If the island life’s for you, now’s the time to make it happen

If you’ve always dreamed of a Caribbean vacation, it’s time to stop snoozing and pick up the phone.

Some island resorts are cutting rates as much as 35% for the peak winter season, December through April. Seven-night cruises have been advertised as low as $399. Next month, giant Pleasant Holidays, best known for its budget package tours to Hawaii, will storm the beaches of the Caribbean for the first time, armed with six-day air-hotel combos from L.A. starting about $700 per person.

What has been viewed, especially by West Coasters, as an expensive alternative to Mexico and Hawaii is suddenly looking more affordable.

“It’s a buyer’s market,” says Peter C. Yesawich, president of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, a marketing firm based in Orlando, Fla. “Increasingly, for residents of the West Coast, it’s a great value.”

Caribbean resorts still aren’t going for a song, especially during the heavily booked holidays. One East Coast hotel executive told me he began trying in August to trade a ski week in Park City, Utah, for a Christmas-season timeshare in the Caribbean. He recently threw in the towel. “It was locked up,” he reports.

Holidays aside, Caribbean hotels are discounting for the first time in peak season, says Richard Kahn, spokesman for the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization. In the past, he says, “you just didn’t find discounts after mid-December.” The rate-cutting stems from a decline in visitors. Kahn expects the region to finish the year with 6% to 9% fewer tourists than in 2001.

Chalk that decline up to money woes and fears about foreign lands. The shaky U.S. economy is discouraging big-ticket trips. Worried about security, Americans are still reluctant to stray far from home. (The decrease in American visitors to the U.S. Virgin Islands has been less than to the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and several other foreign territories in the region.) Crime and security are issues on some islands, concerns that two cruise lines cited when they stopped docking at St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Caribbean, with its sybaritic beach resorts, crystal-clear diving venues and exotic cultures, remains popular nonetheless. It ranks third, behind Europe and Australia, as the international destination that Americans would most like to visit, identified by 18% in 2002 -- its highest figure in five years of surveys by Yesawich’s company and Yankelovich Partners.

Although East Coast visitors outnumber those from the West Coast by about 6 to 1, more than 600,000 Californians went to the Caribbean in 2000.

Here are some tips for seeing the region this winter without plundering your bank account:

Timing is everything: If you want bargains, don’t travel during Christmas season, Presidents Day weekend, spring break and other holidays.

The cheapest winter deals in the Caribbean are for departures between now and Dec. 15. The next cheapest are typically in the first half of January, after New Year’s Day. Act quickly on these deals; some require you to book by Monday. (In fall, when hurricanes are common, rates are usually even cheaper.)

Try to schedule trip departures for a Tuesday or Wednesday to get the lowest prices, advises Alice Harmon, an agent with Travel Travel in Irvine.

GoGo Worldwide Vacations has been offering five-night air-hotel packages at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cayman starting at $1,239 per person, double occupancy, from Los Angeles, according to Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a network of more than 1,000 travel agencies. The booking deadline is Monday for travel Jan. 5 to 31.

Harmon says she recently saw fares of $459 per person, double occupancy, for outside cabins and $799 for deluxe cabins for a seven-night Holland America cruise in the western Caribbean leaving Dec. 8 from Port Canaveral, Fla. The brochure fares were $1,800 and up. (Air fare was extra.)

Get on board: Caribbean cruises are discounted even more deeply than resorts.

The main reason for the low fares, Yesawich says, is “an unprecedented oversupply of cruise cabins,” which grew in numbers by 40% from 1999 to 2001 as companies rushed ships off the assembly line. The glut is especially large in the Caribbean, where many cruise lines station ships in winter, as opposed to L.A.-Mexico routes, where a few lines dominate.

Recent offerings include a three-night Bahamas cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line, departing Feb. 7 from Miami and starting at $279 per person (from Carlson Wagonlit), and a seven-night western Caribbean cruise from several U.S. ports on Royal Caribbean starting at $499. Air is extra. (These deals may no longer be available.)

Book air-and-hotel packages: Air fares to the Caribbean have tended to be high, partly because American Airlines has dominated routes, Kahn says.

From Los Angeles, the only Caribbean destination with regular nonstop service is Jamaica. Other islands have connecting flights. Air Jamaica, which flies the LAX-Montego Bay route five times a week, will boost service to 14 times a week in April. (Delta offers a code share on these flights.) Flights take 5 1/2 hours, about the same as to Honolulu. But LAX-Jamaica round-trip nonstops are generally $600 and up, versus about $300 to $600 for Hawaii.

A way around this problem is to go on a package that combines air and hotel. Many such packages from Los Angeles to the Caribbean cost $1,200 or less per person per week.

Pleasant Holidays, which is reserving now for trips starting Jan. 1 and later, recently advertised six-day Jamaica packages starting at $709 per person for air and hotel. Its Caribbean packages with all-inclusive chain resorts such as Sandals and SuperClubs start at about $1,000. Funjet Vacations and Apple Vacations are among other discounters with good deals.

Shop around: “Don’t accept the first thing you see,” Yesawich advises, because prices are volatile. Consider using a travel agent. Although the Internet can be useful, it’s helpful to have a human handle packages.

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Jane Engle welcomes comments and suggestions but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.