What is the best bang-for-your-buck beach vacation you can buy in the Caribbean and/or Mexico/Central America. I'm looking for warm blue waters, something easy to fly to, and of course - on the cheaper end of this type of vacation.
What P/C says is good.....also look into Roatan in Honduras. Its one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. Direct flight from Houston on Continental.
I hesitate to post this because I hate to give away the secret, but I'd say Isla Mujeres. Fly to Cancun (from Austin you can go direct on Viva Aerobus starting in May ---- the $9.99 seats are sold out, but should be great fares still available for the summer) and then take the ferry across to Isla. There are reasonable rooms in the $70-80 per night range. I tell people that it's like Laredo (without the killing) and one of the best beaches I've ever been on.
Isla Mujeres isn't a secret, but it's still pretty tranquil and not dense with tourists. A great spot, no doubt.
RE: Viva Aerobus. An article in the statesman last week said they were out of the $9.99 flights, but still had numerous seats available much cheaper than you'll find elsewhere.
If you're thinking of honeymooning on Isla, I'd go with Hotel Secreto: The Link If we were going without kids, that's where we'd stay.
We stayed at Hotel Secreto on Isla Mujeres for our honeymoon 4 years ago. Loved it, and have been talking about going back ever since.
Thanks for the suggestion, hotel secreto looks great. We definately don't want to be around children or Cancun. Does the hotel have restaurant? Any recommendations?
Isla Mujeres is the anti-Cancun. Lots of restaurants within a 5 minute walk from Hotel Secreto. The nicest place to eat on the island is Casa Rolandi on the other end of the island, which was the only place we needed a cab to get to.
My fiancee is not completely sold on Hotel Secreto because of the condo construction next door and small beach area. I've read on Trip Advisor that its not that bad, plus, we are not going until next Summer, so the construction should be finished. Anyone know the status of the construction? I'm looking at a couple of honeymoon destinations: Turks and Caicos, Harbour Island Bahamas, and Isla Mujeres. Isla gets the nod from me because of price and 4 hour direct flight from DC to Cancun. Because the price is lower, I could afford to stay an extra couple of days. The Turks and Caicos and Harbour Island require multiple plane changes and an additional 2-3 hours each way of flying time. Oh well, I still have a little time to convince her.
I liked Isla Mujeres... very nice. Another great area, not that frequented by Americans, is Huatulco.
re: bang for buck value I just booked five nights at an all inclusive in Playa del Carmen for $2,400 (for wife and I). Price includes air fare, transfers, meals, and liquor. Not the best resort, not the worst.... a couple of blocks from the shopping district. We will be sitting on the beach drinking ****** drinks on Sunday afternoon.Gran Porto Real
I don't know the status of the construction near Secreto. I'll be back in Isla next month, and I'll see what I can find out. Secreto has a beach, but it's on the rough side of the island. The beach is beautiful, but the current prohibits swimming. However, the great part of Isla is that all of the downtown/ north beach area is walkable. It's probably a two minute walk from Secreto to get around the corner to a great beach. Then you can walk to any of the downtown restaurants, etc. It's just amazingly convenient. People think I kid about the size, but sitting at Cazuela's restaurant, one side of the table can look out over the Caribbean and the other side of the table can see across the island (probably 3-4 blocks) and look out over the water towards Cancun. I also like Mexico so I described it as Laredo (before you risked your life going there) with one of the best beaches I've seen. Plus, the beer was as cheap as water. The one down-side is that it doesn't have the upscale restaurants (save Villa Rolandi's, which is on the other side of the island), but then again, I went with kids, and we were all (myself included) more than happy to eat at little dives on the beach where we could take our shoes off and keep our feet in the sand. I've also been to Turks & Caicos. The beaches were as nice as advertised, and we loved it. It's harder to get around than Isla, but there were some outstanding restaurants there. We stayed at the Sands at Grace Bay and enjoyed it. If you go to T&C, there is (or was) a poster on here that lived there for a while so you might contact him. I think his handle was LondonOllie. Don't know if he's still around.
We stayed several days in Isla Mujeres and loved; very relaxed, quiet, and casual. Playa Norte was beautiful. Our favorite place to eat for breakfast and lunch was the group small "loncheria" restaurants on the road headed to the beach. Great tacos, breakfast and otherwise. We could both eat for $5-$6 / meal, total. The ladies that run the places were really nice; hope they are still there
