I’m inferring that you’re not interested in the Marriott Saint Kitts or Frenchman‘s Cove in St. Thomas? Too bad, they’re the best! They would be your best options. Marriott owned and you feel like you’re at a Marriott. We found that even the nicest resorts that we exchanged into from Interval were not quite as nice as any Marriott…..That doesn’t mean they’re terrible but the standards are different.
Over 20 years ago we stayed at the Hyatt Hacienda del Mar in Dorado Beach, it was nice enough, but it wasn’t well maintained like a Marriott. We were a bit shocked that cabinets were falling off. Hinges and drawers were broken. It just felt like kids had been there for spring break and they hadn’t fixed anything.
We time shared in Saint Maarten for 20 years and we exchanged into several resorts. Our favorite was Oyster Bay Beach resort on the east side of the island. It was the best of all the resorts we went to, larger and more amenities. We always rented a car and Saint Martin is such a small island. You can easily drive around it. You just have to watch out for the uncovered gutters on the side of the road in certain places. Stay away from Dawn Beach Club, too many roaches and crummy WiFi. La Vista is a nice and well maintained, small resort but it’s not a resort with lots of amenities. It’s family owned, and if anything is not working, they will to fix it. Simpson Bay Resort was not a favorite place of ours, several of the older buildings only had AC in the bedroom. We haven’t been there since the early 2000s, maybe they’ve upgraded, you would have to ask. They have a newer resort called the Villas at Simpson Bay, we never stayed there, but they’re much newer, so they probably have AC in the entire unit. Sapphire beach club was a miserable place to stay, the refrigerator wasn’t even working right and they were not helpful. It was also not well maintained regarding furnishings.
We stayed at the Grand Caymanian resort in Grand Cayman about 20 years ago. It was a nice resort, we would definitely go back there. It’s just so long ago, I can’t comment on how they are now. They Cayman Islands are interesting because you drive on the left side of the road similar to St. Thomas, st Kitts and other various Caribbean islands. It also tends to be more expensive than other islands, but we had a really nice time there.
When we vacationed at these resorts, we noticed they give you one beach towel per person. So yes, we started bringing two beach towels with us because ours are nicer than what they give you!
We never went to the Dominican Republic because their resorts pretty much are all inclusive, which require a separate fee for the all-inclusive. And a lot of times the food is very mediocre at all inclusive resorts. if you are looking at any resorts that are all inclusive, I would contact the resort and ask what the fee is going to be because it’s not listed upfront in Interval.
Something else we considered when we’re planning our travel is how easy is it to get to those islands. The fewer flights, the more expensive…..
Good luck with your search, we never had a problem trading into any of these resorts if we put our request out six months in advance.
