I'm curious...

[Accompong]

If you lived in Fargo..you would want to get out of here in the winter time multiple times too..lol

After spending almost two years in "Why Not Minot", I can certainly understand your wanting to escape!

I have the advantage of living both here in So. Florida and Accompong Town Jamaica so I only need to do one trip a year! I would go as many times as I could if I did not have this advantage. I find 6 months stays to be just perfect. I am ready to return in 6 months and equally ready to return to Jamaica in another 6 months. This time is a short 70 day visit though.

Peace and Guidance.

[Patty Sather]

You got that right Fargoman!!!! as we well know

[Rumrunner]

Lola, I was asking because the airfare has gone up so much and it would cost twice as much if you go on two short trips. That's why I wanted to know if it was because of job responsibilities. And from the replies I see that it is the reason for shorter trips. I consider myself very lucky that we've always been able to go for two weeks and once even three!
And of course if you live in Florida and get fantastic deals you can go more often. We fly out of Chicago and the most we ever paid was $435.00. This time around we're looking at almost $600 pp. That's quite a jump, don't you agree? I'm watching the fares very closely and know that the airlines don't discount tickets until approx. 6 weeks prior departure. Even if the prices don't drop we'll go. The Midwest Winters are too long and harsh.

[Craig123]

[QUOTE=We fly out of Chicago and the most we ever paid was $435.00. This time around we're looking at almost $600 pp. That's quite a jump, don't you agree? I'm watching the fares very closely and know that the airlines don't discount tickets until approx. 6 weeks prior departure. Even if the prices don't drop we'll go. The Midwest Winters are too long and harsh.[/QUOTE]

I could only wish it was $600 pp. Flying direct from Saskatoon, SK Canada, which is the only way I'll fly, costs $1,150 pp. For that reason it's 14 days or stay home.

[Lola]

Rumrunner, for years Chicago had lower prices than Milwaukee, but since Airtran started flying to Mobay almost 2 years ago, I have been able to get decent flight prices, in the $400's. Would Milwaukee work for you?

[Van]

I taught school retired in 98. !980 through 1998 always went X-mass vacation only time could go was and am also a tennis pro so worked summers. When I retired from teaching arranged to get 4 2-week vacations in the winter from my tennis club job went to Negril first 2 weeks in Dec. and first 2 weeks in Feb. 2005 began working as a tennis pro in FT. Myers with the understanding I could take off first 2-weeks of Dec. This summer I also went in August for 2-weeks never been in the summer before that .It was great much different fruits were different, different people more European and younger.

[Yvonne]

"And of course if you live in Florida and get fantastic deals you can go more often."

Actually this is not accurate. most people I know who fly from the midwest always - at least until recently - paid lower fares than I have through the years. People who fly through Orlando & Ft. Lauderdale, maybe Miami, are most likely to get the best fares. If you live elsewhere in FL, NOT inexpensive. Many northern cities had charter airlines w/ very low fares for years. Not in FL. Summers when I paid $600-700, Chicago, St. Louis, MN folks were paying around $300. I got what I consider a great fare for my February trip, just under $400. That's a deal for me. Summer prices are already close to $100 more at best. As it is, over $130 of my airfare is taxes & fees. I think that might be part of what is driving up airfare costs. Baggage fees, too. Add gbaggage fees & my $396 fare jumps to well over $400.

[airportworker]

From a UK/EU view its never worth going unless at least a fortnight (14 nights) as the 10hr each way flight, can be a killer, before i got this job it was always a bit of s struggle to get the money together for trips and it was rare to visit every year, now of course with discounts and sometimes free flights, the only problem is not having the time to have off, all leave has been cancelled until at least aug next year maybe even until sept

[Jambarney]

Rumrunner, in 14 years and nearly 25 trips the longest has been for just 3 weeks. That being said during 07 and 08 about an 18 month period we squeezed in 5 trips and it was nothing short of spectacular, it seemed as if every other month we were in Negril. We still day dream about that period of time. Sometimes just me and bad, sometimes lil jamb and sometimes even more family. We had a mini run in end of 09 and 10 and got 3 trips in.

For us it's totally job/timeoff related ......... it's funny when we first discovered Negril money was the issue which controlled our visits and now that we are older and have the money it's timeoff we do not have enough of.

I guess to answer your question for us it is definitely the frequency of trips over duration, regardless of airfare.

Hope this helps.

Jamb

[Maryann]

I try to go twice a year, but lately with the kids in college, it has been really hard to go even once a year. I live in South Dakota, so of course I try to go once during the winter months to break up the winter a bit, and then like to go again in May or June after the kids are out of school. Usually stay for a week to 10 days. It's hard to go for longer than that because we have 3 dogs. Have been taking my kids since they were toddlers. When they are done with college, hopefully have good jobs, and the dogs are gone, I plan on spending 2-3 months there at a time on my own (winter) because I work from home and just need an internet connection to do my job.