Looking For A Vacation Destination

I'm in the process of looking for a destination for a trip my family will take in the next two years.

We plan to take a three to four week vacation since we haven't gone on a vacation in quite awhile.

The reason we haven't done much traveling is we are having our second child in July only a year and a half after our first child was born.

Because we will have small children with us, we need to find somewhere that allows a child friendly setting. This means we don't plan on going to multiple destinations. We want to find one place andjust relax for a few weeks.

We thought about a cruise so we could see multiple destinations, but couldn't find any routes that interested us. We still might consider a cruise, but we are thinking more about renting a house or a villa on a beach somewhere.

Now the decision is where should we go? I want it to be somewhere fairly close so our flight is as short as possible with teo small children. This means that the Dominican Republic ranks higher in my mind compared to Costa Rica.

We also want a destination that will have easy access to a grocery store and small local restaurants. This means that Cancun is out as that location is primarily filled with large all inclusive resorts with few options for local restaurants and bars.

I also don't want to be too isolated. I spend a lot of time with my children in our house, so I want a location with people and some things to do when I get a chance to get out. This knocks out a few more isolated islands that have nice houses for rent, but really have nothing else in the area.

I also want to be able to walk to the beach, restaurants, bars, etc... without needing to take a cab or bus.

I think my perfect location would be the south beach area in Negril. A nice, fairly quiet beach with lots of small hotels, villas, restaurants, and bars. The problem is that my family has been to Negril before and we want to try something different.

Punta Cana in the Domincan Republic is a destination we are looking into right now, but I fear it may be too all inclusive centric with too few local bar and restaurant options.

Does anyone have other suggestions?