All-inclusive Resorts, are they worth it?
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The all-inclusive resort is a not a new resort model it has actually been around for over 60 years. What the resort includes are three meals a day, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and other resort type of activities, such as evening entertainment, non-motorized watersports, and kids clubs. Below is the review of the most recent stay at an all-inclusive resort located in San Jose’ Del Cabo in Mexico.
The drinks… all of the non-alcoholic drinks were perfectly acceptable at this all-inclusive resort. The alcoholic drinks however are watered down, of very poor quality liquor, and the wine was undrinkable. The wine is so bad it makes two buck chuck from Traders seem like a $200 bottle of wine. After day three or four of our trip I just refrained from drinking all together because I couldn’t find anything worth the calories. I suppose it isn’t of grave importance to drink daily on vacation, but it is the only time drinking during the day is somewhat acceptable. Fail on the drinks.
The food…breakfast is hard to get wrong, pancakes, pastries, breakfast meats, and cereal, we had no problems with the spread for breakfast. Lunch was generally pretty standard as well, nothing fancy, nothing too exciting, but not horrible. Dinner is where I was really let down, there were two fine dinning restaurants at our resort one was French the other Italian. If you did not call first thing in the morning to make a reservation at either of these restaurants you had to go to the buffet which I am really not a fan of. If you are able to get a reservation be aware it may be at 5 in the evening or 9 at night, this happened to us on two different evenings. The main issue was you are only given a handful of entrée’s to choose from. Therefore if you stay at this resort for a week you will have tried every single item on the fine dinning menu. Neither pass nor fail on food.
The pool…the resort we visited hosted 3 different pools, we hoped at least one would be for adults only but at this resort it was not offered. There are so many people, so many children, and way too many people in the pools, it was not relaxing. Something else to note if you are not up at the crack of dawn forget about reserving a place to lay out next to the pool. There is drink service at the pool which was nice, however, the drinks are so horrible you won’t really use the service much. Fail on the pool.
The kids club…kids club is a must have for any family going on vacation where the parents want some time to relax by the pool. Kids clubs are usually free of charge and hosts tons of different activities for the children to do. My son loves kids club and never wants to leave, more likely than not this has to do with the video games available at kids clubs. The kids club, was one of the best parts of this resort, it was huge and hosted its own pool for small children. Pass on the kids club.
The entertainment…evening entertainment was really fun at the all-inclusive and very family friendly. One night was a play, another was a family movie night on a huge screen, and a fun-filled game night. We had fun on the few evenings we attended the evening entertainment, I would recommend this to any guest. Pass on evening entertainment.
The spa…I am somewhat of a spa snob, I previously worked at one of the world’s best spas so I have to admit I’m spoiled when it comes to spas. The resort we stayed at had a spa on-site, which was very nice to not have to leave the resort to have a massage. Even better I dropped my son off at the kids club and went and had a massage, I knew he was having a great time and it made my massage even more enjoyable. The massage was wonderful, I actually went back for another massage the next day, the cost was very reasonable. Pass on the spa.
My personal review of the all-inclusive resort is fair, while our family enjoyed the kids, club, evening entertainment and the on-site spa, we did not enjoy the food & drinks and the pool was over crowded. This is one of the reviews of the most recent all-inclusive resort we stayed at in San Jose’ Del Cabo in Mexico.
About the author: Nicole Hughes is a travel writer, writing mainly about family travel. The places the Hughes family visit are generally at a beach resort during the summer, ski/snowboard resort in the winter, and all over America in the spring and fall. The next family vacation will be on a Disney Cruise this spring, and next fall Nicole will be traveling to London.