba diving, my friend had a bad experience once.) in the afternoons. Of course, as most girls do, we love to shop, but are far more interested in local wares than any kind of designer goods.

Any/all suggestions would be most welcome, thank you in advance!

Turks and Caicos has beautiful beaches....St Maarten is one of my favorites.....St. Lucia - while beautiful - has beaches that are not that turquois blue you may think of when you think Caribbean.....I've been to one all inclusive in the Dominican Republic in May and it rained every day - but was still nice...... if you like to shop - I'd suggest St. Maarten or Aruba.

I'm no expert on your list, but I don't think the DR fits what you seek.

We have been to all of your choices--Turks & Caicos-best beaches, quick flight from NYC. Not much shopping-some local stuff. Excellent restaurants! very laid back but, perfect IMO
For shopping-Aruba , St Martin but, not the same beaches

Turks and Caicos would be a beautiful place to check out but it has very little night life

Does Jet Blue fly to Cancun? Not that you should stay in Cancun, but the Playa del Carmen area has everything you said you want.

schmerl, hey that's my question too...

What you are asking about sounds more like Mexico to me than a Caribbean island. Playa del Carmen would be perfect and I think better fits what you seek than any of the island you mentioned in your post. Fly into Cancun then about 45 min. to the south. Great nightlife, shopping, wonderful resorts on the beach or hotels in town, day trips to the ruins, etc.

Thanks for all of the replies everyone! Lots of food for thought here.

Re: Mexico suggestion, it's an interesting idea and Jetblue does fly there. Only problem is that my friend and I had initially wanted to avoid going anywhere that either of us had been before (for instance, I've been to Barbados, she's been to Puerto Rico, etc) so the experience would be wholly new.

That said, I'm intrigued by the idea of ruins, etc. I'm definitely going to look into that. How would you suggest getting from Cancun to Playa? Cab? Also, hate to be uninformed but should we be nervous about the recent violence? I am very out of touch on the subject and will definitely do some research, but thought I'd ask just the experts. :)

Looks like we'll focus on T&C and Mexico, unless anyone else wants to weigh in?

Truly, thank you all for your replies!

No you do not need to be nervous about traveling to the resort destinations of Mexico like Cancun, Playa, Cabo, Puerto Vallarta. I'm headed to PV next month for 10 days myself.

You get from Cancun airport down to Playa del Carmen by shuttle, by bus, by private driver, by taxi. I'm no expert on that side (I mostly go to PV) but people do it every day.

I can't tell from your post. Have you or your friend BEEN to the Mayan Riviera before?

You didn't mention budget but you get a lot more bang for your buck generally speaking in Mexico than you do in the Caribbean islands typically.

p.s. Just go over to the Mexico & Central America forum here at Fodor's. There's loads of posts about the area, including safety.

We have used cancunvalet.com to get to our hotel from the airport, but there are several other private trasport companies there also. Google can be a great help in finding them.