A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

[bigblue_dl]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

You indicated you are flying on Delta. Are you flying out of the Twin Cities? How big of an issue is price for the resort.

I'll put in a pitch for the Riviera Maya, which is basically the Caribbean coast south of Cancun. My wife and I go there every winter and we love it. We've probably been to 8-10 different resorts (all-inclusive) and haven't had a bad experience yet.

Here are what I think are the positives:

1. Great flight from the Twin Cities. You fly to Cancun, and it's a four hour flight, non-stop. They also have a lot of flight options. I love the 6 a.m. flight. You're in Cancun by 10, through customs and to your resort by 11:30, a little lunch and you're on the beach that afternoon. It feels like you get an extra day of vacation. From the Twin Cities you simply cannot beat the Cancun flight for a Caribbean trip.

2. Mexico is actually a great place to be if you want to get out and see something other than your resort. Every resort will run excursions to places like Tulum and Chichen Itza, for a bit of history. You can go swimming in underground caverns. There are excursions for diving, snorkling, atv riding, ziplining, etc... We've had a blast taking the ferry ride from Playa Del Carmen to Cozumel, renting a jeep, and driving the island for a day. Playa Del Carmen itself is kind of fun if you just want to go into town for a little nightlife.

3. You have a wide variety of resorts to choose from, depending upon your interests. You can go with the big, mega resorts that will give you a ton of restaurant and bar options, and many, many pools to choose from, along with a beach. Or you can go a little smaller. We've done both, and enjoyed both.

A few places we've tried in the last few years:
Aventura Spa Palace (maybe changed the name now)
Xcaret
Barcelo Maya Palace
Riu Palace
Iberostar
The Royal at Playa Del Carmen
Moon Palace

I can write more about specific resorts if you're interested.

Thanks for the info. I had this as an idea (as well as Costa Rica) as something to look into as an alternative to a Caribbean island. Mentioned it to my fiance, and she didn't seem interested (similar to how I am not interested in Puerto Rico), so we dismissed it pretty quickly. I think it would be awesome to do the Yucatan, because I would love to see some of the ruins there, but I think the veto hammer has already dropped on that.

We tried to hash out what exactly we're looking for in a destination a bit last night. My fiance would really like to go to an island with "mountains" (yes, I know, that sounds silly, mountains in the Caribbean). So what we'd be looking for is just an island that has some jungle highlands areas, and isn't flat. Something like I think several of the Virgin Island islands have, and islands like Dominica and Grenada. We seem to be narrowing it down some, and I am thinking I really like the Virgin Islands, probably St. Thomas, with some kind of excursion to St. John. I also want to look into St. Maarten and St. Croix some more, as I don't know much about them.

As for cost, we're ready to spend some decent amount of money, its our honeymoon afterall. We would definitely still like to go Delta, just so I can use miles and save a little money. But I am starting to see that with many of the islands we're interested in aren't served by Delta. We may have to take Delta to Atlanta and find something else from there if we have to. Going to the island we want is more important than sticking with Delta. One of the reasons we're interested in Punta Cana is because Delta now has a direct flight from MSP to Punta Cana.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

For those who have traveled the Caribbean, would you recommend going with a larger, more corporate resort like Sandals, or with a smaller more localized resort?

 

[SJHovey]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

For those who have traveled the Caribbean, would you recommend going with a larger, more corporate resort like Sandals, or with a smaller more localized resort?

As you can guess based upon the list of recent resorts we've visited, we tend to the larger, more "corporate" resorts. We have toyed with the idea of just booking a room in one of the offbeat, small hotels in Playa Del Carmen for something different. We've hesitated for a couple of reasons.

First, the corporate resorts have more to lose. With things like Trip Advisor out there, and a brand to protect, as a general rule things are going to run pretty smoothly.

Second, those resorts all have their own water purification systems on site, and candidly, the last thing I want to do on my winter vacation is sit on the toilet all day.

At the end of the day it's the comfort of knowing what we're getting, before we get there, that has probably kept us going back to the more well-known facilities.

I'm sure you'll have a great time either way, though.

 

[Hopkinja]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

I tend to avoid the big corporate resorts and stay at small B&B's or smaller hotels. And I've never had a problem getting sick in the Caribbean. Yes, things may not go as smoothly but you'll probably meet people who are actually interested in something besides laying on the beach and watersports. But if that's all you're looking for, by all means go with the big resorts.

And for the record I've been to Puerto Rico, the D.R., Jamaica, Grand Cayman, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, and Grenada (and Trinidad, but that's not really the Caribbean). As long as I've got a rental car and a map, I'm good to go.

 

[jmh]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Sounds like you are set on the Carribean, but you really should consider Fargo. It has an Olive Garden, so it has that Mediterranean feel to it. Plus it's not that crowded in the winter. If you and your wife like castles, you could take a short drive north to Grand Forks and see the Palace.

If you sort of sneak Fargo into the conversation about the BVI, I bet your wife will warm up to the idea. And don't sneeze at the value of being happy to get back home.

Marilyn Hagerty has really good things to say about Olive Garden.

For those who have traveled the Caribbean, would you recommend going with a larger, more corporate resort like Sandals, or with a smaller more localized resort?

If you want to socialize with other couples you should go to Sandals; if you want to spend most of your time just the two of you, you should go to a smaller resort. Sandals is pretty expensive (we did the comparison) so you're really not getting any "economies of scale" kind of discount if that's the way you decide to go. More variety (both style and price points) at the smaller ones too. I can share the specific research we did if you want.

 

[Mowers10]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

I agree with jmh........although I haven't been to Olive Garden many times........

 

[LynahFan]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

We tried to hash out what exactly we're looking for in a destination a bit last night. My fiance would really like to go to an island with "mountains" (yes, I know, that sounds silly, mountains in the Caribbean). So what we'd be looking for is just an island that has some jungle highlands areas, and isn't flat. Something like I think several of the Virgin Island islands have, and islands like Dominica and Grenada. We seem to be narrowing it down some, and I am thinking I really like the Virgin Islands, probably St. Thomas, with some kind of excursion to St. John. I also want to look into St. Maarten and St. Croix some more, as I don't know much about them.

St. Maarten definitely has mountains, but it's pretty developed, so I'm not sure how "jungle-y" they are. As I said, we were sailing, so we didn't explore inland too much. Haven't been to the USVI; the BVI islands are tiny, even Tortola, so you wouldn't really have much of an opportunity for exploring jungle highlands. I also tend to go in the off season (summer) since we're on the water anyway, so it's always pretty warm for hiking - we spend our time snorkeling, swimming, and lying around (on the boat and on the beach).

 

[Gurtholfin]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

If you're thinking of the USVI, I'd suggest St John over St Thomas or maybe even a few days on each.

St Thomas is more developed and certainly has more in the way of shopping, nightlife and restaurants. But it's also quite busy and has a decent amount of impoverished (by our standards) areas. There are probably quiet parts of the island, but we didn't see them.

To my knowledge, the only all-inclusive on St. Thomas is Bolongo Bay - which is where we stayed coz we were there with extended family and it was just easier that way. I won't go into too much detail about the resort here but if you are considering that place in particular, let me know coz you should get a scouting report.

Definitely get a rental car if you're going to explore on your own as the cabs are $9 per person each way regardless of where you're going. That obviously adds up quick and I was thankful to have our own vehicle for that and also for the freedom it allows.


If you want to get away to quiet places with just the misses, St. John has far more of those. There's less shopping and restaurants, but what is there is quaint and more interesting than the 100 or so jewelry t-sthirt & watch stores that are in Charlotte-Amalie.

Charlotte-Amalie is set up to be a cruise ship stop and the stores reflect that. It's still worth checking out (go to Gladys to eat for sure), but it isn't anywhere I'd want to hang out for too long - but that's me.


Again, St. Thomas was nice. We liked it.

But both my wife and I liked St. John a whole lot more and we've already decided that if we ever go back, we'll spend our time there.

 

[Gurtholfin]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

On the all-inclusive (corporate) versus smaller place, I'd always go to a smaller place or at least skip the all-inclusive.

The reason is that we (wife and I) really like to explore and go to new places. When we're anywhere near the ocean, one of our favorite things to do is eat the fresh seafood. I really didn't like being stuck at the all-inclusive restaurant (on St. Thomas) every night when there were 20 other restaurants that I'd have LOVED to check out.

Now obviously, if you're in Jamaica or the Riviera Maya (which we're looking at for our next extended family trip), an all-inclusive makes a lot of sense due to safety reasons. In the USVIs or BVIs, those concerns don't exist, so if it's me, I don't want to be tethered.

I will say however that ordering a drink and never once having to think about the $8 cash that it would have cost was nice.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

I enjoyed staying at Rui Palace in Cabo San Lucas but I doubt I will ever do an all-inclusive again. The food was good until we stopped at a beach front restaurant and had their tacos and everything at the all-inclusive tasted like school lunch after that. In my eyes, it seemed like we spent alot of money and didn't get out what we paid. It certainly is the easier way to go but at the same time, bang for buck was questionable.

 

[hockeyplayer1015]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Just because I don't think I've seen it thrown out there, what about Aruba?

I've been to the Bahamas (Nassau, twice) and Bermuda. Really, really enjoyed Bermuda; The Bahamas were nice, but certainly not spectacular.

 

[Gurtholfin]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

I enjoyed staying at Rui Palace in Cabo San Lucas but I doubt I will ever do an all-inclusive again. The food was good until we stopped at a beach front restaurant and had their tacos and everything at the all-inclusive tasted like school lunch after that. In my eyes, it seemed like we spent alot of money and didn't get out what we paid. It certainly is the easier way to go but at the same time, bang for buck was questionable.

This. Completely true.

You miss out on the local dives, holes-in-the-wall and even local fancy places. Often the dives and holes are where the best food is. Ask the locals where they eat and it's often these places.

The restaurant where we stayed (all inc.) was good, not great. I had one memorable meal - Ahi Tuna medium rare with a passion-fruit butter and mashed yams. The rest was good, but forgettable. How I wish I could have checked out more of the local flavor like we have on our other trips.

We still talk about restaurants we went to on the aforementioned Grand Cayman, all up and down the Keys, Bahamas, etc, etc, etc...

In addition, many of the places have unique views, setups or ambiance. Wouldn't want to miss that either.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Wow, this is great information. Thanks everyone. Do you recommend the Baked Ziti or the Chicken Parmesean at this upscale Fargo Olive Garden?

I am glad that we don't have to book this for many more months, I think we'll have enough information to figure out exactly what we want by then. We were pretty set on all-inclusive, but maybe that isn't the best way to go...

Right now, I am leaning towards doing a combination St. Thomas-St. John trip, since they're a short ferry away from each other. I think I'd want to fly into St. Thomas, and go straight to St. John, and spend a few days doing nothing but relaxing in seclusion, and exploring the island. Then toward the end of the trip spend a couple days in St. Thomas. Hell, they're close enough we could stay on St. John and just ferry over to St. Thomas, or even Tortola for a day each. I just really enjoy going to new places to eat, and trying new food, and now I'm worried I'm going to miss out on one of the things I am really looking forward to. Need to discuss more with the fiance! (at least this is much more fun than discussing guest lists and how we're going to tell our parents that they need to cut some of their friends from it )

Also, my mom, who has traveled the Caribbean quite a bit, although, they always do either Jamaica or a cruise, highly recommended St. Martin/Maarten. So I think I might look into that some more. She also mentioned that the VI are much more expensive, though that is not something I have found by looking online, as all of the places look expensive. One other place I've come across is Saba Island, it looks pretty nice, and reasonably priced. http://www.queensaba.com/ourresort

edit: it looks like Saba has no decent beaches, and we do want to have some beach time, but maybe we could do a St. Martin - Saba combination trip, so we can see the island.

 

[Mowers10]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

I am also anti all inclusive on the food front......did it once; food was not good.

 

[Greyeagle]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

There are a couple beaches on Virgin Gorda that are amazing.

 

[Hopkinja]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Now obviously, if you're in Jamaica or the Riviera Maya (which we're looking at for our next extended family trip), an all-inclusive makes a lot of sense due to safety reasons.

Gotta disagree with Jamaica. I spent two weeks driving all around the country and only felt unsafe once or twice (other than from the crazy drivers). I even drove through Kingston - during the day, mind you - but I stopped at a fast food restaurant there for lunch and was perfectly fine. Of course, there are places you don't want to go to (Trenchtown, anyone?) but there are lots of interesting places you likely won't get to if you stick to the all inclusives. For example, I had a great time at the Jerk Centre outside Port Antonio and a memorable Christmas dinner at a small inn in the Blue Mountains. As a bird watcher I got far off the beaten path, but you can still have a good time safely as long as you behave smartly and do a little research.

 

[jmh]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

We did all-inclusives on our honeymoon and were very happy with the choice, but we made sure to research the restaurants at the resorts where we were considering staying in order to be confident that we'd be happy eating all our meals there. I guess that's one advantage of going with a company like Sandals, is that with the size of their resorts you get multiple options at each one.

 

[DaveStPaul]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Paris from 12/25 - 12/29
London from 12/29 - 1/5
First time for me in each city for me (wife went 25+ years ago) - any suggestions beyond the obvious?

Hey, that's exciting, GE!

Sorry for the delay in replying, but we just got back from London and Paris. Plenty of great ideas so far. I'd add:

1) Both cities are huge. There's no way you could see everything in one trip. I got it into my head early on that we'd see what we were able to see, and anything we missed would just have to be another time.
2) Both cities are physically huge. It surprised me how long it could take to get from one side of "downtown" to the other. I had to adjust what I figured we could reasonably do.
3) In London, see if you can visit the Churchill War Rooms. You walk through the actual underground complex where they ran WWII. We thought it was really cool.
4) In Paris, it really does make a huge difference if you do the basic polite French stuff. "Bonjour, Madame," or "Bonjour, Monsieur" when you walk in to a store. "S'il vous plait" after you ask for something, even in English. Etc.
5) Also in Paris -- and this isn't exactly high cultural advice -- you can get fantastic take-away sandwiches at bakeries. When it says "BOULANGERIE" you figure there's croissants and baguettes; but they also have really good sandwiches -- tuna salad, cheese, ham and cheese. I think we did this for lunch every day.

Otherwise, just walk around and soak it in, baby!

Say, I wonder if I'll bump into you at the local "County Fair" this weekend . . .

 

[DaveStPaul]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

I'm visiting Camp Red Cloud in South Korea in October. Any must-see ideas?

1) The DMZ. I didn't expect to be so moved, but it's well, well worth the visit. We did the USO tour; you might have insider options.

2) The old palace (Gyeongbokgung). It should be extra-beautiful with the fall foliage.

3) The food. Any mom-and-pop place with grilled beef, or dumplings, or those crazy seafood pancakes. Really fantastic food.

 

[theprofromdover]

Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

1) The DMZ. I didn't expect to be so moved, but it's well, well worth the visit. We did the USO tour; you might have insider options.

2) The old palace (Gyeongbokgung). It should be extra-beautiful with the fall foliage.

3) The food. Any mom-and-pop place with grilled beef, or dumplings, or those crazy seafood pancakes. Really fantastic food.

Thanks.