melinda75

Looking for a nice resort, with good beaches, not too crowded, good food, AI ok, kids activities; Single mom 33 yrs. old traveling w/ 2 sons ages 16 & 7 December School vacation. Any help greatly appreciated!

A_Traveller

Can you be a little mor specific with your desires? There are hundreds of places that can be classiified as being AI nice resorts on a good beach.

You might want to do a little reading up on what the various islands have to offer as a way of narrowing your choice (go to the destinations section and click on "Caribbean" from the dropdown menu - you'll find some brief descriptions). Once you have an island or two if will become much easier to make recommendations.

Also give us some idea of your budget for accomodations and food, your budget for airfare. Let us know how long you are willing to travel and whether or not you are willing to take one or mre connecting flights and/or ferries to rach your destination. Lastly, tell us where are you flying from.

One important point, if by "December School Vacation" you mean the period surrounding or between Christmas and New Years you should know that is "high season" which means it's the busiest time of the year in the Caribbean so expect to see crowds, expect to find the highest rates of the year, expect that most resorts will will have minimum stay (10 to 14 days) requirements and at this lat date many, many will have already been booked solid for 2008/09 Christmas/New years holidays.

melinda75

Thanks for replying A_Traveller. I specifically posted in Jamaica as that's where I'm interested in taking them. Negril being the area. I always book last minute, sometimes even into November and never have a problem. I've also never ran across where a minimum stay is required and we always go away for Christmas break (a week). We went to Turks and Caicos in April and last Dec. the Riviera Maya. The Dec. before that Aruba. So I thought we would try Jamaica. I know there will be crowds...but when we went to the Riviera Maya we stayed at the Barcelo which was a huge resort...so looking for something not so huge. Thanks for your help!

A_Traveller

Just so you are aware there's NO "Jamaica Forum" on Fodor's. All posts end up in the general "Caribbean" forum. A person has to "search" for the "Jamaica" posts. That's why is usually a good idea to put your destination in the "subject line" or at the very least in the body of your post.

Sorry, I can't help you with Jamaica resorts as that's one of the few islands I've not visited.

There are a good number of Jamaica experts on this forum so you are bound to get a few useful responses. If not, try reposting your question with "Jamaic" in the subject line.

You've been very fortunate not to run into "minimum stay requirements for Christmas break - perhaps you unknowing did but in your case the minimum was 7 days. Anyway, good luck finding the perfect resort for you.

Knowing

Since you are traveling with children 16 and under, have you thought about Beaches? Children are the focus of their resorts, there are kids everywhere, and you will still have a relaxing vacation.

suze

Why not repost? And include Negril & Jamaica & kids in your title?

All the posts just go on a general Caribbean Island forum, so I didn't know you wanted Jamaica until I opened your thread... I only knew you were looking for "where to stay" and somewhere in the Caribbean.