For people wishing to take their family for a vacation in the Caribbean, there are usually only two main concerns - finding the right place for the vacation (usually one that will be fun and safe for kids) and paying a fair and reasonable price for the package or for the hotel.

Some online services will be able to do both – provide information about Caribbean countries and the vacation resorts they have, and let you compare prices for resorts - whatever kind of deal you prefer. We will list some of the best of these services in our resources page, below.

But before you select your Caribbean vacation destination, particularly if it is the first time you have gone to that particular Caribbean country, it will pay you to read about the destination or resort first, from vacationers who have already been there. Their stories will help you decide whether a resort, or even a particular country, is a suitable place for a family vacation. You will get tips on places which are ‘family friendly’, on other places which are too noisy or over-priced, resorts which are currently subject to a lot of building work or redevelopment, areas you will want to avoid, and resorts which have decent, modern facilities which will keep the kids or teenagers amused, and so on.

So where do we find such stories online, and in particular, where do we find vacationers’ stories and reports about resorts in the Caribbean?

TripAdvisor is a site with user reviews of resorts, vacations and hotels worldwide, but it has huge coverage of all the Caribbean destinations. The site is so large and comprehensive that it can be confusing to navigate: what you need to do is to select the actual destination you are interested in (Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, US Virgin Islands and so on), then scroll down to look at the ‘Traveler Reviews’ and the ‘Traveler Forum’ sections. The first of these gives information about vacationer experiences at particular hotels, while the second has stories about attractions, beaches, and good and bad experiences travelers have had. If you have a question about a destination before you go, this is where to ask it.

Caribbean Online also has a travel forum, covering places like Anguilla, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, St Lucia and more.

Lonely Planet, as you would expect, has good coverage of the Caribbean. If you are thinking of a new destination, read the coverage of the country from their independent writers. Though aimed more at the backpacker and independent traveler market, they don’t pull any punches if a destination is over-rated. You can also read stories by other travelers - just go to the page for the destination you want, and look at the ‘Tips from Travelers’ section. You can also go to their ‘Thorn Tree’ forum and look at the stories from visitors to most Caribbean countries.

Virtual Tourist is an information-sharing exchange, and has a Caribbean forum, where you can look at questions and answers by travelers about a country, region or location, and the level of detail in the questions and helpfulness of the answers is often surprising.

Now read on – to get live links to all of these resources, and much more about fun and good value Caribbean trips, go to the http://www.dunbeacon.net