Picking the Perfect Island Destination

You’ve decided to take your family on an island vacation. Now what? There are so many places you could go. Now it’s time to do some investigating. I am a visual person so I like to see the beauty of the different islands. I like to go to sites such as Pinterest and Google Images to ooohhh and aaahhh over all the gorgeous beaches and landscapes. After a while I can narrow it down to a few islands I think would be fun. That’s where the questions come in again. Which island is the right fit for our family?

Not all islands are alike, so here are where more questions come into play. I ask myself:

Where is the island’s location? This is important because if it is very far away we may spend an entire day just getting there. Is this how I want to spend the first and last days of my vacation? Also, location determines the weather. If I’m looking for an island vacation for February break, I might not want to choose Bermuda.

How expensive are airfare prices? There are some islands that cost so much more to fly to than others. For example, one year I was considering St. Croix because I wanted to use my Marriott points. The cost to simply get to the island was my entire budget! If you have airline points, does your airline fly to that island?

Do they offer direct flights from your favorite airports? This may not be very important to some people but there are people (cough cough…my husband) that insist on flying direct when we have the kids. Can you fly directly onto the island or do you have to change onto a puddle jumper and make several stops? Also, does your favorite airline fly there? After flying JetBlue the first time, I wanted to kiss the pilot. Those built-in televisions took away all my ‘occupy the kids’ obligations and I actually got to…dare I say it…read a book!!!

On the island, are there activities to do as a family? I like to look onto the island’s tourism websites where you can browse activities and restaurants. I always go to TripAdvisor to find the top activities, restaurants, and hotels. The best part about TripAdvisor is you can email questions to people that have been there. This is a wonderful resource for planning. I often ask questions such as, “Was the restaurant kid-friendly? Did your kids enjoy this attraction?”

All that’s left to do is book a flight, pack those bags, and off you go! Happy Travels!