Holidays in Mexico/America/Caribbean???

Hi! We have been thinking about going a bit further than Europe for our next summer holiday, and we were thinking about Mexico. We've been looking around the Riviera Maya and Playa del Carmen areas, and have been trying to find out as much as we can, and i was wondering if anyone on here knew about this area. Our main questions are :

Is it a good family destination, with stuff to do for my younger brother, without being to busy?
Is it generally better to go in all inclusive hotels or is it possible to rent villas?
Is Mexico affected by hurricanes?

If anyone knows about this area then info would be much appreciated:) If not, do you know of any other places that are good in places like Mexico, USA or the Caribbean? We've been many times to Florida, my dad was thinking about California, hows that for holidays???? We really love America from our experience of Florida, the people are so friendly and eager to please:) And then of course, there's places like Jamaica and Cuba, but these places can be devastated by hurricanes, as we can only go in the hurricane season due my scholarship at my school.

Any help here would be much appreciated!!!!:D

hi there i just saw this post i was trying to catch up since i havent been around much, but tha places you mentioned are gorgeous, Cancun is like WOW and yes is a family destination we´ve been there when my brotehr was around 4yrs or so and then a couple years later my sis is 8 yrs older than my bro and i´m 12yrs older so it´s for every age.
it has the most incredible turquoise water and white beach you´ll be in love with, about hurricanes yes we do have but only in that part next to the gulf, but in summer i wouldn´t worry the two times i´ve herad of them is in early fall or winter (when climate change).
there are some hotels that look like villas, so you could rent one of those, and depending on the amount of people going a regular hotel is just great, and you only have like a bus going one way and another the other way so you can come an go as you please.

I have been to Playa del Carmen and Yucatan some years ago and of course there are great things to do. In P.dC there is a wonderful white beach - so swimming is great. There is Xcaret which is a park where you can swim through an underground river and do some gorgeous snorkeling. You can go to Tulum and see the Maya temples (plus some wonderful swimming).
An excursion to Chichen Itza is also recommended (if you feel ok driving on the right side I would recommend renting a car.)

Most of the hotels are all-inclusive or at least half pension- which is a pity because we found that the restaurants in the village are much more fun, so we skipped our half-pension and went donw-town ( ahm village) every evening.

Of course California is great as well- but totally different. Yucatan is more exotic. At what time do you plan to go?

I went to the dominican republic a couple years ago and loved it.They have great resorts to stay at and lots of stuff to do.Its not too expensive either,we stayed for 2 weeks and has something to do almost everyday. I havent been to mexico yet.I've also been to Trinidad & Tabago,its nice there but not the safest country to go too.Sorry i'm no help but those are the places i've been to in the carribean. :)

Thanks for the info. We were looking at the Xcaret park, and we have found a really nice looking hotel that's quite near it, so you get a free day-pass in it!!!

We'd be planning to go between pretty much from the beginning of July to the end of August. I've heard sometimes it can be better (and cheaper) to go around May, but i have a scholarship with my school, and the terms and conditions are that i am not allowed to take leave from school if i want to retain the scholarship.

Another question that's come up, is there a chance of heavy rainfall and wind around there? My mum was researching on the web and found some sites that said there's a risk of that. It should be alright, we had many downpours whilst visiting Florida, but it would be great to just know.

Thanks, sammy101, we've also been looking at the Dominican Republic. I still like the look of Mexico though;)

What about Hawaii?

Hmmm, we've not thought about Hawaii, it's quite a long flight from England though, and i'm not brilliant with flying, but i'll check it out. Thanks:)

Cancun is great. I have been there in winter and summer. In addition to the great snorkeling and the ruins there is Isla de Mujeres which is a fun day trip and lots of things to do.

I also like Puerto Vallarta on the western coast....

I was going to suggest Dominican Republic, we have been there twice, but it was in december. Both times we stayed on the North coast near Puerto Plata. One time in Camino del Sol, and the other time in Riu Merengue. We had a lot more fun in Camino del Sol! Stay away from Sosua!

Dominican Republic is quite cheap compared to the rest of Carribean and there are so many things to see and the locals are really friendly. I don't recommend that you hire a car!

Here' s a link with reviews of various places and hotels:

http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/

Thanks Randi, we going to look more at the DR today;)

I have only been to the Gulf of California in Northwest Mexico (as far as warm vacation spots go) the water was beautiful and it was a lot less turisty. I went durring easter so the water was too cold to be in without wetsuits but I am pretty sure it is nice and warm durring the summer.

We took a family vacation to cancun 3 years ago, it was great. I definetely preferred it over hawaii. I also recommend the all inclusive resorts. We went to xcarat and loved it, don't miss the underground river. Tres rios was a lot of fun too. I would recommend Moon Palace its a nice place to stay.

You can see photos of some resorts here.
http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/photos.html

There are virtuel tours in some of them, and in this link also to Mexican Riu resorts. :) OK, they are expensive, but sometimes you can get a cheap offer by charter. ;)

http://www.riubambu.com/RIU_WEB_PAGE...rtual_menu.htm