STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

^^ hey aurora.. yes pls.. i'd love to get that website address from you... tia!!

I've been to Puerta Plata and Punta Cana in the Dominican. Punta Cana is the better of the two I think. I went to Grand Palladium last fall and it was GORGEOUS. The resort is simply beautiful, there is a jacuzzi in every room. My brother and I were upgraded for free to a deluxe room, (much nicer and worth it to do) and our room was nicer then my friends room in the 5 star club. I didn't go off of the resort in Punta Cana, but my brother did, there was an abundance of discos and clubs, and there was a beach disco thing as well. If you don't want to leave the resort, on the resort there was a tram to take you from section to section (it's really three resorts smushed together) and the combined facilities give you access to three buffet restaurants, something like 8 a la carte restaurants, a casino, a disco, a concert place, sometimes another on resort disco! A gym, a kids place, a sports area, tons of stuff! The only thing that may annoy you is that there aren't many people speaking English as a primary language. I met tons of people, but they were just Germans, Spanish, French, etc etc that could speak English.

Bahia Principe in Punta Cana is nice, but I think expensive, there's also a Bahia Principe in Puerta Plata which is really nice, but the beach can be kind of cruddy depending on what time of year you go. I went in the fall and it wasn't a very nice beach, there were a lot of bugs and the water was very cloudy.

ETA: my parents go on a cheap vacation 3 times a year, we always use selloffvacations.com to book. Sometimes they will raise the price a couple weeks before departure and then lower it again, and sometimes if you go to the "check availability" page (after searching) the price will show up a lot cheaper.

-- Edited by kisa at 08:30, 2006-06-07

Get the insurance (make sure it covers hurricane cancellations and such). I have had several summer time carribean trips changed, postponed or cancelled altogether. Last year I got stuck in Puerto Rico for 2 1/2 days at my expense because we couldn't get around an incoming hurricane to get to Bonaire. I had evacuate from a trip to the Keys a couple of years ago as well. Probably wouldn't have this problem if I took up snow skiing instead of scuba diving.