Sep 4, 2008
Resorts in the Caribbean are also discounting their autumn rates -- down to levels rarely seen
The same factors that have brought about a spate of unusual cruise discounts (a severe hurricane season, an economic slowdown) are also, apparently, affecting resorts in the Caribbean during the upcoming autumn months. Tropical hotels are hurting and willing to deal.
Jamaica leads the desperate pack, as packaged by the Jamaican ex-pats who run the long-in-business Atlas Vacations (reached at 800/634-1057 or www.atlasvacations.net; Note: the website only renders properly for PCs in Internet Explorer and barely displays on Macs). Their top rates are for departures on any date from now until December 8, for a six-night stay at the Fun Holiday Beach Resort, a beachfront hotel in Negril, Jamaica, including round-trip airfare to Jamaica from eight major cities (and from others on request). Total price, including airfare and hotel, is $464 per person from Miami, $476 from Orlando, $500 from Charlotte, $579 from New York, Baltimore or Philadelphia, $598 from Chicago, and $660 from Los Angeles. Departure taxes and airport taxes are additional; single supplement is $300.
How do those rates compare with a trans-Atlantic vacation during the same period? Well, starting November 1, the need to pay a hefty fuel surcharge brings the total cost of a six-night holiday in London, including round-trip airfare from New York, to over $900 per person (from a price leader like www.go-today.com). For more than $300 less, you enjoy the same six nights in Jamaica. The Caribbean, oddly enough, is today's low-cost destination, and $500-some-odd for a weeklong air-and-land package in the tropics is today a bargain.
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Jamaica leads the desperate pack, as packaged by the Jamaican ex-pats who run the long-in-business Atlas Vacations (reached at 800/634-1057 or www.atlasvacations.net; Note: the website only renders properly for PCs in Internet Explorer and barely displays on Macs). Their top rates are for departures on any date from now until December 8, for a six-night stay at the Fun Holiday Beach Resort, a beachfront hotel in Negril, Jamaica, including round-trip airfare to Jamaica from eight major cities (and from others on request). Total price, including airfare and hotel, is $464 per person from Miami, $476 from Orlando, $500 from Charlotte, $579 from New York, Baltimore or Philadelphia, $598 from Chicago, and $660 from Los Angeles. Departure taxes and airport taxes are additional; single supplement is $300.
How do those rates compare with a trans-Atlantic vacation during the same period? Well, starting November 1, the need to pay a hefty fuel surcharge brings the total cost of a six-night holiday in London, including round-trip airfare from New York, to over $900 per person (from a price leader like www.go-today.com). For more than $300 less, you enjoy the same six nights in Jamaica. The Caribbean, oddly enough, is today's low-cost destination, and $500-some-odd for a weeklong air-and-land package in the tropics is today a bargain.
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Labels: caribbean, deals, resorts
May 8, 2008
Calling all couples! You can honeymoon at nearly any Club Med in June at 50% off
Here's a sign of how badly the current economic slowdown has affected resorts in the Caribbean. Club Med has just announced that from now until June 22, they will accommodate couples (honeymooners or just-plain-couples) at nearly any Club Med in the western hemisphere (or south Pacific), for stays of two weeks, at 50% off. Specifically, two will stay for the price of one, May 9 to June 22, at the Club Meds at Ixtapa (Pacific coast of Mexico); Punta Cana (Dominican Republic); Cancún (Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico); La Caravelle (Guadeloupe, French West Indies); Columbus Isle (Bahamas); Buccaneer's Creek (Martinique, French West Indies); Bora Bora (Tahitian Islands, French Polynesia); Sandpiper (east coast of Florida, USA); and Turkoise (Turks and Caicos Islands).
That considerable bargain is called the "Two-Week Couple's Special" and can be booked at www.clubmed.us or by phoning tel. 800/CLUBMED.
If you know a couple planning a honeymoon in June, you might alert them to this excellent opportunity, which will result in an ultra-cheap but high quality resort stay of two weeks' duration.
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That considerable bargain is called the "Two-Week Couple's Special" and can be booked at www.clubmed.us or by phoning tel. 800/CLUBMED.
If you know a couple planning a honeymoon in June, you might alert them to this excellent opportunity, which will result in an ultra-cheap but high quality resort stay of two weeks' duration.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
