Which Caribbean island?

[wingingit33]

• March / April next year
• around 10 nights
• myself, dh, three kids (12,8,1)
• short listed to Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua, possibly Dominican Republic

Which island would be your recommendation? It'll be an all inclusive beach holiday.

This is Barbados unfiltered, south coast near St Lawrence Gap. Beautiful but the sea was rough at times, once a huge freak wave took over the whole beach and beyond which was very unsettling. Another day a hotel guest was pulled from the sea unconscious when she nearly drowned.

I found the beaches in Antigua to be more like desert island beaches. I don't have pictures on my phone from there as that was the longest ago.

The beaches in St Lucia aren't as perfect and some are manmade. The shot with palm-tree in is unfiltered St Lucia near Castries.

Nappies are horrifically expensive as PP pointed out, take many.

Been 3x

Absolutely superb with children

the beach was jaw dropping my beautiful.

Less than 8 hour flight
Very short transfer to hotels
hotels are superb - loads of pools, surf machines, activities and right on beach
tasty food and the fruit is exquisite.

Substantially cheaper than alternatives

would I go there again with children? Hell yes

would I go there without children? Yes but I’d go for any of the others before Dr

Why? It’s high on fun and natural beauty

not to high on real top end luxury

I've personally stayed at Grand memories Splash hotel in DR and the sister Hotel is the Royalton in Punta Cana. I also travelled with me and my DC in 2019 alone I felt safe and did 2 trips and visited Maco beach. It was paradise! I made a friend, the Candians were lovely people very friendly everyone who I met was so lovely I stayed for 14 nights.
Booked through TUI.

Barbados is expensive.... and since you have 3 kids... I would consider things like a waterpark which DR hotel offers.

Antigua also very expensive I would to try both!

The op never did clarify her budget.

I suspect that will be the clincher as to her final decision.

@Happyandyouknowit82 can I ask what hotel you stayed in DR. Agree with you it was paradise and the beaches were clear and so was the sea.

Majestic colonial and
Dreams la romana

@Happyandyouknowit82 thank you!

Does DR have a seaweed problem? I keep reading TA reviews about wading through piles of seaweed in Mexico to get into the sea.

@lot123 no seaweed when I went. I heard about Mexico but the hotel do their best to clear it. Its probably the time of year some worse than other months.

That's interesting. There seems to be various comments about a red (?) tide with metres high seaweed across parts of the Caribbean. It's put me off Mexico (probably unfairly).

I'm probably biased because I'm currently in Barbados on an all-inclusive beach holiday on the west coast and am absolutely loving it. The resort is not too busy, the food is great, there's a kids club, and many of the water activities like kayaks, banana boat, tubes that get pulled along by a speedboat etc are part of the all-inclusive.

We've been swimming with turtles this morning (was not included but £50 per adult/£25 per child for roughly 2 hour trip) and it was absolutely amazing 😍

Could I ask the name of the resort (feel free to share once you're home if you prefer)

@lot123 If that was to me I'll PM you 😊

Barbados we're looking at £9-11k compared to Dominican £6k. Obvs like to save the money but does make me nervous it's that much cheaper

Barbados but don’t do AL. Part of the joy of Barbados is the food. Thank hers are so many amazing places to try.

Read the reviews and YouTube the hotels you like OP. For me I don't see Barbados as some where you would be taking 3 kids. At lot of hotels in Barbados are not AL and they don't have all the waterparks... but if money is no object...go for it what do you want from your holiday?

DR is cheaper for a reason. At the travel agents I used to work in it was nicknamed The Caribbean Benidorm.

They do have seaweed issues there too certain times of the year, best to check before booking.

Not been with kids and not to DR or Antigua at all but St Lucia is the most absolutely jaw droppingly beautiful place I’ve ever been to.

I then went on to Barbados and found it flat as a pancake and very dull. The infrastructure / roads are much better though and I can believe there is more for kids to do. Better range of food too.

we also went to Martinique that trip and loved that.

Barbados was a great little island, had a great community feel, music is a massive part of their life, the bar staff were always blasting our socca music and having fun. Can get around the whole island in a couple of hours. There's some caves and the rum place. Can do snorkelling with turtles in the wild.

Antigua had pretty little coloured huts, seemed less inhabited than Barbados. The south west side was the most beautiful in my opinion. Wasn't as lively as Barbados.

Dominican Republic, I personally didn't feel safe leaving the complex and others who did came back and said they felt unsafe. Is the poorer island compared to Barbados and Antigua. Stayed in Bayahibe which had a stunning beach. Is much bigger than Antigua and Barbados.

I personally liked Barbados the most then Antigua and then DR. It depends if you plan on staying at the hotel or whether you wish to go out and do excursions.

I agree with pp don't do AI in Barbados it's such a waste so many gorgeous restaurants.
Look at lonestar, the cliff, daphnes, and lots more I can't think of....
We stayed on the west coast and it was just stunning. We went over to st Laurence gap one night for drinks and a night out. While it was fun i much preferred the west coast.

I think you have that round the wrong way. The west coast has the calmer sea as the East faces the ocean. That's why Four seasons and all the celebrity hotels are on the West coast.

I'm assuming this poster is talking about StingrayCity, please don't do that if you care for animals.

^^This! I don't understand why anyone would go all the way to the Caribbean just to sit on a beach and stay in a hotel! Surely there are places closer to home and a bit cheaper?

Probably a bit off point but I've been to Antigua and Barbados and prefer nice bits of Majorca, Turkey and Greece at a posh resort to either of them and probably more affordable.
I can see the bonus if it in say February or November, as it's great weather there when it isn't in Europe but for me that was the only real bonus. If it's summer I much prefer the med. I got bit to absolute buggery in Antigua in particular and was pestered non stop with beach sellers in Dickinson Bay. I also didn't like the humidity or the fact it was dark at 7pm in the summer . I appreciate though it's a bit first world problems-