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I've never been to St. Lucia or Aruba but between Hawaii and the Caymans, I'd pick Maui for a honeymoon. Unless you're just dive fanatics, there's just not much else to do on Cayman except the beach, some shopping in Georgetown etc. And it's the most expensive place I've ever been to in the Caribbean. During our one non-dive day, we probably covered the highpoints of everything else that there was to do. It's the first place that my divebuddy ever remarked to me that he was glad he didn't bring his non-diving wife and kids.robbcayman:I am going on my Honeymoon come May of 2006 & I am having a hard time.
I want to find a place that has good topside, great diving & has a number of activities. I seem to find only one of these requirements. Plus I would love an all inclusive where the diving is free as the meals since our family is paying for the trip. However, it's not a requirement.
I have narrowed it Down to: 1) Sandals Grande St Lucia
2) Possibly somewhere in Hawaii
3) The Cayman Islands
4) Aruba (I have heard so-so diving)
My ultimate choice would be Fiji or Bora-Bora but $10k for a honeymoon is a bit much. I am trying to stay around $5k if possible. -Thanks for any help!!!!!!!
Little Cayman and Brac are just way to quiet for my taste, there's little or no topside activities short of hiking/biking or hanging out at your resort. I think the resorts there do offer AI packages, as do a couple on Cayman. Travelocity shows them, but we found it cheaper to book everything ourselves.
The diving is fantastic though, more corals and bigger fish than I've seen anywhere else. And Stingray City is one of those must do dives once in your lifetime. We had a very different expectation of Cayman than what we saw after we arrived, there's no shore diving anywhere along Seven Mile Beach and the good diving areas south of Georgetown and to the north of the SMB near Divetech are all Ironshore entries, most provide ladders as the only access to the water. The better diving is on the North Wall but it's all pretty much boatdiving since the deep wall is farther offshore in most areas. West side dives are all pretty much done by boat, even though in a lot of places you see the boats just offshore.
Maui - although much more crowded - has better scenery, all manner of other activities, helicopter flights, dinner cruises, parasailing, the aquarium, really nice resorts and restaurants, shopping the galleries/stores in Lahaina etc. On a non-dive day there's biking down the volcano or a helicopter flight. I'd recommend a helicopter flight over the volcanoes/down to Hana. You'll see stuff you can't see by road/hiking.
And there's a lot more choice of accomodations. I don't know of any AI resorts there though I'm sure there are some. I wouldn't necessarily book a package through any of the dive outfits though, their accommodations are more geared towards divers. Staying up in the Lahaina/Kanaapali area although it will be crowded, will put you closer to most of the fun stuff. They actually have traffic problems in that area occasionally since there's not a lot of roads. Maui is a lot more beautiful than Cayman also, especially the more inaccessible areas.
Wailea/Kihei's a lot quieter but there's not as much to do there. If you really want to push the folks budget, the Grand Wailea is outstanding($$$$$). We stayed there a couple years ago but found we were driving to Maalea or Lahaina more than a couple of times, it's a 30-50 min. drive. So it's probably better to stay near Lahaina. We stayed just south of Kapalua once and that was pretty convenient, a short drive to Lahaina for anything without having to be in the touristy areas just north of town. If you stay a little further north or south, it's much less congested.
Maui diving is excellent also, my buddy was just there last month and in the course of 4 dive trips saw sharks, 3 12' Mantas and turtles as well as swarms of tropical fish. Molokini is a must do dive, either the crater or the backside. Shark Condos on the backside has dozens of resting sharks, but it's 120' or better. The St. Anthony wreck has become the resting place for big turtles, my buddy has shots of them from about 2-3 away. And there's all the great diving off Lanai, the Cathedrals is something you have to experience once. Most Maui diving is done before noon due to the tradewinds, so you have afternoons free to do all the other activities. I've been there 3 times in the last 10 years and haven't seen it all yet.
Kauai's a lot quieter than Maui, but I haven't been there since 94' so probably things have changed. Poipu Beach was a nice quiet area with great diving just offshore, both boat and shoredives. Except for a couple of big resort areas, the rest of the island was pretty quiet. It's really lush there, it's one of the wettest places on Earth.
If you're considering Aruba, for the same money you could go to Curacao, the diving's better, there's probably as much to do topside. Except for the number of divesites, I've heard the diving there is as good as Bonaire. Although Aruba is one of those resort areas that caters more to newlyweds.
my .02