coppertone80

looking for advice for our next short 4 night vacation Looking for stunning beaches, turquoise water, close proximity to town with lots of great restaurant options, not all inclusive/casino type hotel and not overcrowded beaches, nice 4 star hotel thats clean and in a great location. we have been to St. John's and loved it for the awesome downtown and beautiful beaches but deep water, Aruba and not huge fans for the overcrowded and not very nice beach/water, Eleuthera was beautiful but too deserted, Cabo was great for the variety of restaurants and beautiful hotel and close proximity to home, but bad beaches/sand. Loved St Martin, disliked DR, Loved Anguilla but a little too deserted, Nassau to boring/plain and not a good downtown. Disliked Tortola - too rundown, Cancun too many crazy people. Hope that gives you a sense of what we like. Laid back, love to eat out at nice restaurants and have a few drinks at bars after, lounge at pool and beach in nice beach chairs under shade from sunrise to sunset. Not into a lot of activities since this will be a short visit. Both flights get in around 1pm so that's great. sept/oct timeframe. Price, Caymans Westin right now is $2,200 for 2 which includes flight hotel transfer and tax. Ritz at Cayman is $3,000 which we might splurge and do if you recommend that over T&C's. Turks Sands and Grace Bay is cheap, hotel flights transfers and tax for studio ocean view is $2,100. Not wanting to spend much more than that since it's short and we have meals and drinks to buy. what do you all think?

FrankS

Unless you are a diver, GC doesnt compare...go to Turks & Caicos

blamona

Turks and Caicos sounds exactly what you're looking for. But I must say, upgrade your hotel--Sands is step down from a Ritz type.

Call Seven Stars, ask for Yngrit, ask for the best possible special. Or try Regent Palms or Somerset.

TCI sounds exactly what you're looking for and will be you favorite place!!! Not dead quiet, not crowded. Upscale, and bonus: one of the world's best beaches.

WWK

Another vote for T&C over Grand Cayman. Grace Bay blows Seven Mile beach out of the water! My only reservation is about The Sands. It's very mid-market, and might be OK, but some of the rooms are not that great.

You might try OCEAN CLUB WEST, too, in addition to Seven Stars. Though same issue there with some of the rooms in the lesser categories.

Good luck!