Looking for suggestions for someone who hates all-inclusives

acagan · Joined: 18 Jan 2010 Posts: 1

Hi everyone, I really appreciate the help in advance.

I am looking for a fantastic island or hotel recommendation for a Caribbean vacation sometime in mid-April where i can propose to my girlfriend. The problem is that I dont have a ton of money to spend but we also both really hate the environment of those touristy all inclusive resorts.

I am looking for the classic Caribbeans vacation; something small and intimate where we can relax on a beautiful beach, eat good food either at the hotel or at nearby restaurants, and venture into a close town if we feel like going out. Aside from the usual massive all-inclusive resorts, everything I have found seems to be extremely expensive (i'd like to keep it at or under $200 per night), on a rocky, un-swimable beach, in the middle of nowhere, or the hotels and rooms are just terrible (and ugly) looking.

I suppose I'm asking a lot here, but I figured this might be the place to find some answers. I have done a lot of searching across a lot of the islands but some first had experiences from people who prefer the finer things in life but do so on a budget would be really helpful. I would not rule out spending some time on a sailboat and have heard about trips that are not ridiculously expensive, but I have yet to find something like this.

If it is helpful, we went to Playa Del Carmen on the Riviera Maya and had a wonderful time swimming, snorkeling, and seeing ruins, though I think i would like something a little more relaxed than that. We also stayed at the Riu Bachatta in the Dominican republic and thought it was awful. We couldn't even leave the hotel...

Thanks again,

Andrew

jckangus · Joined: 25 Feb 2010 Posts: 12

Peter Island Resort is a beautiful, very restful place to go. However, we had some disappointments that will probably keep us from going back. First, we read much about the "personal" service from the staff, and we found non of that. They never knew our names (and we heard they were at 40% capacity). Many of the staff were friendly and pleasant, but the front desk ladies were no help at all and not very friendly. There was no concierge. Although there was a table set up, it was never staffed. We had two kind of big things that were disappointing. We had sent in a request for the wine dinner before we left on the trip and never heard back from anyone. After we arrived we asked again about it and were told we would be contacted. On Wednesday we let them know again that we had not heard anything yet. Finally on Thursday (the day it was scheduled) my husband called and said that we had made other plans-so we were not interested. We felt we had been ignored.
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Playa del Carmen weddings