Pushin40: or anyone St. Lucia, St. Marten question

[grace10209]

Hi
Husband and I are planning a trip for our one year anniverary in July and wanted to get some input.
We LOVE Mexico and have been to cancun many time, We Like high end luxury all inclusive resorts that are adults only is possible.

We have never been to St. Marten or St. Lucia - we live in NewEngland and would like to go somewhere warm, where flights aren''t too far and its reasonably priced.
Im thinking $4000 for everything including flights.

anyone have any suggestions!?

Thank you in advance

 

[jcrow]

if you go to st. lucia i highly, highly recommend staying at ladera. i have a thread on here somewhere with pics + info from our honeymoon.

 

[meresal]

How many nights are you planning on staying?

There is a resort on the island of Anguilla called Cap Juluca. It is a 5 star resort and runs about $400/night.

You would have to fly into St Maarten (possibly into San Juan first, and then the prop plane to St Maarten), and then take the fairy to Anguilla. It's about 45 minutes to an hour if I remember correctly. (It was also raining when we took the fairy, so it could have just seemed longer)

There are tons and tons of RAVE reveiws about this place, and the whole island just feels like an oasis.

 

[grace10209]

OMG Ladera looks AMAZING. wow. ..................
just sent it to hubby - wow
We do prefer an all inclusive and i dont think that is one....?

Has anyone stayed at Ladera?

Meresal, we have friends that rent a house each year on Aguilla and they rave about it.
Thank you for the input

 

[meresal]

Date: 12/29/2009 2:45:32 PM
Author: grace10209
OMG Ladera looks AMAZING. wow. ..................
just sent it to hubby - wow
We do prefer an all inclusive and i dont think that is one....?

Has anyone stayed at Ladera?

Meresal, we have friends that rent a house each year on Aguilla and they rave about it.
Thank you for the input

I believe that Jcrow went there for their honeymoon... actually they stayed for 3 nights.

Here is the link to the thread that she mentioned: Jcrow Honeymoon - St Lucia

 

[dcgator]

There are 3 Sandals in St. Lucia. While they are not 5 star resorts, the LaToc and Grande are supposed to be pretty nice (so said our travel agent).

Our TA also recommend this place, The BodyHoliday at LeSPORT, but its more geared towards yoga, healthy eating, and the spa lifestyle. It is not 5 star quality, but it is all inclusive.

If you are willing to forgo the all inclusive, the Anse Chastanet Resort looked amazing and my parents stayed at the Jalousie Plantation, and they raved about it. It''s a little difficult to get to, but worth the trip.

 

[grace10209]

Thank you everyone, right now we are looking at the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall Hotel in Motego Bay.
Its adults only and sounds really great.
I would love Ladera, but i think its out of our price range at this point. Its just under $4k and does not include anything.
we can afford about $4k but that is at an all inclusive so all our food and drinks are paid for already.
We LOVE to eat and drink and could easily rack up over $1000 in charges in one week. yikes?!?!?!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Hi Grace! I''m jealous, I''d so love to escape this nasty winter we''re having here in NE! I''ve not been to SL, but I''ve heard great things about it, I don''t think you could go wrong with that choice. I''ve been to St. Maarten (stop over on a cruise) and it was ok. The beaches were beautiful and the shopping was pretty good. Just a word to the wise however, the beaches on the French side are clothing optional.

 

[grace10209]

Hey HH
thanks, we are going in July for our 1yr anniversary. just planning now as we hope to get a better price, planning early.
currently we are now looking at Jamaica and the Iberostar Grand Hotel Rose Hall, its Adults Only, All Inclusive and a 5 star. wooohooo.
a bit pricey but its looks great.
I have heard on a few of the tripadvisor reviews that there are some clothing opitional sections. I would die! LMAO! heheheheheeh

I'm 33 but still a goof with certain subjects and sites! lol

 

[jcrow]

Date: 12/29/2009 2:54:02 PM
Author: meresal

Date: 12/29/2009 2:45:32 PM

Author: grace10209

OMG Ladera looks AMAZING. wow. ..................

just sent it to hubby - wow

We do prefer an all inclusive and i dont think that is one....?


Has anyone stayed at Ladera?



Meresal, we have friends that rent a house each year on Aguilla and they rave about it.

Thank you for the input

I believe that Jcrow went there for their honeymoon... actually they stayed for 3 nights.


Here is the link to the thread that she mentioned: Jcrow Honeymoon - St Lucia

thanks meresal for the link...

yes, we split our honeymoon between two resorts, ladera and ti kaye. i can''t really recommend ti kaye, but we LOVED ladera. i do believe they have an all inclusive program, or at least they did when we went. ladera is on the pricey end, but even if you stay only a few nights, trust me, you will LOVE it too!

another resort on st. lucia that i''ve heard good things about is jade mountain

 

[grace10209]

OMG!! THank you JCREW! i just clicked on the Jade Mountain link, wholly crap! LMAO
I''ll be on there for the next hour!~

 

[Pushin40]

Hey Grace10209 - I just saw this.

Did you book anything yet? I always worry when people book anything in the Carribean June - Oct 31st since its hurricane season. Now - chances are pretty low you will be in a hurricane, but very hight you will have A LOT of rain. Or it could be fine.....you never know.

I was in St Lucia in mid October 2005, I think, and it was so rainy we couldn''t even walk to the restaurant at the resort for dinner. It was just a bummer. Really there is only so much hanging out you can do for a whole week.

Would you consider either Aruba or Cabo San Lucas? Both places get like 3 inches of rain a year. You are guarentted excellent weather. You could do Aruba for under 4K for a week

if I had to choose St Lucia or St Maarten I would pick St Maarten. It''s closer, cheaper to fly to from the NE (you can even get nonstops to SXM from Boston) and really St Maarten is just a good time!

Meresal mentioned Cap Juluca in Anguilla. OMG that place is HEAVENLY. FI and I visited there the week we got engaged to scope out the property for our destination wedding. We spent the day on the beach, talked to the wedding planner, had lunch, and toured all of the room catagoes. I fell in love with this place but it is EXPENSIVE....Ridiculously expensive.....but SUPER luxurious. We had lunch and 1 drink each and it was $75 plus tip (FI had a sandwich and I had a chicken ceasar salad) . It''s a very sleepy island.....soemday I''ll go there but staying there for a week and throwing a wedding would cost way more than what we wanted and none of our friends could afford it really.

There are quite a few AI''s in Aruba too - check out cheapcaribbean.com and do a search for the dates you are interested in (or give me some more info and Ican look for you!)

 

[grace10209]

Hey Pushin40

NO! we have not booked yet. We are looking at Jamaica now. Secrets Wild Orchid and Secrets St. James are two brand new resorts opening this spring in montego bay
--- we would be open to other places
you said we could do aruba for under 4K for a week
where? i think we looked at aruba but the flights were long. We have been to mexico several times so for this trip we want to skip mexico.
I will look at aruba and St. Maarten again.
We want 5 star, all inclusive, adults only
and YES i saw the place Meresal mentioned. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING> but ------------- out of our budget for this trip -

let me know if anything comes to mind for aruba and st maarten and i''ll look now too.
thanks!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

I have nothing to add, but will be living vicariously through you all. they sound gorgeous!!!

 

[wannaBMrsH]

Hi Grace-

We were looking at Jade Mountain for our HM at one point, too! and it DOES look heavenly! Right now we are putting our HM plans on hold until March when my job situation will be much clearer.

We looked at the Iberostar Rose Hall in Jamaica when looking for our DW site and ultimately ended up at the Iberostar Punta Cana, BUT, they just opened the Iberostar Grand Bavaro, right in Punta Cana and it is gorgeous!

We toured it while we were there for our wedding and it is absolutely incredible. I think there are also RT flights from the NYC area to the DR and I highly recommend them.

Lastly, you actually have a really great budget and i would definitely look at doing what jcrow did and staying at a nice hotel for a few days and then splurging on an amazing one for a few other days. It would give you some variety and still keep you on "island" time!

Have fun!

 

[Pushin40]

I''m not a hgue fan of Jamaica but really a beach is a beach - and its certainly a nice beach! And that''s just me - no reason not to like it, just places I like better. If you like the ganja you will have a super vacation...

If you want, give me the week you think you want to go and what airport you woudl fly out of. I LOVE poking around and looking for trips. (its kind of pathetic but it''s what I do for fun).

You can get a non-stop flight from BOS to Aruba and get there in 4 hours. I do think you can do AUA 4K/week especially if you go after March - the rates drop everywere.

I wish I could email you - I have a great TA in Boston and you could contact her via email.

I still need to pick out the resort for my wedding - too many choices.....why and I on Pricescope???

 

[Pushin40]

Another suggestion if you are into this:

www.vrbo.com (Vacation rentals by owner)
You can negotiate with them as well...


Search on Carrbean, pick an island, like St Maarten - and see all of the rentals including condos on the beach or small houses that are TOTALLY affordable. Do that then go to Orbits or whatever and do a quick search to get an idea of arifare for that week. I do this all the time.

We rented a house in PDC, MX, more like a 5 BR mansion, for my 40th Bday last Feb and it was so much fun! It was 10K for the week - and we got it for 5K for 8 nights!

With our St Maarten trip (which was actually a timeshare exchange) We went to the grocery store, loaded up on food and alcohol, so we had breakfast and lunch every day, then went out to dinner each night. We rented a car for 10 days and it was $250 - you get a basic island map and drive to a new beach every day with a packed lunch and bag of alcohol.....it makes a huge difference when you don''t have to pay $4 for water at the baech. BYO.

SO MUCH FUN!

Check out the rentals (if you are OK with not being at a resrot and more on your own). its a great way to travel! You''ll start to get addicted to that website.