Originally Posted by
yoshapman
Also, are there any recommendations of things in Cancun with really young kids (1 and 5) if we don't want to stay at Lagunamar every day but may not have a car. Also nothing crazy expensive. We have a 10 day vacation next Jan and are trying to decide between Cancun or possibly Hawaii again. We love Hawaii, it's just such a long flight with little kids from the East Coast.
Check out XCaret and see if it is suitable for your kids. 5 year old maybe ok but 1 year old I don't know. Chichen Itza is probably out of the question with kids that young.
If booking hotel on points and using miles for the plane (assuming you are miles rich and there is availability) then my family would rather spend 10 days in Hawaii over Cancun any day. If you are paying for the airfare then of course you have to decide based on the math.
When my kids were <=5, I remember they would spend a good portion of that looong west bound day flight to Hawaii napping so it wasn't a big pain to go to out there for our family.
Also, kids can play in the ocean water in Hawaii in most places. Cancun is just too rough other than playing the sand and sticking only the toes/ankle in for young kids.
Where are you thinking of staying in Hawaii? Westin Kannapali/Maui villas is great for families but ridiculously high SPG category now. Also, we enjoyed Marriot Ko Olina with the kids a lot to around that age.