All-inclusive resorts: one price, nothing left to decide
Certified with Sandals and the Hyatt Inclusive Collection. The whole point of an all-inclusive is that you stop deciding things the moment you land. That only works if the right calls got made first — which is my job.
All-inclusive resorts are the easiest kind of trip to book badly. They photograph identically. The brochures use the same eleven adjectives. And the difference between a resort you love and one you tolerate is almost never on the website — but it is knowable.
What are you really booking?
The right kind of quiet — or the right kind of loud
Some all-inclusives are adults-only and genuinely serene. Some are adults-only and have a foam party at three in the afternoon. Some are family resorts where the kids' club is excellent and the adult pool is a real refuge, and some are family resorts where there's nowhere to escape. These aren't small differences, and no resort describes itself as the second one.
The room category, which is the whole ball game
At most all-inclusives the room tier doesn't just change your bed — it changes your resort. Swim-up access, a butler, a separate à-la-carte reservation pool, a private beach section, access to a quieter club lounge. At Sandals and the Hyatt Inclusive properties in particular, moving up one or two categories often changes the trip more than moving to a different resort would.
It also works in reverse. I'll tell you when the premium tier is a nice room and nothing more, and you should put that money into a longer stay or a better flight. Chad and I stay in the categories I recommend, which is the fastest way to learn whether a swim-up room is a real upgrade or just a wet patio.
Food, honestly assessed
"Ten restaurants" means very little if six require reservations that are gone by nine in the morning, or if the good one is a supplement. I'd rather send you to a resort with four good restaurants and no reservation system than one with twelve and a waitlist.
Where I send people
- The Caribbean — Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas.
- Mexico — Riviera Maya, Cancún, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta.
- Central America — Costa Rica and Panama, where all-inclusive increasingly means something more interesting than a beach.
- Adults-only escapes — including the Sandals properties, where I hold specialist certification.
- Family all-inclusives — the ones where the kids' programming is worth using.
The perks, specifically
Through Signature Travel Network I can attach benefits to many resort bookings that aren't available when you book direct or through a discount site. Depending on the property and the rate, that can mean a resort credit for spa or dining, or a room upgrade where inventory allows. Sometimes daily breakfast where it isn't already included, or early check-in and late checkout.
These vary by property and by date. You'll get the real list for your specific booking, not a menu of what's theoretically possible — so the perks you're promised are the perks you get.
Honeymoons and celebrations
All-inclusives are where most honeymoons land, and there's a real difference between a resort that notes "honeymoon" on your booking and one that does something about it. Sandals and the Hyatt Inclusive properties both run genuine celebration programs: room upgrades subject to availability, a bottle on arrival, a private dinner. But most of it has to be arranged in advance by whoever made the booking. Turning up and mentioning it at check-in gets you a card on the pillow.
Let's find your resort
Tell me who's traveling and what a good day looks like. I'll narrow two hundred resorts down to three.