Good beach vacation for early October?

August 26, 2009 11:30 AM

Good beach vacation for early October?

My wife and I are looking for a relaxing beach vacation. Our main requirements are that we can get there easily (1 or less layovers from Salt Lake City), not break the bank, and get out of the US. With that said, we are willing to spend ~$300 a night to get a decent place. The plan is to spend a lot of time in and around our room decompressing from our busy lives. Reading, relaxing, bathing, massaging... you get the idea.

We have about 10 days or less that we can spend, so I think trips to Maldives, etc are probably out of the picture. But if you have good recommends, send them anyway!

posted by blueplasticfish to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

The Ritz-Carlton in Rose Hall, Jamaica has a great spa. Not horribly expensive, either. Fly into Montego Bay, if I recall correctly.
posted by Zambrano at 11:43 AM on August 26

Keep in mind that early October is still hurricane season, so there is a risk of nasty weather in a lot of tropical locations. I have a friend who is getting married in September and is taking her honeymoon in Aruba specifically because it's outside the hurricane belt. If nothing else some sort of travel insurance may be a good idea.

I've heard that Apple Vacations is a good place to get deals.
posted by thejanna at 11:56 AM on August 26

Seconding Aruba because it's out of the hurricane area, but also check out its sister islands, Curaçao and Bonaire. Bonaire is probably the most pure "decompress" vacation, insofar as any development there has been to service scuba divers and beachgoers. But I'm not sure how great the beaches are there. Curaçao's neat because it has a functional non-tourist economy of oil refining (sexy, huh?) but it means that there's a little more there there.
posted by condour75 at 2:20 PM on August 26

Come to Maui...stay at the Napili Kai Resort. I think you will be very glad you did.
posted by Muirwylde at 12:48 AM on August 27