Catriona, thanks for all the info! I have the Lonely Planet book and the Moon book. I like comparing what the 2 books say about each place.

We're going to do this over thanksgiving break next year, so we'll stay for 5 days. That's why I want to find a place and just stay there. I know we can't see 1/10th of everything in less than a week, so I thought we'd just enjoy the beautiful country. As far as getting away from tourists, I don't want to get too far away from them...maybe I'm not sure what we want!

My daughter wants to surf, scuba dive, snorkel, zipline, and everything else (we've never done any of those things in the midwest). I'm generally a foolishly courageous person, doing things like biking 744 miles by myself, but I'm feeling like the wet blanket right now because I'm scared of rip tides, and heights... She wants to try everything!

I'd be content to splash around at the edge of the ocean every day all week.

I've given us 2 months to decide. There's so many options right now! Hopefully we'll get it narrowed down soon.