I travel for a living, but never coordinate my travel myself. That said.... Haven't been on a real vacation with my wife since our honeymoon. Want to take her somewhere for our anniversary next August. Wondering what is the best way to set up a trip. What websites do you recommend? I either want to take her to the Riviera Maya on the east coast of Mexico or some small island in the Caribbean. Don't want to go to some big resort or town...... small village or just a real chill laid back place. Thanks.....
First I would try to see if you can find a message board with people that have travelled where you are going. They may have a lot of very good suggestions. Also, look at tripadvisor - you can find a lot of good suggestions for the area there. If there is a lot of things to do in your area and you don't want to do anything special don't book any activities. Just go there and when you are there you can decide what you want to do. It will make your vacation more flexible and more enjoyable. Also look into private transport companies. Depending on where you are staying, you might want to do this for portions of your trip instead of renting a car. They will know how to get where you want to go and I found in Costa Rica that it wasn't all that expensive.
Orbitz, Do Flight+Hotel. Always gotten the best deal. If you are going to Mexico, i would strongly suggest all-inclusive.
Doesn't august suck at that time of year? Monitor the weather patterns next month {Poasted via palm pilot}
Bring me back a leather bullwhip. Also, I need some painkillers if you can slip them through Customs.
1. Find out where you want to go. 2. Find a small bungalow type place on the island, use tripadvisor to read reviews. 3. book directly with them. 4. book your own flight. just shop around. you should have a shitload of frequent flyer miles, right? try for that first. easiest way. mexican resorts always seem scammy to me. dunno why. they just do. go watch travel channel for the "best carribean islands" or "top 10 beaches" for ideas.
Depending on where you are going, look into renting a vacation home by owner. www.vrbo.com. It can be a great alternative to a hotel, and much cheaper, and Ive had nothing but good experiences using that web site. It all depends on where you are going and what kind of vacation you are looking for though, some places a hotel + inclusive is much prefered.
One thing to remember is that sometimes you can get better prices by waiting until about a month before the trip. For instance I am taking the family to Disney World in Florida in a month or so... we were originally going to go next year and the tickets and hotel were like 8K plus... but if we go a month from now it is just over 2K for 5 people round trip! It may be that when it appears the plane won't be full the prices drop... not sure. They also don't know what fuel prices will be a year from now so I bet they guess on the high end. Anyway... check prices at different time frames in the future and see if there is a difference. Check leaving and returning on different days.
