Traveling the Caribbean

Pura Vida Costa Rica!

2008-09-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

We went on vacation to Costa Rica back in January 2006. We flew into San Jose and picked up our rental car. We had about an 8 hour drive to our hotel including a ferry ride from Puntarenas. We stayed in Tambor, the southern most point on the pacific side, by Cabo Blanco. Getting there with a rental car was quite an adventure, but in a fun way, not dangerous or scary. Beware, the roads there are pretty tough, there are detours down dirt roads which are detours from route 1, the main highway.

Once we got to our resort, Barcelo Playa Tambor, we checked in without any problems and went off to ur room. The rooms were large run of the mill resort rooms with rockhard beds, but the view into the rain forest, and the pools, people and service, made you forget about the hard beds very quickly.

We drove all over the area and checked out a ton of stuff. There were a lot of Canadians there, and tons of surfers from Canada that were just bumming around in Mal Pais. We gave some of them rides to and from the tiny 4 cornsers of Cobano. Cobano had a bank, a fruit stand, and a small market, but it was the only thing in the area. We hiked the Montezuma waterfalls, got totally lost in the rain forest and had a blast. We kayaked in the bay area, went deep sea fishing and caught a HUGE Mahi Mahi. Our guide was AWESOME!

In the resort compound there is a wildlife area where we spotted monkeys, alligators, iguanas of all shapes and sizes and some really neat photo opportunities. More toward the entrance there is bird sanctuary that features parrots from all over South America. If you look up while wondering through the bird sanctuary, you will see a bunch of monkeys quietly peering down at you. It wa amazing!

We also did a 4 wheeler tour with the same guy that took us fishing. That was wonderful as well, we got to experience the country on 4 wheelers and we made some friends while we ere at it as well. During that tour we stopped, drank a few beers and went for a swim in beautiful waterhole that had a rope swing and huge waterfalls.

It was a wonderful trip that we will never forget, and byh far our favorite trip ever!

Here is a picture of the hotel pool just to make your mind up about going!

Hotel airfare cost per person: $755
Rental car $325
Driving in Costa Rica: Priceless.

Dominica (Pirates of the Caribbean)

2008-09-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Dominica in February, 2008. The cost was about $1,100 each person for airfare and hotel. We flew out of Baltimore, had a layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico and continued on to Dominica. Landing on a tiny island causes some minor anxiety as the plan approaches, goes over a mountain, and then drops down to land on a short runway then slams on its brakes, some may get a tad bit nervous. We arrived, went through customs in a TINY airport, grabbed our luggage and walked outside to meet the guy from our rental car company (sorry I don't remember the name), but it was more like the guy rented us his personal vehicle. Don't get me wrong, it was fairly inexpensive, but the vehicle came stock with condoms in the glove box and sunglasses on the dash. we chose the "European Version" with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Oddly enough car (more like a Geo Tracker) was in Chinese, the warnings, stereo, and signals were all in Chinese! Anyways, the rental guy drove us to our hotel and took a cab back to his house free of charge.

We arrived at our hotel "The Tamarind Tree Hotel" and were greeted by the owner and her son. This hotel is located on the west coast of Dominica, about half an hour from the Canefield Airport and about one hour from the Melville Hall Airport. We flew into Melville Hall Airport. It is situated on a cliff that overlooks the ocean, there is a small private beach in walking distance where we never ran into anybody else. The sunsets from the hotel restaruant/pool area were absolutely breathtaking.

All of the people at the hotel were wonderful. They were all older and us being in our late 20's, were the youngest that were staying there. It was quiet and romantic, especially in the morning while eating breakfast (which is included) overlooking the ocean. The hotel was very quaint and quiet. The pool was rarely used by guests and was fairly small. But it did not matter since nobody was ever in the pool (except me). Definitely get a rental car and drive around the island. We went up north where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, we did the boiling lake hike (VERY VERY DIFFICULT AND STRENUOUS), we drove to Rosseau on a day that cruise ships came in and all of the vendors were out. We wondered through the crowds and even found a Subway (yummmmm). We picked up a couple of bottles of wine and some snacks at a grocery store in Rosseau and headed back to the hotel to relax. We went snorkeling at "Champagne" which was beautiful and drove up to the rain forest and did several waterfall hikes. Most hikes were fairly short and not strenuous, we even did one in the pouring rain (it was still warm out and pretty fun).

We drove down south and checked out Scotts Head. We had lunch and wondered the streets and beaches of the area, it is absolutely gorgeous.

There really aren't many great beaches in Dominica, but drive around and you can find something that meets your needs. Also, make sure you do the whale watching tour from Portsmouth and visit one of the various sulpher springs areas to check out the boiling rivers.

Destination Weddings in Puerto Rico

2008-09-18T09:35:00.001-07:00

So after much strife, I have finally chosen to get married in Puerto Rico and have a destination wedding. This is to inform you of costs, and that you should not waste your time hunting for an all-inclusive wedding package in PR. They don't exist. I will also include all of my research on hotels, venues, flights and how I came to the decision of where to go. I will start with the end. I have decided on Ponce Hilton after much research. The Hilton's in PR are the ONLY hotels that offer a small inexpensive, partially inclusive wedding package. For more exquisite plans, I recommend the Gran Melia, and for the most part, you can even sit in on a timeshare briefing and save several hundred dollars off of your hotel. You can click on the link above to check out the site.

So here is what I found on my initial Hotel Search and their average costs:

	2/5-2/11 Th-W	2/6-2/12 Fr-Th	2/7-2/13 Sat-fr	2/7-2/11 SAT-WED	NOTES
Melia NE coast	$1402	$1442	$1409	1029	280 (1361) garden suite (Orbitz) Royall 344 (1674) orbitz
Rincon beach resort	$1259	$1300	$1267	934
El Conquistador NE coaset	$1356	$1396	$1363	$998	Very Nice Partial Ocean View 369-Garden 319
Tropical Inn				$779	Three hotels at same address (strange)
Villa Montana	$1171	$	$1277	$1171	$

Here are some of the details of the various hotels and what they provide/offer:

	Copamarina	Gran Melia	Yunque Rio Mar	Conquistador	Caribe Playa Beach Resort	Rincon beach resort west coast	Villa Montana Beach Resort Wedding
Location/ testimonies	Guanica/all-inclusive option-hard beds like regular resort-near ponce	Near Rio Grande, gorgeous rooms!!		Compact, great beaches, with activities	20 miles from Bioluminescent Bay – SE side near SAN JUAN	2-3 hours Upscale 5 *** beaches not great for swimming but pretty – really quiet	All villas are different lots of weddings
Distance fm airport							2-3 hours, northwest PR (Aquadilla airport 15 mins)
Stuff in walking distance		Food 8 miles		½ mile walk for food			1mile food jobos beach crashboat beach
Wedding costs/stuff
Cost to stay
Things to do locally	No Golf or casoino or club – beachside beds – no swimming on the beach	Adventure charter, sailing, 5-8 miles from rain forest	Casino, spa, golf, tennis, restaraunts, old san juan	Nearby island Vieques, kayaking, water part			Tropical trail rides, happy bellysm, lazy parot in rincon, bay, rocky beaches calm water- private beaches 3 miles -rincon is 45 mins

Now we can begin to drill down to the wedding package search and some of the costs. Although I also considered the Inn at Blue Horizon on Vieques Island and Villa Montana on the other side of the Island, they did not respond to my emails after a week which frustrated me. I don't like making phone calls when emails will do the trick. Although they were both very detailed for small intimate and extravagant weddings, they had a lot of character, and I am not sure that our variety of guests would all be comfortable in hotels with character. Also, they were well over $1,500 for a package.

Unfortunately during this endeavor, I have learned that weddings are for everyone else to enjoy, I just want to dress up in the dress and get a picture and hike down an aisle and marry the man of my dreams! Is that so much to ask? I don't want to spend thousands of dollars. Anyways, here is the findings for wedding packages.

	All Inclusive Resort	Close to Major Airport?	Cost for 4 days Expedia (including air)	Wedding packages
Gran Melia	No	No	$930	Coordinator, plan your own
Hilton Ponce	No	No	$748	$570
Hilton Caribe	No	Yes	$1028	$463

Now, the Hiltons include fboutanairre and bouqet, cake, manicure/pedicure for bride and groom, one free night for your anniversary, and a coordinator.

So you will still need:

Music, legal documents and fees, a venue (which they may allow their beach to be used free), extra flowers, and an officiator.
What you can't see here is the Ponce results, this one turned up the cheapest hands down on every single search. Since there are no all-inclusive resorts, it seems to me that I should get the best value for my hotel and save my money for food and other necessities.

As for the Hilton, I did more research on pricing, I typically like to compare the package rate through a major online provider and that of the hotel, and then separate the flight and hotel prices and determine which way is the cheapest. Yes, I know, my research is extremely time consuming and in-depth. I want to be sure I am getting a great deal and not just spending my money on hidden fees.

Now that I have chosen a hotel, and my dates are flexible, lets make sure I get the best price. I prefer using priceline, they tend to be a tad bit cheaper than Expedia, but they dont have as many search features, so I have to jump back and forth.

So here are my Hilton Ponce findings:

Dates:	5-8 Feb	5-9 Feb	6-12 Feb	5-13 Feb	5-14 Feb
Priceline Flight (Ponce)				559	494
Priceline Flight (San Juan)					387
Priceline Hotel		797
Actual Hotel site		600 / 751
Actual Hotel Package		835 / 930

Priceline Package Ponce		1400 each
Priceline Package deal (San Juan)	748/ For both 1495	803 (expedia) For both 1795 (Expedia) Executive ste	1046

As you can see, I quickly learned that flying into Ponce is WAY too expensive since we are planning on getting a rental car.