need vacation advice
was considering Atlantis. have been to bahamas, not so great service, but beautiful. we do like to gamble a little, and went to Vegas last year.

what's opinions of Atlantis besides expensive food....

our benchmark is our best vacation ever at the Marriott in Maui. about 200-225 per night is worth having my wife/ myself impressed with a location and not upset with it's cleanliness/etc.

how about others in carribean, been on a cruise and St. Thomas/Johns looked nice? not St Maartin

anything nice in Jamaica?

how about all inclusives, any nice ones, not run down, feel like a good deal, etc?

what about Cancun?

Avoid Cancun like the plague.

Places around it - yes. Cancun - no.

Hers a few ideas depending upon your budget.

Great place in the keys http://www.hawkscay.com

Great all inclusive. We went to Antigua and had a great time.
http://www2.sandals.com/

Take your pick http://www.gobeach.com/

This is the nicest place I've ever been to www.peterisland.com/

This is the place I want to go to. www.fourseasons.com/nevis/index.html

The Caynan Islands are great

Tortola also a killer place to stay.

Jon

PS. If you want warm/hot weather and gambling. Go to Aruba.

I'd have to go to the Caymans, anywhere on 7 mile beach. Just went there this summer for my first vaca in about 4 years, and damn if that didnt recharge me. Go here for a few pics from the islands. http://mcgary.home.infi.net/caymans/cayman.html

have a blast, wherever you end up.

Been to St Croix. It was OK, but I was not overly impressed. Biggest of the 3 USVI's and has 2 cities on it. It was very scenic, but just not a lot to do or places to go. Had to drive at least 30 mins to get anywhere. Nightlife was next to nothin. Beaches were ok, but as soon as you got into the water it was all rocks. Snorkling was some of the best I've done and its supposed to be one of the great diver spots.

Been to Cancun several times and own timeshare there. Its a fun place and has a variety of things to do. Nightlife is outstanding. It does get pretty crowded though and is definately "touristy" It helps if you know when and where to go when you're there. Don't go all inclusive in Cancun. Too many good places to go out. Its pretty much a 24hr city. Biggest negatives are that its somewhat crowded and the damn timeshare salesmen hassling you on the street all the time.
Took a day trip to Cozumel from Playa del Carmen(40 miles S of Cancun) once. Playa del Carmen was very nice and not as touristy. A lot more like you would picture Mexico. Cozumel seemed to be about half way in between both. Had a lot of the same stuff as Cancun, but not as crowded and not as big.

Antigua, a resort called Pinapple Beach. We went all inclusive, and it was great. We stayed in one of the rooms right on the beach. Walk out our front door 25' and you were standing in the Caribbean Sea. You have to request these rooms way in advance because there are only a few. If you go to St Johns, (the capital city I think) there is a small casino. There is alot to see in Antigua.

Here is the Pineapple Beach site; http://www.allegroantigua.com/

The best part of Antigua is the BEER. They have a local brew called Wadadli. We have tried to get it in the states, but can't find it. We are going back just for the beer. Antigua also has what the locals call bars on every street corner. Its a roof over a couple of bar stools, a cooler. and a sign that say COLD BEER.
They also have good rum.

A site worth checking out is; http://applevacations.com
Click on a destination, then click on "Sizzlin Specials" and sometimes you can find a really good deal. Sometimes dirt cheap. You have to check it often, as it changes almost daily. We didn't book our Pinapple Beach trip through Apple Vacations though.

Atlantis was alot of fun, but we went in the fall and it was there rainy season. The beach is small and the water gets deep quick, but plenty of pools . We had a room looking over the harbour and could see the cruise ships dock and the sea planes land. The aquriam is worth the visit. We will go back in a couple of years.

Tortola, tortola, tortola!!! And the surrounding islands, we bareboated a 32' (uh-oh) sailboat and went all over the place. It's beautiful. You can shoot to Virgin Gorda to the baths for the day, snorkle in state parks, there are a ton of bars only accessible by water. Billy Bones, Soggy Dollar, Foxy's.