Looking for Some Great Ideas for an Inexpensive Vacation

You can find a 6 night cruise or so for around $1200-1500. This doesn't include airfare or drinks, though..I recommend Carnival's Western Caribbean. We went on one to Cozumel, The Cayman Islands, and Jamaica. THe ocean at Cozumel was sparkling and just beautiful. Good luck!!

I dont know if you are a fan of on-line shopping for trips, but there are two websites that I have used and found GREAT deals. The first www.luxurylink.com is an online auction for GREAT trips. I used them for a trip to Fiji and it was great. Also, there is www.site59.com- which offers great deals on last minute plans. I used them and got a round trip ticket from MN to MT with car and hotel for like $159 per person.
Good luck!

Hi I get these emails all of the time and it sounds pretty good, www.cheapcaribbean.com and www.shermanstravel.com. I haven't gone personally but you could check them out. Hope that helps.
C.

The Dominican Republic has awesome, all-inclusive resorts. The weather is always perfect (unless there is a hurricane) and it is relatively inexpensive. Also check out cruise sales in the paper, if you like that kind of stuff. Have fun!

If you're thinking inexpensive, I would definitely recommend Mexico. We had our honeymoon Jan of 05 and we spent like $1300 for a whole week I think for everything for BOTH of us(all inclusive). While it wasn't the fanciest of places, it was very nice. We stayed at Catalonia Riviera Maya in the Riviera Maya area. I would DEFINITELY recommend an all-inclusive if you can swing it, we felt it's definitely worth it. It definitely puts more of a limit of money you HAVE to take. I had also done Jamaica but be prepared to spend a lot more money!!! Check out tripadvisor.com--you can plug in different hotels you hear about as recommendations and check out what others have to say as well as see some pics from there. Good luck, I'm so jealous!!!

I would recomend Mazatlan Mexico. It's very inexpensive, the food is awesome and your can pretty much hit happy hour all the way down the beach. I don't think it's necessary to go all inclusive, unless you want to feel like part of a cattle drive-no offense to anyone who like all inclusive-my husband and I had a bad experience-ok food but felt like part of a cattle drive at meal time-get em' in and get em' out! Anyway, the food in Mazatlan is inexpensive anyway-and really good! Good luck!

We took our company trip to the Marival in Puerto Vallarta last year. It was awesome! It was about $900 all inclusive with airfair for 5 nights. Lots of food selections and you don't have to eat outside with the birds unless you want to. It's a Canadian owned place so it has a lot of the more American conveniences. They have a bunch of different themed restaurants that you can sign up for and there are really cool shows every night. They also have a really cool kiddie pool and lots of ocean front so you don't have to sit on top of each other.
I just looked up March 25-31 and it's about $1550 per person on Travelocity but you can try other dates to see if you can find a better rate. We went in January and it was really nice then because it's a lot closer to the equator than a lot of other hot spots.
The only thing you want to avoid is the timeshares. 2 of our couples got them and aren't so happy with it.
Happy Traveling,
J.

I highly suggest the Iberostar resorts. We've been to the one in Punta Cana and in Playa Del Carmen and both were wonderful all-inclusives with what I thought was good value. Great food & service.

My husband and I spent 9 days in the Dominican Republic for about $2,000 all inclusive. Everything you'll need is on site... clean ocean, shopping, pools, food, drinks, and you can walk around about 5 other adjoining resports. We stayed at the Riu Bamboo. You can take outside tours, go snorkeling, golfing, and many other things for added prices. Dress up or dress down, there are many people from Europe there. They have different entertainment each night from the staff that great and always hilarious. The rooms are clean and the weather is great!

I have been to Montego Bay, JA and Punta Cana, DR. At both I stayed at an all inclusive resort and had a wonderful time. Punta Cana was a little cheaper because it is an up and coming tourist spot, whereas Jamaica has been for years. If you go to the Dominican Republic, except to see a lot of Europeans, who seem to vacation there, especially if you go to a mid-priced resort. I mention this for two reasons - if you don't speak spanish, you will understand very little from the people around you and expect a lot more smokers. All in all though, it is a great time. We went through Apple Tours, which is great because it includes ground transportation to and from the airport, but you can find lots of great deals. Have fun.

Hi,

My husband and I just took a quick Mexico Caribbean getaway this past December. We were on a very tight budget and the best deal I found was on expedia.com. It was by far cheaper than any of the other major on-line travel sites (travelocity, etc.). Also, I did check out some other good sites, that might have good deals for you, too.
travelzoo.com
gate1travel.com

When we began the search we were looking at Jamaica and the Bahamas, but found that the Riveria Maya area (Cancun, Cozume, Playa del Carmen) was much much cheaper. We spent about $500 per person that included airfare from Milwaukee (yeah...didn't have to fly out of Chicago) and an all-inclusive stay for 4days/3nights. We stayed at Dreams Tulum resort about 2hrs south of Cancun, It was ok...not great. But did have what we wanted good beach, clear waters and any meal/drink we wanted.

Traveladvisor.com was a great resource for us to choose because it had candid photos from other travelers, to the point reviews and any information you need to decide on where to go. You can also email other travelers to ask questions which helped us a lot.

Good Luck!!
J.

My husband and I went to Jamaica last June for our 10 yr anniversary. we did an all inclusive with Sandals. We loved it. It was nice not having to carry around money and knowing we didn't have to tip anyone. I'm not sure what type of weather is there in the next few months so that would be something you'd want to check into. Good luck deciding!

Barbados, in the Caribbean. We stoped at that Island on our cruise a few years ago in April and it was gorgeous the weather was awesome. There are several all inclusives there not sure on the prices though we are thinking of taking the kids down there sometime for a vacation. Good luck and have a great trip.