All my reading, thinking, and experimenting with this leads me to the conclusion that waxing is the way to go. It's painful, but you won't have the prickly stubble as with shaving. Also, it's much more thorough than shaving. And if you have it done professionally, it's 99% safe. (Probably safer than running a sharp blade over your delicate skin.)

I've never done waxing below the belt, but I have it done regularly on my eyebrows, upper lip, and chin, and I find the results are well worth the temporary pain. IMHO, it's also worth it to pay a professional to do it--I would no more try to wax my own body than cut my own hair.

Actually, I'd be interested to know just how much waxing the "bikini area" hurts--has anyone tried it?