Hellobee Boards

I've been to St. Maarten and St. Lucia in the last year and both seemed SUPER friendly for kids, but especially St. Maarten - it's more developed (but not grossly so if you're on the French side - the Dutch side is a little meh), very easy to get around with a rented car, etc. We saw TONS of kids under 1 when we were there, and you can get a direct flight from New York. We're going to Barbados next week for our babymoon but that's a bit far away I think. St. Lucia was pretty far as well.

@hilsy85: We stayed in Soufriere in St. Lucia because DH and I *hate* all-inclusives - there are 3 Sandals resorts on that one tiny island so we opted to stay as far from them as possible! Most people stay in one of those and we opted for a 'regular' local hotel/jungle lodge. If you want to go the all-inclusive route, you'd have plenty of options, but I do think St. Maarten would be a better choice to just find somewhere to stay on the beach and make your own experience. We just found a new beach every day to drive to and had a blast, then took the ferry to St. Barth's for a day (30 mins away), which was an experience within itself Happy to help with more specific recommendations if you want them!

We went to St Thomas this summer. We stayed at the Ritz, it was really nice. There were lots of families with kids there. We rented a Jeep and went to other beaches for the day. Took the freight boat, with our car, and went to St John for the day. A must if you go to St Thomas. We really liked it and would go back in a heartbeat.

@hilsy85: I think it depends on what you're looking for. We look for *some* kind of cultural authenticity on our vacations and St. Barth's is definitely not the place to go for that - on St. Maarten they joke that on St. Barth's even people working in the service industry get flown in from France (vs. hiring locals). It's a TINY island so it sort of feels strangely like a big gated community instead of a country. But.. it was absolutely gorgeous and incredibly exclusive so I can understand the appeal. We even found a few beach hotels that were reasonably priced (like $150/night for a 1 BR) which we weren't expecting, so it's definitely a viable option for us for the future! You won't find much authentic caribbean vibe there, though... in that way, St. Maarten was a little more appealing to us, even if the unwashed masses were there too

We are researching places in the Caribbean as well right now. Going in June with our then 7 month old. It's between Grand Cayman, St Maarten and Turks and Caicos. Subscribing to this post!

@hilsy85: We choose the Ritz cause friends stayed there. It wasn't that many more Marriott points then staying at the Marriott. We drove the whole island and we thought the Ritz was a great location. They do drive on the other side of the road, so that did take some getting use too. But the Ritz was nice but wasn't a huge hotel that you felt like a number instead of a valued guest.

I would highly recommend checking out the Azul hotels in Mexico since you said you're opening to traveling there. Specifically the Azul Beach - it's very baby-friendly but a smaller boutique style hotel so it offers something for everyone. The Azul Sensatori is also nice but reminds me more of Sandals. I work for a travel agency and have visited the Azul hotels but have not actually stayed there. However I have stayed at the sister properties (El Dorado Hotels - adults only) several times and they are amazing. Mexico is a great destination for traveling with LO's because of the shorter flight time - and there's definitely non-stop options flying from NYC. Azul Beach is about 25 min from the airport, so not a long transfer.