alternate destinations for my R&R trip - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**pinknic38** · 12-05-2006, 03:40 PM

if you didn't catch my post earlier about Hawaii, I'm taking an R&R trip in June while I'm deployed in Afghanistan and wanted to take my mom, sister, and 2 cousins on vacation. I was thinking of Hawaii and I'm seeing maybe my mom may have trouble affording her airfare. I want to go somewhere tropical and not anywhere I've been before. I hate the Atlantic ocean, I've already done Florida, Cancun, and the Cali. Is there anywhere else anyone recommends... I'm looking at maybe the Grand Cayman Islands... the airfare to there is half of what Hawaii's is, and I'm looking at some other places in Mexico. Hawaii is still not rules out because I'd love to go.

Do you have to have a passport to go to the Cayman Islands? If so, many places are a no go unless my whole family gets passports and I don't know if they want to do all that.

COmments/suggestions appreciated.

**Canadian Dude** · 12-05-2006, 04:30 PM

US nationals do not require a passport for travel to the Cayman Islands providing they hold proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or naturalisation certificate, accompanied by an official photo ID (e.g. driver's licence), and do not stay longer than six months.

My family has spent alot of time in the Bahamas and they loved it, and cost should be around the same as the Cayman Islands.

A member posted this a couple of years ago and I still have it on my list of places to go...

Puerto Penasco, Mexico

Hope this helps!!!!

**U2fan** · 12-05-2006, 04:59 PM

Be careful though; you may want to check US Dept. of State website; the passport rules are changing and I am pretty sure coming up soon you're going to have to have a passport to enter all of the places that you currently don't need one to enter, such as Cayman Islands.

I'm going to the Cayman Islands in about two weeks; I've heard it's nice there but I'll let you know. Aruba and Dominican Republic are also nice. I don't know; the whole of the Caribbean islands seem pretty similar to me so maybe I'm not the right person to ask!

**noke_travel** · 12-05-2006, 05:17 PM

kind of random question, but why do you hate the atlantic ocean?

**worldwidemike** · 12-05-2006, 08:25 PM

Our own Benna2 owns some condos in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Other than that, how about Belize? It's an English speaking country...you could split your trip doing the Mayan ruins and jungle stuff for a few days, and the beach/snorkeling/scuba if you got it with Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker.

Just a suggestion...

worldwidemike

**pinknic38** · 12-09-2006, 04:09 PM

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(noke_travel @ Dec 5 2006, 06:17 PM) [snapback]146150[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

kind of random question, but why do you hate the atlantic ocean?
[/b]

I've been to several beaches in several states on the Atlantic coast and I think they're disgusting and the waves are almost grey. After visiting Mexico and seeing water so clear you can see to the bottom, I can't settle for the Atlantic. Personal preference I guess.

**pinknic38** · 12-11-2006, 02:35 PM

Okay I've done an assload of research and I think I'm going to do Hawaii and my fam will be able to come for like 5 days. I think I'm going to do Maui/Lanai/Molokai because those islands are in close proximity to each other. I want to avoid Oahu/Honolulu/etc because of how touristy it will be. I've had a fascination with visiting the quiet island of Molokai and I know Maui will work for the family portion of the trip and the rest is up to me. Honestly, I at first wanted to use my R&R to travel to Europe or somewhere else because how often is it that someone is willing to pay for a plane ticket round trip to anywhere in the world? But honestly, I'm going to be doing so much craziness and stress while in Afghanistan that honestly I want to go to a deserted island and lay on the beach haha.

If my plans change (like if my family ends up not being able to go) I want to go some random ass remote island for 2 weeks. Like Fiji or something. So has anyone ever been to anywhere crazy like that? Something with little to no tourism for mid-to end of June, somethere where there's a beach and maybe some random backpackers to meet up with.

Let me know.