Caribbean?

[HRCsMumma]

Hi everyone.

Looking for a 2 week holiday in January / February time. 2 adults and my (then will be 4) year old DD

Any recommendations? Budget is around 6-7k.

Also, would you recommend AI?
Open to other suggestions too for different countries. Would like beautiful beaches, hot weather (mid to late 20s) clear water, nice food etc. the usual.

Thank you.

I haven't been to the Caribbean, so can't offer any expertise there. Dubai etc. for beaches and weather but I have no idea on price.

Came to the thread to see if you've considered somewhere further afield, like Thailand? Flights are likely to be around £1.5k with a stop or a bit more direct, but once there, costs are much lower and you can find some beautiful, reasonable hotels, amazing beaches, etc. You can use Phuket as a jumping off point and travel around the islands there. We have done it when my son was a baby and again with two children 4 and 2 and it's great for children (and worth the long flight!).

You could use a website like Tui as a starting point to find destinations (or book the whole package) and that will give you a really good view of places further afield than Europe.

@boymum1989 thank you! I actually did see Thailand on TUI earlier with pretty reasonable indirect flights. DDs never been on a plane before so I wondered if that was a bit far, but if I'm hearing for Caribbean times I guess Thailand broken indirect would be okay!

I'll definitely have a look. Thailand was a close contender for our honeymoon. I'll have a research and see if it's somewhere I can take DD for sure. I've always wanted to go, but for some reason didn't think about Thailand!

Oh I've just seen you took very young children. Amazing! I'll have a research. Any recommendations on where to go? I'd love to island hop for a couple of weeks with DD, that would be so lovely.

Sorry, I meant to say we’ve done similar trips to Thailand, but actually realised we actually haven’t been to Thailand since having kids. We are planning to go next year!

From Phuket, Khao Lak is very family friendly with lots of resorts. We haven’t been but are looking at it for our next hol – have seen some nice places on booking.com with the filter set for beachfront.

In terms of island hopping, it has been a while since we did that but Railay is a good place to base yourself (fly into Krabi) and you can do day trips, which is probably easier with a little one. This family did an amazing trip earlier in the year and have a few videos
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2sfl5bL3qy/?igsh=YmlzYTNvOGc1Mjlh

Last year we flew to Singapore and then on to spend a week in Langkawi at the Pelangi Resort specifically which was was lovely, but I would definitely pick Thailand over Langkawi for food alone! Singapore was absolutely amazing for kids. There’s so much to do but it’s expensive to stay (we stayed with family).

When my son was a baby, we went to Lombok and the Gili islands..which is a bit more adventurous maybe, but the Gili islands is incredibly special. I actually got the idea from this blog many years ago, if you go right back in the archives they travelled a lot in SE Asia with young kids and I appreciated the level of detail she shares! https://hitherandthither.net/category/travel/asia-oceania/

Sorry for the very rambly post! It depends what you are looking for, but I thought I’d put SE Asia in the hat. It will always win for me thanks to the food. The flight itself is fine, particularly a night flight so they mostly sleep (in theory!) and even if the flight is awful, it will be a distant memory to be somewhere so beautiful.

And one last thought; not sure about weather that time of year but Mauritius? Haven’t been, but there’s a very small time difference to the UK and I’m sure I’ve seen deals in that budget x

I went to Windjammmer Landing on St Lucia this year. Good mix of adults, families and little kids. The sea was very warm, shallow and safe.

I'm so sorry @boymum1989 yesterday was a bit of a right off for me and I clearly didn't read your post properly after 2 attempts, I apologise (blaming the conjunctivitis)

I'm definitely going to look into Thailand for sure as island hopping with a 4 year old in tow just sounds so wonderful before she starts school. I'll look into Mauritius too.

@Toomuchleopard good to know, thank you! I'll take a look.

What were the rough flight times for your holidays out of curiosity? DDs never been on a plane, I'll try and get a night flight for wherever we go but if Thailand I'll definitely split it into two.

DH broached Singapore or Japan as an option but I think DD might be a little small for that just now.

@HRCsMumma, direct to Singapore is maybe 12 or 13 hours, or two 7ish hours if you split I think and all the Middle East airports for transfer are really nice.

We’ve actually never taken them to Europe, always done long haul! I have one child who can happily watch a screen for 12 hours and one who’s more restless, a break midway would have been good to get the wiggles out. It’s very exciting for them to experience it all.

Also just to say, we went to Japan this year (6 and 4) and it was amazing with kids. Granted we do have friends there so had a lot of downtime and spent a week at the beach, not just sightseeing, but we really enjoyed it with them.

We wanted a nice longhaul holiday last year and initially looked at Mauritius but then found out that February was the rainy season.

We opted for Barbados and booked it all from our local airport with BA. There was a good choice of hotels for all budgets. We did an excellent catamaran cruise and a couple of other trips but I found them very expensive - around £100 PP for a half day trip to St Nicholas Abbey. Although it was good it wasn't worth that amount.

So good to know, thank you!

We actually did (pre DD) the Maldives for our honeymoon and our stop over was Qatar and that was lovely.
I'll definitely give Singapore a lot more headspace given you've done it with young children. It's somewhere I've always wanted to visit. Do you think it's best to split over 2 flights for DDs first trip abroad?

Thank you! I need to do some research on rain seasons as I don't want to turn up to rain everyday. I know it's always a risk though. Will take a look at Barbados for sure.

I looked at the Bahamas but I think it's going to be a touch too expensive.

Barbados is super doable with little ones, flights are 8ish hours, hire a car, airport is tiny and really easy, Air BnB near the beach up the West coast and you're sorted. You can get down south in about half an hour if you want somewhere with a bit more action, it's a gorgeous easy holiday and if you DIY rather than package you can find yourself in some gorgeous locations for much less than a resort.

We did the Carribbean a few times when mine were toddlers, it's one of the few places I'm happy with All Inclusive and a resort based holiday. I'd definitely recommend but it's their high season so not sure how booked it will be already.

I would do a Caribbean cruise-book one of the big ships and there will be something to keep everyone happy, plus you’ll get to see lots of different islands

I agree, Barbados is such a lovely, easy option for Jan / Feb. Flights often take under 8 hours. Usually daytime out and overnight back. West coast has lovely calm, warm waters and sandy beaches. You don't need to do AI, lots of nice restaurants (some very £££ but not all), Holetown, St James, that sort of area is nicest IMO. There are quite a few nice days out for families too e.g. zoo, plantation house, quite a bit to see.

I am be very wary when returning to the Caribbean. Be cautious if you are bothered by loud, obnoxious, drunk people with foul mouths. This is what we experienced when we went to a very exclusive sub section of an already exclusive AI in Mexico. We have booked a holiday in Costa Rica for next year but have been careful to not book AI. I would always search for ‘drunk Americans’ in online reviews from now on.

I'd consider Sri Lanka too, direct flights from Heathrow so quicker travel time, 5 star hotels are fairly affordable compared to many countries, there's elephants, turtles and other wildlife (I recommend an afternoon river wide life cruise) then go into the centre where it's cooler and amazing history. Trains are a good way to travel or get a car and driver, very affordable. I'm going to get the seaplane next time as I discovered you can train one way and fly back across the island and there's an amazing hotel over there

Barbados is one of our favourite places to go!

If you want calm(er) seas, then you need to go to the West coast. The South is rougher (and the East even more so - swimming not allowed in most places there).

But it's also high season, and if you were thinking of All Inclusive, West coast hotels will be out of your budget.

Try looking at AirBnB places - we had a week in Holetown, in a condo in Suncrest village, that cost us only £579 for 7 nights. Included in that was membership of the Beach Club about a 5 minute walk away, with swimming pool, bar right on the beach. There are lots of good places to eat in Holetown, and a really good supermarket (Massey's) nearby for self-catering.

None of that in Barbados from our experience.

That said, we do avoid The Gap/St Lawrence Gap, which is party central!

We went to Casa de Campo last December in the Dominican Republic with DD who was then 21 months. It was lovely. Flight time was ideal (9 hours out, 7 and a half back). Perfect weather. Very safe. The AI was great as there was such a selection of food for a picky toddler. The resort is enormous - you get a private golf buggy for your party when you arrive - and super safe. Lovely staff. Would definitely recommend.

Thanks so much everyone, will check out all suggestions. I'll definitely look at DIY too for an AirBnB type stay.

If we did that, does anyone have a rough idea on how much spends we'd need for 2 weeks? TIA!

DC2 was 3 when we first went to Thailand and had a great time.
Smaller islands are the best, but that usually comes with a journey. So consider how prepared you are to also take taxi.bus-ferry-longtail boat-tuk tuk etc on top of your flight. Thailand is extremely well equipped for tourists though and you can make your life a lot easier by ordering private transfers whereever possible.
I would not recommend AI in Thailand, there are an abundance of great restraurants all over the place.

Also been to Mauritius in February, weather was fabulous! Would stick to west side with small kids, east was windier and while sea was not exactly rough or anything, it was not as perfectly calm as in the west.

Direct or split really depends! We felt direct was better to just get it over with and not have the hassle of transiting with small children so it really depends. But I wouldn’t do night flight split otherwise you might have to wake them up midway if they don’t drift off until a few hours in as it’s not a full night’s sleep to Middle East

Never encountered ANY drunken behaviour in Barbados. Our hotel had very few Americns - mainly British and Canadian.

Do you think it's best to split over 2 flights for DDs first trip abroad?

We always went direct with small kids. First, they tend to get excited in a new place, so will likely not sleep for a while. Very annoying if plane is landing when they have just finally gone to sleep. Also, running after young DC at random airports is not relaxing. Plus the more flights, the higher risk of delays and cancellations.