Last year we avoided a ton of torrential rain showers by going to Atlantis in the Caribbean. This year I was trying to figure out where to go to avoid the May rainy season in the Caribbean. The first good thing is that May travel is considered off peak because it is supposed to be spring in the northeast. Those of us who live here know that spring is closer to mid June in reality. I wouldn’t open a pool until after Memorial day. I wasn’t too pleased with the pricing on my resort hotel room prices when I went to the Beaches site for Turks and Caicos. The price was about $585 per night to sleep and feed Sarah, me, and Madeline. So for a week this would be about $4095 or $2050 per person before they started adding in the taxes.

So I tried to find a workaround for the pricing issues and potentially look for something nicer by looking into Villas. My first stop turned-up this one since I had to look at the top of the Kismet on St. John. The costs weren’t as bad as one would think for the top shelf stuff if Sarah and I were to manage to find 10 friends to bunk with in this place was $17,000 per week. Now that might seem like a lot but the pricing with 10 friends to split the accommodations for 12 would be $1,416. Now this wasn’t exactly apples to apples since the Beaches folks were offering food and beverages along with their price. But there was a mention of a 25’ catamaran that you can use.

So I looked for another villa. This time I found the Trident Castle. Yes it is in Jamaica not Turks and Caicos or St. John so I suppose it again isn’t a perfect comparison. This place sleeps 16 so we would need 14 friends instead of the requisite 12 for the hovel on the other island. The pricing on this one was a little higher. It was $5600 per night for the place back in 2006 for the off season. The upside is that it included a number of key elements such as 3 meals per day and an open bar. The breakdown for the 16 people per person for the lodging in this case would be about $2100 per person for the trip.

Personally I am not sure if either one will be the right match but my quick math shows:

Beaches all inclusive: $2,050/person
Kismet castle in T&C: $1,416/person (A bargain! I think you need to buy your own food)
Trident castle: $2,100/person (But herding 16 folks could be a big pain)

Now clearly we could slum it in the islands at a lesser locale than these mega-villas but that didn't seem very interesting. Well… if anyone is up for avoiding the rain and can spring for some castle living I’m all ears. I also will not ensure that a hurricane won't hit in May.