Some older Americans are looking for companionship rather than marriage.

A Grand Time in the Caribbean

CARIBBEAN (By David Swanson, Plain Dealer) January 2, 2006 — Hold on to your wallets: The thousand-dollar hotel room has arrived.

This winter, the four-digit price point for a standard room has been reached by several Caribbean resorts promising stellar service and deluxe amenities.

But when it comes to a vacation, value is in the eye of the beholder. At least one resort (Sandy Lane in Barbados) is charging more than $1,000 a night for a room without a beach or sea view, an essential Caribbean component for many travelers.

On the other hand, if you trade that beach vista for a garden view near the beach, it's not hard to find quality hotels where $1,000 will buy a week's stay.

If you peruse the ads in next week's Travel section, for instance, you'll find vacations for two people at less than $2,000 a week at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic - and that includes food and airfare. See a travel agent or go to www.applevacations.com.

The question is, how many Grover Clevelands does it take to afford your ideal island holiday?

It's Cleveland's face that graces the U.S. Treasury's $1,000 bill. Ironically, when Grover Cleveland became the 22nd president of the United States, he was known for frugality with public funds, for battles over pork-barrel legislation and for preferring pickled herring and Swiss cheese over "the French stuff" served by White House chefs.

Today, the $1,000 bill is out of circulation. But if a grand is the new normal to denote platinum-card abandon, let's adopt Cleveland's stubborn, reform-minded spirit as a guide for seven ways to spend $1,000 in the Caribbean this winter.

Some are new, some are classics - at least one might be right for your budget. Prices are for two persons, in high season (through mid-April at most resorts), and, unlike package deals from operators such as Apple Vacations, don't include airfare.

What $1,000 buys at the Four Seasons Resort, Nevis: One night in an Oceanside room.

On Nevis, several former plantation estates serve as appealingly intimate inns, but it's the posh Four Seasons that has the lion's share of the hotel rooms.

Some have knocked this property for lacking the island's plantation character. Point taken, but it would be hard for architects to amplify vernacular wood and stone plantations into a 196-room luxury resort. So they didn't. Instead, the Four Seasons sets a bar for Caribbean service. This means chilled eucalyptus-scented towels shared poolside, a staff that remembers your name each morning at breakfast and 24-hour room service.

The 3-year-old spa - ranked No. 1 by readers of Conde Nast Traveler two years running - features treatments that utilize local ingredients such as rum, fruit and sea salts, handled in cottages open to the environment. A well-regarded golf course snakes up the muscular slopes of Nevis Peak.

The 650-square-foot rooms are primped with mahogany, rattan and lush fabrics. Marble bathrooms are palatial. A balcony or terrace faces Pinney's Beach, a four-mile strand of gray sand. The refined trappings were upgraded during a $10 million renovation in the fall.

Details: One night in an Oceanside room, tax and service totals $1,063 (less-expensive Mountain View rooms also available). Reservations: 1-800-819-5053 or www.fourseasons.com/nevis.

What $1,000 buys at Goldeneye, Jamaica: One night in a seafront villa with meals and drinks.

For anyone with more than a passing interest in characters with names such as Blofeld or Miss Moneypenny, Goldeneye is the Holy Grail. It was here that Ian Fleming wrote 13 books featuring a spy named James Bond. Located near Ocho Rios, Fleming's 15-acre estate now lives as an inn for well-healed explorers.

Owned by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, Goldeneye includes the original Fleming house, plus four newer villas in clusters of one to three bedrooms, all facing a placid lagoon and beach. The rustic cottages are a tantalizing mix of batiks, colorful patinas on wood, jalousie shutters and creaking floorboards. Thick tropical vegetation conceals outdoor showers adjoining most of the bedrooms, and each villa has a media room.

Dining offers an array of Jamaican specialties, dressed up modestly for visitors. It's not flashy cuisine, but it's satisfying. Spa treatments, watersports, and sightseeing can be arranged, but otherwise Goldeneye doesn't feel like a resort. Most guests entertain themselves, with a minimum of interaction with other guests. Chairs are positioned to maximize sunset views.

Details: The one-bedroom villa is priced $950, including all meals, drinks, minibar, tax and service charges. Reservations: 1-800-688-7678 or www.islandoutpost.com.

What $1,000 buys at the Ku, Anguilla: Three nights in an ocean-view suite.

Over the past decade, Anguilla has secured its place as the Caribbean's under-the-radar jet-set landing. Celebs such as Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (who breezed through on their last sojourn together) aren't coming for the golf, the shopping or the casinos - because, so far, there's none to be found. But what they do come for is the beaches - one after another of gleaming sand, mostly unpopulated.

They also come for the hotels, several of which are legendary and lavish. But in a welcome turnaround, the team behind the top-drawer Cap Juluca resort has taken over the former Shoal Bay Hotel, a simple inn fronting a silky strand, and converted it into Ku, a value-focused hotel that opened in October.

The style is South Beach minimalist chic - white on white - with 27 suites in one- to three-story buildings that are separated from the sand only by palms and sea grape trees. Each 775-square-foot unit is stocked with CD and DVD player and Balinese bath amenities and has a full kitchen, an alternative to the island's pricey restaurants. There's a dining venue and a 75-foot-long beach bar, with live bands luring guests onto the sand for dancing several times a week.

Details: Three nights in a suite totals $1,062, including tax and service charges. Reservations: 1-800-869-5827 or www.ku-anguilla.com.

What $1,000 buys at Las Palapas, Riviera Maya, Mexico: Four nights in a beachfront room and meals.

Playa del Carmen is not an island, but the Mexican beach town's rustling palms whisper the Caribbean's siren song. Located 43 miles south of the Cancun airport (and ready for business after cleanup from fall's hurricanes), Playa del Carmen is the hub of the Riviera Maya, Mexico's Caribbean coast.

There's an inviting pedestrian mall with inexpensive bistros and handicraft boutiques, stirring Mayan ruins are nearby, and it's just a 30-minute ferry ride to diving on Cozumel. There are dozens of small, moderately priced hotels and some big all-inclusive resorts.

For those who prefer a more traditional beach resort, the 75-room Las Palapas is a cheap and cheerful find just a half-mile north of Playa del Carmen. Set amid lovingly tended gardens, standard rooms are in palapas - thatch-roofed cottages that have a terrace with yawning hammock. You'll pay extra for an air-conditioned unit, or one of the deluxe rooms set in a quiet tangle of low-lying forest - these are very private, with large terraces and Mexican tile.

A pool, watersports and wellness center are available. The clientele is predominantly European, the dining is straightforward, reliable. Las Palapas artfully marries Swiss-managed efficiency with Mexican-style warmth, and when you lounge on the white sand beach, you'll be thinking island retreat.

Details: For four nights in a beachfront room, you'll pay $1,032, including buffet breakfast and dinner, tax and service. For reservations, visit www .laspalapas.com.

What $1,000 buys at Tensing Pen, Jamaica: Five nights in a garden room and breakfast.

Negril's famed beach is Jamaica's original laid-back, chill-out hideaway, drawing the young and/or open-minded, and a freewheeling spirit thrives. But beyond the beach is a series of rock cliffs, known as the West End, where you'll find small hotels.

An intimate hideaway with a loyal following, Tensing Pen appears like a fantasy apparition out of "Lord of the Rings," with a bridge spanning a watery gulf and a series of iconic rooms perched on sea-hugging pillars. No two rooms are alike, each handcrafted from stone, wood and thatch, using local materials. The octagonal pillar rooms are the choice units, while less expensive stone cottages have most of the size and amenities.

Tensing Pen doesn't have a formal restaurant (several are nearby), but there's a communal kitchen in a safari lodge-style structure, and a chef cooks family-style dinners. Spa treatments and yoga lessons are available. There's no sand, but steps and ladders lead into the water where swimming and snorkeling is fine. Taxis and buses to the beach are frequent and cheap.

Details: Five nights in a garden-facing room totals $940, including tax, service and continental breakfast daily. Reservations: 876-957-0387 or www.tensingpen.com.

What $1,000 buys at Coco Palm, St. Lucia: Six nights in a standard room.

Another veteran in the Caribbean tourism industry also has embarked on a lodging venture that caters to wallet-conscious travelers. Allen Chastanet, who helped Chris Blackwell (of Goldeneye) launch his chain of boutique resorts, returned to his native St. Lucia and took over and renovated a 20-room budget hotel that re-opened last year as Coco Kreole. The inn was just the launch pad for an adjacent, ground-up project that opened in the summer, Coco Palm.

The focus is on value, but not at the expense of service. There's no impersonal registration desk at Coco Palm; instead, you'll be greeted by a host who handles check-in at your leisure and then familiarizes you with St. Lucia, and its attractions, performing the duties of a concierge. The four-story, 83-room hotel comes with the kind of amenities found in quality American boutique hotels: rain shower heads in bathrooms, minifridge, coffee/tea maker, cordless phones and free Wi-Fi access.

Coco Palm has a free-form swimming pool, two restaurants (one is open 24 hours), and offers live music nightly. What Coco Palm's Rodney Bay location does not have is a beach view. But the property is located 200 yards from Reduit Beach, St. Lucia's best white-sand bay, and watersports and picnic baskets can be arranged through your host. Rodney Bay is the island's most developed tourist area, and there are plenty of options nearby for dining and night life.

Details: Six nights in a garden-view room totals $1,026, including tax and service. Reservations: 758-456-2800 or www.coco-resorts.com.

What $1,000 buys on EasyCruise: Up to seven nights for two in a standard room, meals and drinks.

The cruise industry is all about bigger, fancier ships, right? Not if you look at EasyCruise, a new concept out of Britain. The company's first ship, the 170-passenger easyCruiseOne, toured the Mediterranean in the summer and plies the Caribbean this winter, through April.

The main difference separating EasyCruise from traditional cruises is pricing structure; everything is a la carte - meals, even cabin cleaning, are extra. Prices are based on availability; early bookers got cabins for as low as $31.20 per night, double (at press time, cabins are available in March for $60 per night).

Of course, there are you-get-what-you-pay-for caveats. Specifically: Standard, windowless cabins are quite snug - 108 square feet and unadorned by television or phone (a few suites are available, but these book up early). There's no pool, casino or spa, although you will find a small gym and a hot tub.

But EasyCruise can be appealing, because you buy the nights you want (minimum two), beginning and ending your cruise where you like. Although the itinerary for this season is limited to six ports every seven days, several of the islands - offbeat but alluring stops such as St. Vincent, Bequia and Martinique - aren't on the agenda of most cruise lines. Other calls are Barbados, St. Lucia and Grenada.

Unlike other ships that usually dock early mornings and leave late afternoons, this ship arrives into ports midmorning, staying until midnight.

Details: For seven nights in a standard cabin, two passengers will pay as little as $420, including port taxes (on nights when the ship nears capacity, cabins range as high as $120). A full English breakfast daily for seven days runs $127 for two. Dinner ranges from $6.30 for a sandwich to $14.90 for ribs, so budget about $275 for three-course dinners nightly. Drinks range $2.20 to $5; two drinks nightly per person comes to about $100. For three a la carte cabin cleanings add $53, bringing the total to $975. Reservations: www.easycruise.com; the customer-service number in Britain is 011-44-1-895-651-191.