Caribbean Travels

Trip Advisor

2005-05-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

Trip Advisor is a site with various information about travelling. They are mainly trying to get people to travel to the Caribbean islands; regardless of specifically where they go or who they book their trip through. The website lists articles on travelling to the Caribbean Islands as well as ranking of places to stay and a wealth of knowledge for people wanting to travel to the Caribbean. You can also sign up for a free news letter with specials, news, and other information. To further encourage travellers to venture to the beautiful islands in the Caribbean, they offer specials from online travel agents like expedia.com and hotels.com. If you're on the fence as to where you want to go and you want more information, this is a great source!

Travelzoo

2005-05-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

For those who travel a lot (or dream of taking wonderful vacations), travelzoo has specials that you can sign up to receive on a weekly basis. Travelzoo searches over 300 companies for the best deals and compiles a list of the best 20. They email this list to all of thier subscribers and obvious reasons, call it their "Travelzoo Weekly Top 20." The list has sales on airfare, resorts, etc. to places all over the world, and on this week's list, there are two to the Caribbean:

$599 -- Puerto Plata 7-Night All-Inclusive Vacation

$699 -- Punta Cana 7-Night All-Inclusive Vacation Source: Apple Vacations

You can sign up for a free subscription to their Top 20 emails by visiting Top 20(R)

Cruise Shopping

2005-05-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Cruiseshopping.com is a website that lists cruises from various cruise lines as well as vacation packages to resorts in the Caribbean. A tip they give to their more price-conscious consumers looking for a cruise is to look at the prices for all of the categories because some of the best deals are for oceanview and balcony staterooms. They also have a list of "Top Deals" where they list the best bargains they have to offer, during each month. It seems like a good website to find a great deal!

Cruiseshopping.com's Caribbean deals: Cruise Shopping

Expedia's Caribbean Deals

2005-04-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Basically all online travel agencies offer daily, weekly, and monthly specials on various vacation packages. Expedia.com is no exception, and are currently promoting vacations for this summer to the Caribbean. They are offering all-inclusive, hotel and air, flights, or cruise package deals for people travelling sometime between June 1 and August 31 of this summer. These vacation deals look way too tempting!!

Here is the link for the Caribbean deals they're currently offering: Expedia's Caribbean Deals

Norwegian Cruise Line

2005-04-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

Although I personally have never been on a cruise (it's on my list of things to do), I have heard nothing but great things about them. Friends and family have told me that they have had great times travelling on the Norwegian Cruise Lines. I found a website called The Cruise Web, and they have a guaranteed lowest price on their Norwegian cruise packages. They do things differently than other websites; you can view the cruises that they have coming up, and then after filling out your information, they will get back to you with a price quote. If you can find a cheaper price on the same package, they guarantee to beat it. Its a different way of looking for a vacation, but if it gets you a cheaper price, whatever works!

The link to their caribbean cruises is here: Cruise Web-Caribbean

Nassau, Bahamas

2005-04-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

Over spring break, I went to Nassau, Bahamas and it was absolutely gorgeous. My three roommates and I booked our trip through student travel services, a company who offers vacation packages mostly for the 18-24 age group. They have trips available to:

Nassau, Bahamas
Acapulco
Cancun
Montego Bay and Negril, Jamacia
Panama City Beach
Daytona Beach
South Padre

STS offers party packages and meal plans to save their customers money once they get to their destinations. We bought a VIP party package which paid for cover for any of the bars that we wanted to go to, 4 open bar nights, a booze cruise, and a daytime cruise to the Blue Lagoon. We also purchased the meal plan (2 meals per day for seven days), which ended up saving us a lot of money. For the meal plan, they have a list of restaurants you can go to and pick from a selected menu, or take the cash value of the voucher and select anything on the menu and pay the difference (the cash value varies with each restaurant). My roommates and I had an incredible time and I would reccommend to anyone that they go to Nassau and book their trip through STS!

The Beautiful Bahamas

2005-04-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

The view from our hotel room/my roommate reading by the water on the island of the Blue Lagoon

Vacations To Go

2005-03-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Vacations To Go is an online travel agent that offers deals on a variety of vacation packages. If you're looking to go on a cruise or escorted tour, stay at a hotel or resort, or find a hotel and airfare deal, this is a great place to go. This website sells cruises from all of the major cruise lines and have what they call a "90 Day Ticker" where they show a list of cruises departing in the next 90 days at a discount. Customers can potentially save about 75% on cruises in their 90 Day Ticker. If you'd like to, you can sign up for their mailing list and they will send you emails once or twice a month with these deals.

This week's top 10 cruises through Vacations To Go are:
1) Alaska, 7 days on Holland America, departs Anchorage May 15, starting at $499, save 56%, (FastDeal # 13179)
2) Mexico, 7 days on Princess, departs Los Angeles Apr 2, starting at $599, save 68%, (FastDeal # 7876)
3) Caribbean, 7 days on Royal Caribbean, departs San Juan Mar 27, starting at $599, save 63%, (FastDeal # 10258)
4) Trans-Atlantic, 14 days on Princess, departs Fort Lauderdale May 1, starting at $799, save 76%, (FastDeal # 10864)
5) Caribbean, 7 days on Carnival, departs Miami Apr 3, starting at $599, save 66%, (FastDeal # 10089)
6) Bahamas, 7 days on Norwegian, departs New York City May 22, starting at $769, save 50% (FastDeal # 12472)
7) Caribbean, 7 days on Costa, departs Fort Lauderdale Mar 27, starting at $599, save 45%, (FastDeal # 10082)
8) Bermuda, 8 days on Celebrity, departs Norfolk Jun 4, starting at $950, save 48%, (FastDeal # 13428)
9) Mediterranean, 7 days on Seabourn, departs Barcelona Jun 19, starting at $2998, save 51%, (FastDeal # 12033)
10) Alaska Cruisetour, 11 days on Royal Caribbean (Package #3), departs Anchorage May 30, starting at $1849, save 25%, (FastDeal # 14463)

Atmosphere

2005-03-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

To answer Michelle's comment, the resort that I went to (Sunscape Punta Cana Grand) was more family-oriented, but the whole island is not. The atmosphere in the Dominican Republic (or anywhere) depends on the resort that you choose. Also, even though this particular resort was family friendly, it was still geared towards the couples away on a romantic getaway, or really anyone who was there to have a good time. They had shows every night and a piano bar where you could request songs, and a few bars that you could go to at night (which were all fun), but it just wasn't a club or bar-hopping type of setting. We would go to the bars and talk to various people staying at the resort, which was very interesting. There were younger people there, but it was a mixed crowd and not the "spring break" atmosphere with people in their twenties running around being crazy. But it was a great time!

Pricing

2005-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

To answer Bridget's comment on how much a package would be, I did a little research. The prices depend on when you're going and how long you're staying, etc. as most travelling does. I looked up prices for two adults staying in a deluxe room (which I believe is the cheapest) for 7 days at the end of April (so about a month in advance). Not including airfare, the package is about $1,200. Including the cheapest airfare from Baltimore (BWI) airport and taxes, the package goes to about $2,500 for two adults. This resort, like most places, has a few types of rooms to choose from-with or without ocean view, suites, etc. My family got the deluxe suite that I don't believe was supposed to have an ocean view, but we could go out onto our balcony and see the ocean if we simply looked to the left. So there is no need to pay for a room with a view since you can see it from most of the rooms! The Sunscape Punta Cana Grand was a more family oriented resort, so I wouldn't reccommend it for a spring break location for college students but it was really nice!

Dominican Republic

2005-02-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

In early January, I stayed at the Sunscape Punta Cana Grand on the Eastern tip of the Dominican Republic. It is an all-inclusive resort, so once you're there, there is no need to spend a lot of money (unless you want to buy souveniers or other things). It was absolutely beautiful, and the resort has a great deal to offer its guests. The resort has two pools, tennis courts, shuffle board, ping pong, volleyball (in the pool and on the sand), basketball court, and billiards. They also offer non-motorized water sports including kayaking, windsurfing, sailing, snorkling, and an ocean trampoline. There are 6 bars, including one that you can swim up to and get drinks starting at 6 AM. At night, they play movies and perform live shows, and have a piano bar where you can go and request songs. The resort employees are hilarious and most of them are fluent in at least three or four languages. You can walk right onto the beach from the resort, and the locals have shops set up along the beach. When you start to walk towards the shops, they greet you and lead you into their store where they promise to give you a good price for whatever you wish. My family and I had a great time!

This is their website: Sunscape Resorts

2005-02-27T20:18:00.000-08:00

Shopping in the Dominican Republic

Intro

2005-02-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

Over winter break, my family and I visited Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic-which was the first time I had ever been anywhere in the Caribbean. It was absolutely beautiful, and knowing that it was maybe 30 degrees at home as I was laying on the beach in 90 degree weather made it even more enjoyable. I am going to post messages with travelling deals, information about various places in the Caribbean, and anything else that I might find to be relevant. I might regret doing research on the Caribbean during the semester when we're all here in Delaware trying to finish up school but oh well!