Warm vacation destionations on a budget?

September 20, 2008 9:22 AM

My wife and I are looking to go someplace warm this winter for 7-10 days and would like to see a lot of cool stuff and relax without breaking the bank. We were thinking Costa Rica, and have been looking at Caravan for tour packages ($1k, all inclusive). We would be flying out of Chicago. Does anyone have other recommendations for us to look into?
posted by adi to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

Fine print: Airfare is not included or sold by Caravan.

Anything packaged as a tour is always going to be more expensive than rolling your own. If I were you, I'd keep an eye on Kayak Buzz: Here's a list of the best deals from Chicago to the Caribbean in December. Play around with the filters to suit your needs.

Is your earmark of $1,000, all-inclusive, the maximum you want to spend per person, or for the whole trip for both you and your wife? If the it's the former, you can probably swing somewhere like Puerto Rico or similar assuming you don't have to stay in 5-star resorts (or 4, or 3). If you're trying to get down there for 7-10 days on a grand for the both of you, good luck.
posted by nitsuj at 11:35 AM on September 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

Since the Caravan package doesn't include airfare and the $1000 all inclusive seems to be per person, it looks like you'd be spending at least $3000 total for your vacation package. For that price, you could have a very nice vacation in Costa Rica or Puerto Rico without having to be part of a group.
posted by pluckysparrow at 12:06 PM on September 20, 2008