Best Caribbean Resort for a Family?

[thegamebird]

We are planning to ate a 2.5 week trip to the Caribbean next July. We recognise this is not the most ideal season, but suits our long school holidays hence the timing.

We are flying in and out of Antigua and plan to spend a week there, leaving us 10 nights to explore one or maybe two other Island destinations.

We will hopefully use our DC points to book our nights on the other Islands, and would welcome insights as to which resort could prove best for our family. We're drawn to the St Thomas RC (I like a bit of luxury ), but is also needs t work for our son who will be just 7. We really need a good kid's club and access to a beach would be good, but we don't really like child-dominated resorts.

So St Kitts, St Thomas, Aruba - which ones would you suggest for us.

Thank you!

 

[jimf41]

I would favor the Marriott TS on STT over the RC TS because of the children's activity center. I'm more interested in how you are getting from Antigua to any of the other islands. Inter-island air travel in the Caribbean can be challenging.

 

[m61376]

I think at the end of the day it's going to come down to your preference- many of us here have our own strong personal favorites. While July is in the hurricane season, historically the storms have been more problematic August leading into Sept./Oct., and less of an issue in July. Aruba is below the hurricane belt so the storms are rarely an issue there, and the weather is pretty consistent all year.

That said, I love Aruba- for us it's the perfect place to kick the sand and relax. The Lazy River at the Surf Club is great for kids and those of us who haven't grown up. The resort is right on a beautiful beach, so you can easily flit from beach to pool all day if you wanted to. Quiet, safe protected waters, and you can even start to teach the 7 year old to snorkel at Baby Beach, about half an hour from the Marriotts, reputed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

What we love about Aruba is the almost always great weather and the fact that, although hot, there is a comforting breeze; although we love it, some complain about the wind. The island is safe, and the people very friendly. There are many really good restaurants, and many are kid friendly. Getting around the island is easy, and there are a lot of restaurants within 10 minutes of the Marriotts. While your son would probably enjoy the butterfly farm, the donkey farm and the ostrich sanctuary, it is mostly just an R&R type vacation, relaxing under a palapa on the beach (free chaises, btw) or under an umbrella at the pool.

Not really familiar with the kid's programs (my "kids" are adults), but there seem to be several that I've seen bunches of kids happily engaged in. There are also all the usual blow up float water rides right at your doorstep. Aruba attracts many families, many multi-generational.

 

[thegamebird]

I would favor the Marriott TS on STT over the RC TS because of the children's activity center. I'm more interested in how you are getting from Antigua to any of the other islands. Inter-island air travel in the Caribbean can be challenging.

Fair point re the travel - hadn't looked into that bit yet but where there's a will there's a way - I hope!

 

[JMSH]

Fair point re the travel - hadn't looked into that bit yet but where there's a will there's a way - I hope!

You don't need a will you need money, if that is not an obstacle than neither will be the travel arrangements. If you want to do something for the child, spend a week on an island than fly to Orlando spend a week there...Disney, Universal etc.

 

[normab]

Can't comment on whether Aruba Surf Club or STT is better, SKB seemed more quiet and I am not sure they even had a kid's club. We older f*rts enjoyed the quiet pool at SKB! There was more activity at the main pool, but I don't recall many kids on any of our trips. Of course, we typically go off season in May...

I can say that as adults we loved the Surf Club lazy river and could see a 7 year old loving it too. I remember our DS loving slides and lazy rivers when he was that age. Pack a noodle!

Regarding inter-island travel, we use Liat and Winair. We had no major problems. We booked on line, and the flights were fine. Winair planes were much smaller and interesting--they let us put our bags in the aisles! Liat was more like regional jet service.

Norma

 

[WINSLOW]

If you don't mind saving, renting or trading your DC points.

I'd say try to go to Harborside Atlantis even for just a short stay on the way over to Disney. Your 7 year old might love it (if he likes the water). They also have a kid's club at the hotel. Don't know if you've already been there but you'd have fun too.

 

[thegamebird]

You don't need a will you need money, if that is not an obstacle than neither will be the travel arrangements. If you want to do something for the child, spend a week on an island than fly to Orlando spend a week there...Disney, Universal etc.

Thanks for the advice. Will start looking into the internal flights. We're doing Orlando this October (Grande Vista via II), and there's no way we could handle another theme park packed week - one per year's enough for us .

We really want to see what's on offer in this part of the world, and an internal flight on a little plane sounds like brilliant fun!

 

[thegamebird]

I think at the end of the day it's going to come down to your preference- many of us here have our own strong personal favorites. While July is in the hurricane season, historically the storms have been more problematic August leading into Sept./Oct., and less of an issue in July. Aruba is below the hurricane belt so the storms are rarely an issue there, and the weather is pretty consistent all year.

That said, I love Aruba- for us it's the perfect place to kick the sand and relax. The Lazy River at the Surf Club is great for kids and those of us who haven't grown up. The resort is right on a beautiful beach, so you can easily flit from beach to pool all day if you wanted to. Quiet, safe protected waters, and you can even start to teach the 7 year old to snorkel at Baby Beach, about half an hour from the Marriotts, reputed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

What we love about Aruba is the almost always great weather and the fact that, although hot, there is a comforting breeze; although we love it, some complain about the wind. The island is safe, and the people very friendly. There are many really good restaurants, and many are kid friendly. Getting around the island is easy, and there are a lot of restaurants within 10 minutes of the Marriotts. While your son would probably enjoy the butterfly farm, the donkey farm and the ostrich sanctuary, it is mostly just an R&R type vacation, relaxing under a palapa on the beach (free chaises, btw) or under an umbrella at the pool.

Not really familiar with the kid's programs (my "kids" are adults), but there seem to be several that I've seen bunches of kids happily engaged in. There are also all the usual blow up float water rides right at your doorstep. Aruba attracts many families, many multi-generational.

This is fantastic advice. Thank you so much for your insights - it will help no end, I'm sure in helping us to make our decisions.

 

[SpikeMauler]

I agree with m61376.I own at Frenchman's Cove and the Aruba Ocean Club and have stayed at the Aruba Surf Club. Out of those three, If I were traveling with kids, I would choose the Aruba Surf Club. Lots of other kids there plus a great lazy river pool.

 

[jimf41]

Ok, it seems like the general consensus is Aruba. Good choice for all the reasons mentioned above. I have friends that stay there every year and I'd love to visit them or them visit us while we're in St Thomas. Only one problem, you can't get there from here. It applies to almost all inter island air travel.

If you travel from Antigua (ANU) to Aruba (AUA) in July of 2013 the shortest trip is 10 hours with two stops, three different aircraft and two different airlines. The price PP is $1239. You can do it for less. US air will fly you there for $556. This time four stops, 21 hours, four different planes and two different airlines. We won't mention lost luggage potential with multiple airlines and multiple aircraft.

The reason for the lack of flights is simple. While lots of folks fly to a Caribbean island for vacation almost no island residents fly to another island for their vacations. There is virtually no trade between any of these islands, everything they get comes from some mainland.

Gamebird I don't mean to rain on your parade but I'm trying to inject reality into your trip planning. For my flight planning I used Orbitz. There are several other good sites to use but the best way I would suggest for you is to look at individual airlines. To do this do a wikipedia search for each airport. Wiki lists the airlines that fly out of that airport. You can then find one that flies to both. You'll also see smaller choices like the aforementioned Winair. Airlines like Winair, with a total fleet of five aircraft, will never come up on most airline search engines because they simply aren't big enough or provide enough scheduled service. That doesn't mean you can't go to a small carrier's site directly and get something that fits your needs.

I generally stay away from small carriers when I'm traveling. They just don't have the backup or support when something goes wrong. If that happens you are usual in a spot where there are few hotel choices and fewer alternative airlines.

Hope this helps

Good shopping.

 

[Pompey Family]

I've just gone a quick search on Skyscanner for a flight to Aruba from London next Easter and came up with several options. THe cheapest being with Delta (to be avoided at all costs!) was £746 with one stopover at JFK however the flight time was 24 hours. A more attractive option was KLM with a flight time of 14 hours and a stopover in Amsterdam for £834.

 

[Whirl]

Jim Has done an excellent job of laying out the specifics of what I was thinking, and gone above and beyond to offer concrete search information related to your question.

I am quite curious about the genesis of why you must or have chosen to fly in and out of Antigua as your base.

As Jim said, getting around in the lesser travelled carribean islands can be expensive and time-consuming. If cost is not a concern, then surely convenience and lost vacation time in transit are.

I think you should start your quest with what is feasible. The "Caribbean " is a big place when you consider getting around. Aruba is not even in the Caribbean and is certainly a popular destination for many. Part of the popularity is that there are generally many hubs from which there are manageable direct

flights....Antique is not one of them.


So without any real research but based on geography and past recollections from flying into Antigua to do a week sail on a catamaran, then more natural choices that come to mind likely accessible through ferries, catamaran day sails and puddle jumpers would be ...st kitts, Nevis, maybe guadaloupe and Monserrat.

Anyway, the point is to do your research based on what is convenient and your tolerance for travel inconvenience.

Not knowing the circumstances, I don't know if possible, but if somewhere like Aruba is really your pref, it may be more cost and time effective to pay the change fees for the back end so you open up more possibilities.

Good luck. Sounds like it will ultimately be a great trip, but as Jim said, better to start with more realistic understanding of the possibilities.

 

[MALC9990]

Fair point re the travel - hadn't looked into that bit yet but where there's a will there's a way - I hope!

Antigua is of course a British Airways hub in the caribbean. BA fly to Antigua daily from London Gatwick and each flight then travels on to one or another location in the Caribbean. So if you time it right, BA fly Gatwick - Antigua - St Kitts on two days each week (Sat and Tue). So you could do Antigua first and then catch the BA flight in from Gatwick on its way to St Kitts. Then fly back to Gatwick with BA from St Kitts via Antigua. In July BA fly to St. Kitts via Antigua on Sat and Tue. You stay on the plane at Antigua if you are going on to St Kitts and also on the way home. All that can be done on one ticket out of London Gatwick.

We were in the St Kitts Resort for two weeks in May. Several people joined the flight at Antigua for the short hop to St. Kitts - takes about 15 mins - even the cabin crew stay in their seats as the seat belt light stays on for the whole time. Also you can do it in reverse since people left our return flight at Antigua having boarded at St. Kitts.

Not use if the St. Kitts resort would be great for kids - have no kids ourselves. The resort needs some work to lick it into decent shape. The hotel was looking decidedly faded and the pools were poor - all need a really good clean below the water line and around the pool sides. The pool loungers/chairs all need to be scrapped and replaced.

The beach is OK but the local traders are a PITA. Best place we found was the Carambola Beach Club - about a 7 or 8 minute taxi ride - excellent beach, no charge for the use of the beach chairs when there is no cruise liner in port but $15 US each on cruise liner days when it can get busy. We went there several days and on the one day there was a cruise liner in it was very busy with a large group of Russians who were not particularly pleasant to say the least - however on days when no liner in then it is a great place to spend the day - also the food was the best we had on the island - we went back to eat on three separate nights.

We next plan to go to St Thomas - either to MFC or the RC or even both if we can work it with our newly minted DC points. That will p[robably have to be via Miami out of London Heathrow or some other hub in the USA served by American with a BA connection out of London.

 

[m61376]

I've just gone a quick search on Skyscanner for a flight to Aruba from London next Easter and came up with several options. THe cheapest being with Delta (to be avoided at all costs!) was £746 with one stopover at JFK however the flight time was 24 hours. A more attractive option was KLM with a flight time of 14 hours and a stopover in Amsterdam for £834.

That's interesting; I am wondering if you would get different results trying different search engines. Flights from London to JFK are in the 6 hour range if I am remembering correctly and from JFK to Aruba the actual flight time is about 4 1/4 hours, so the actual flying time is in the 10-11 hour range. There are several East coast US hubs that have direct flights to Aruba, although the routing through Amsterdam appears to be a more reasonable timing considering the built-in extra "flight time" to improve on-time performance.

 

[dioxide45]

Not use if the St. Kitts resort would be great for kids - have no kids ourselves. The resort needs some work to lick it into decent shape. The hotel was looking decidedly faded and the pools were poor - all need a really good clean below the water line and around the pool sides. The pool loungers/chairs all need to be scrapped and replaced.

This is a little off topic, but I found this type of relationship between a hotel and TS to be concerning. With these types of arrangements, who is responsible for repair/maintenance of the common facilities? A similar arrangement exists in Kauai and perhaps a couple other locations. If the TS owners are simply paying the hotel owners for use of the common facilities, there is really no incentive for the hotel owners to replace or refurbish common areas regularly. They see the TS owners as a cash cow. In dedicated TS resorts, the owners put cash aside every year and these types of things are replaced or refurbished on a regular schedule. I prefer this type of arrangement.

 

[MALC9990]

This is a little off topic, but I found this type of relationship between a hotel and TS to be concerning. With these types of arrangements, who is responsible for repair/maintenance of the common facilities. A similar arrangement exists in Kauai and perhaps a couple other locations. If the TS owners are simply paying the hotel owners for use of the common facilities, there is really no incentive for the hotel owners to replace or refurbish common areas regularly. They see the TS owners as a cash cow. In dedicated TS resorts, the owners put cash aside every year and these types of things are replaced or refurbished on a regular schedule. I prefer this type of arrangement.

Certainly at St Kitts it seems to be the Hotel that maintains the pools and the pool furniture or rather does not do the job.

However at two of my three ownership resorts - there is a hotel.

At Son Antem the hotel operates it's own pool and a Spa with thermal heated pool. The TS villas have small pools set among the villas - basically one pool for every 16 2-bed villas. Here the hotel and TS management work very well together to ensure that the facilities are well maintained across the board.

At Phuket Beach Club the villas are located in the gardens of the JW Marriott and are fully integrated with the Hotel. The daily housekeeping is operated by the hotel and the three pools are operated by the hotel - TS guests and Hotel guests use any of the facilities - here the facilities are excellent and the TS General Manager and the Hotel GM and F&B manager work as a close knit team even since the split of the TS business off from Marriott.

So I think it depends on the resort and the management - at St. Kitts it seems that the Hotel Management do not work well with the TS side at all.

 

[Pompey Family]

That's interesting; I am wondering if you would get different results trying different search engines. Flights from London to JFK are in the 6 hour range if I am remembering correctly and from JFK to Aruba the actual flight time is about 4 1/4 hours, so the actual flying time is in the 10-11 hour range. There are several East coast US hubs that have direct flights to Aruba, although the routing through Amsterdam appears to be a more reasonable timing considering the built-in extra "flight time" to improve on-time performance.

The 24 hr flight time obviously includes a significant layover but the website doesn't tell you what this is.

 

[MALC9990]

The 24 hr flight time obviously includes a significant layover but the website doesn't tell you what this is.

That is the main issue of getting to places like St. Thomas in the Caribbean from the UK. By the time your flight from London reaches an East Coast USA gateway with flights to STT you find that the last flight has departed to STT. So since you have an overnight anyway - why not have a few days in Miami first and then fly on is my view. Getting home can be less of an issue but it still makes for a long flight.

 

[thegamebird]

I've just gone a quick search on Skyscanner for a flight to Aruba from London next Easter and came up with several options. THe cheapest being with Delta (to be avoided at all costs!) was £746 with one stopover at JFK however the flight time was 24 hours. A more attractive option was KLM with a flight time of 14 hours and a stopover in Amsterdam for £834.

Thanks for this, but flights are booked via BA as a redemption. Unfortunately they had no availability for Aruba, so we chose Antigua. Therefore if we fancy a little island hop I think we're pretty much looking at St Thomas or St Kitts, although I stand to be corrected! I did a cursory search using the Liat website suggested by another Tuger, and couldn't find a route to Aruba from there.

 

[bazzap]

We have used Liat several times for inter island flights.
Don't underestimate the time and cost of using them though.
Antigua to St Kitts is a fairly short 30 minute hop, but Antigua to St Thomas probably requires at least one island .
You are likely to have to pay some $200 minimum per person, probably plus Island Departure taxes.
And locally Liat are known as "Leaves Island Any Time"!!!
However, if you can take a chilled out Caribbean approach, the trip will be well worthwhile. Enjoy.

 

[MALC9990]

Thanks for this, but flights are booked via BA as a redemption. Unfortunately they had no availability for Aruba, so we chose Antigua. Therefore if we fancy a little island hop I think we're pretty much looking at St Thomas or St Kitts, although I stand to be corrected! I did a cursory search using the Liat website suggested by another Tuger, and couldn't find a route to Aruba from there.

As Bazzap has said to get from Antigua to St Thomas you would need to go via another island - typically that would be via San Juan in Puerto Rico. Typically a 90 min flight to SJU and then a 4 hour lay over before a 30 min flight back to STT. These would be flights with American so you would at least earn some AVIOS. The downside is that a return flight would probably not get you back to ANU in time for that day's return flight to LGW and so you would need another overnight stay in Antigua to catch the next day's flight back to Gatwick.

The other good news is that all of BA's 777s at LGW have now been replaced with aircraft that have the New First Class cabins - but these are Heathrow "seconds". These being aircraft that have been upgrades some time ago and have been transferred to Gatwick and the old Gatwick 777s are refurbed and sent back into service at Heathrow.

We traveled out to St Kitts in May on the first of these transferred 777s and were lucky to get seats in the New First cabin which was being used for Club World passengers as the St Kitts service is only 3 class. The rest of the plane was rather older style BA and so less than pristine.