For the last five or six years, we always go somewhere in the Caribbean in February or March. Ive been to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Aruba and Belize a few times. We went to St. Lucia last year and thought it was pretty cool. We have done the Pacific side of Costa Rica twice, and loved it. so the next couple days are friends are over for the holidays, and we are finalizing our destination. We originally wanted to do the Dominican Republic, but my friends wife feels that it is unsafe. I have been thinking about Nicaragua, and staying part of the time on the ocean and part of the time at the large fresh water lake. we are also weighing going to the Caribbean part of Costa Rica. I am especially interested in any beach towns that folks would recommend on that side. We don’t like the town to be particularly large or developed. We are more into staying in local areas with good food. But overall, if anyone has any amazing places they have been, and would recommend, I would love to hear it! As mentioned, we are interested in sleepy, smaller type of beach towns where there are not a ton of tourists, and the food is amazing.
Went to Dominican Republic as a kid with my family. I'm sure it's a nice place to visit if you do it right, but our vacation was unbelievably bad. The resort only had ONE RESTAURANT and it was ****ing Mexico Lindo (the others were undergoing maintenance or something). Not only that, but it was a Mexico Lindo with an abbreviated menu, maybe 6 items total. I just had enchiladas verde until I decided I would rather starve than eat that again. The bed was so uncomfortable in the hotel rooms that my dad opted to sleep on an Adirondack chair from the balcony. We also had to switch rooms twice. Once was because of ants and another time I don't remember what the issue was. The topless beach was a MASSIVE letdown for me, a ~12 year old boy who was hoping to see his first ever tiddies. I did see some. But they weren't any good. They were from some hairy, obese French women. I don't know why but there were a ton of them there. I only saw one kinda-nice rack but the lady was clearly trying to conceal them from me. Shame. Eventually, I just decided to stay in the room and watch The Phantom Menace on HBO. Even though I hated the movie, it was better than anything on the resort. My older sister asked me what I would do if our flight back home got delayed and I told her that I would just walk out into the ocean and keep going until I died. Once we landed back home in Houston, we immediately went to a McDonald's. Only highlights were seeing a **** fight and getting flipped off by a six-fingered young woman when I wouldn't give her some cash. In summary, I don't know. Maybe DR is good. But maybe not.
Can recommend Kimpton Seafire Resort (Cayman Islands), Zemi Beach House (Anguilla), Park Hyatt St. Kitts, Sandy Lane (Barbados), also, Canouan Island pretty nice - a few of the ones I have been to recently.
St John. You have to fly in St Thomas but a short ferry ride over and you won't be disappointed. It's the best of the Caribbean.
