Destination Wedding
Hello All,My fiance and I are beginning our wedding plans!!, and there's so much to consider, we're looking for some advice. Does anyone know an inexpensive beach location in the Caribbean/Central America with a convenient airport, that could support a 50-100 person wedding group? We haven't picked a date, so any thoughts on Low Season dates, for prices and support for large groups?
Price per person is a big concern, so we're looking at places that are economic to fly into from Jacksonville, FL or NYC, and we're hoping of a place where local food/housing is on the cheaper side, maybe NOT a resort place if we could get around it. We're considering Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, any specific places in these or other ideas??
Just throwing this out there, has anyone been to Antigua, Guatemala, or the Earth Lodge location on hills just above the city? This place would be PERFECT, if only they had a beach....
Any thoughts/recommendations would be great, thank you so much!
Hazel and James
3
Flying a group of 100 people is going to be expensive per person no matter where you fly. Many people assume you could get some group discount from the airlines but this is not the case. Big groups are actually more expensive.Given the number of people you may find accommodation to be an issue as well, thus limiting you to the big resort style places
4
You not going to find many non stop or direct flights from most US cities to most CA capitals. The main hubs are Miami, Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, with the exception of NYC- Newark has some direct flights to some CA countries.Low season is rainy season, Aug to Nov is the worst of that time, and April to July is usually just afternoon showers, though each country, each coast has micro climates and the weather can vary greatly.
Antigua is great as it is 45 minutes from the airport. Just another 2 hours is Pana and Lago Aititlan as well, stunning scenery there too.
Liberia Costa Rica (LIR) is 45 minutes to 2 hours to many nice beaches and beach towns for that many people. Guatemala or Costa Rica offers a lot of activities and adventures for the people that want to make a mini vacation out of the wedding trip.
5
Just a quick note on the "rainy season" - we have been travelling in Central America since late August (from Panama to El Salvador, thus far, with stops inland and on both coasts) and have had precisely 2 "rainy days". Sometimes there has been a heavy shower in the afternoon, and there is often some threatening cloud, but most rain has fallen at night.There has also been a spectacular lightning storm almost every night!
Maybe we've just been lucky...but based on our experience, I wouldn't hesitate to travel here again during this season...it's certainly better for activities, hiking etc as there are very few tourists around.
Happy wedding planning =)
