A week's holiday for a couple - how much would you spend?

[cynae]

I want a week of R&R in the sun this winter in Barbados or St Lucia. Flights are around £600 each. Our accommodation options are:

4* Hotel B&B = £1,600
2 Bed Villa with private pool = £2,000
5* Posh Hotel Half Board = £4,000

I'm leaning towards the villa because I love having space. Weirdly I enjoy being able to cook on holidays too as we rarely have time during the week otherwise.

DH would prefer a hotel, but says the 4* isn't lux enough but £4k on one week for a room is insane.

This is an impossible question, because everyone has different levels of income.£4,000 for half board sounds pretty cheap, to be honest, but it depends on the hotel, time of year etc.
I would worry that there is something wrong with an alleged 4 star that only costs £1,600 for a week!
Check that you are not planning to go in hurricane season, either.
The only "correct" amount is what you can afford. Do your research to see exactly what you get at each place, and then decide. There is nothing wrong with treating yourselves!

They all seem quite reasonable tbh for swish level hols in an exotic spot. I’d go villa as private pool way preferable to stress of other people. You can still eat out lots at nice places. If it has to be a hotel, either sounds fine, depends how much you wanna save/blow on it.

I'd go with the hotel and eat out, part of a holiday for me is trying local food.
ETA cheaper hotel I should have said, it's still a four star and I doubt there'll be sunbed wars in Barbados!

Villa.

I would worry that there is something wrong with an alleged 4 star that only costs £1,600 for a week

That's over £200 pn so not exactly cheap! But presumably some places in the Caribbean target the 'Benidorm for the US' market so there could well be sunbed wars in places that have higher guest to sunbed ratios.

But if there's decent restaurants and supermarkets, markets etc nearby I'd go for the villa because I much prefer to go for a walk to a different restaurant each day, mostly for lunch rather than dinner and then have lighter food in the evening while relaxing on the terrace. Or you can have a relaxed brunch, lunchtime snack and go out to different places for dinner.

Even if you spend quite a lot on dinner it's likely to cost less than the £2k difference, not that it's about the cost to me, people like different things and a lot of the things that people say they like about 5 star service sounds creepy and intrusive or utterly pointless to me.

If you go for the villa make sure it has a heated pool.

Barbados has lots of great restaurants so I would want to eat out.

I’d spend the money. I think the question is; do you have the money?

If it makes you feel better we spend that regularly (and more) on ski holidays.

I can’t bare to stay in a hotel as I have no desire to have to be at breakfast for a set time and have to encounter Ron and Barbara who chatted to us at the pool yesterday. There’s nothing luxurious about that. I’d opt for a fab villa, get in the makings of breakfast and then eat out for lunch and dinner. You have your own space to waft around and any time you choose to be inside you won’t be stuck in a bedroom.

For me the location would be the deciding factor. Which one has the best location?

But I'm not a fan of hotels either. Unless the hotel has everything that I want, on the best beach, in the best location. But I would NEVER select half board. I want to eat out in local restaurants.

You can get pool suites with butler service you know. Like your own villa, but with 24hour room service. Best of both 😁