I can't imagine ever doing an all inclusive vacation.

I've done lots of all inclusive, Mayan riviera, Cozumel, Jamaica, st. Lucia, curaçao, Cuba, and I might be missing another, my recommendation is figure out what you care about and then go from there to find the best place. If beaches or privacy ( not getting hounded by locals to buy shit) find a place with a private beach, Jamaica, and St. Lucia for sure can't restrict beach access. The other thing to look at is if your adults only is connected to a larger family resort. I know the royalton in st Lucia is and so is the iberostar in the Mayan riviera.

All that said, go to Hawaii I still find it the most relaxing place to vacation, likely more expensive especially if you don't want to cook but a great trip.

Ben

My wife and I stayed at Secrets Maroma beach a few years back. The resort was pretty nice, had some good food several different restaurants to choose from for lunch and dinner. Each room had a porn channel included, also had a live topless nude sing and dance show as part of entertainment one night. Pools and beach were nice.

It was a fun trip. They did have a couple of guys hanging around trying to sell a time share or some bullshit like that.


We also stayed at Sandals negril once. It was nice but we like Secrets Maroma a little better.



Rented a house on the beach in Costa Rica once had a pool, black sand beach, had a local fisherman stop by each day to show us what he just caught, that's what we cooked for dinner a few nights. Really relaxing vacation. I will go back for the fish tacos one day.

Done the carribean and Mexico all inclusive for multiple phases of my life young and single, wedding and honeymoon, divorced, current long term relationship.
I would say I like the Palace Resorts the best. I did the Cancun Palace (now a Hard Rock property, but still Palace managed)2x when racing 70.3 Cancun . Adults only very nice, on the hotel zone pretty close to the main stuff nice beach etc. Ticks all of your boxes. Moon Palace is far from Cancun but it is HUGE property with spa and golf, but kids.
Swept Away in Jamaica was Really Nice if it is still there. I went in 03.
In Short All Inclusive resorts are 100% you get what you pay for. Read the brochures on property description as Hedonism is much different than Sandals for example. But for downtime and just checking out for a week or 2 the all inclusive can be a great option. But again you get what you pay for so do not go super cheap. You will want good food and nice rooms.

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Why not? Sometimes its nice to just sit at the beach for a week not doing a damned thing.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

We have experience with one: Excellence Resort in Cancun. We went 5-years ago for our 10 year belated honeymoon. We loved it, and we are going back in July for our 15th. I would not want to go to an all inclusive resort regularly. But once every couple of years is really nice. We don't stay for a full week, and I honestly don't know that I could stay for a full week. We typically do a 5 day trip, which gives us 3 full days at the resort. We will do one excursion while we are there. Last time we went to Tulum; this time i think we will go snorkeling.

We have three kids (all 10 and under), and it is really nice to be able to completely unplug for a couple of days and not fool with anything. Last time I read 7 books while we there. Your list of what you wanted to do is exactly how we will spend our time.

I have not been to the Caribbean, but what sold me on Mexico is the ease and cost of getting there. Our flight will leave at 8am in the morning, and we will be on property by 1pm, barring any delays. It's simply a short hop to Atlanta, and then 2.5 hours to Cancun. With some advanced planning, I also think flights to Cancun are pretty reasonable.

The resort is really very nice. Rooms are impressive, the grounds are gorgeous, and the staff is wonderful. The booze is nothing exciting. If you are looking for lots of craft beer; you are not going to find it. If you are foodie, you also might be disappointed. There is lots to eat, and it is all very good. However, it is not over the top, best bite I have ever had.

I am happy to chat more or if you have specific questions.

Matt

Wife and I just got back from our 10 year wedding anniv/40 year birthday celebration in Grenada. We stayed at a Sandals resort there. The place was great.... pure relaxation. The beach is a little small, but private. You get unlimited scuba and other water sports included in your all inclusive price. The restaurants were all good as well. Really enjoyed the food. We went in early April, which is dry season/low season, and only had about 60% occupancy. This made for an even better overall experience. No bugs/mosquitoes and no fighting for palapas/lounge chairs/dinner reservations.
Island also had some great waterfall and other hikes inland, but we spent most of the time on the resort. We talked with a bunch of other couples and the overwhelming responsive from them was that the Grenada location and the St Lucia locations were the best. St Lucia usually edged out due to it having 3 resorts within close proximity and being able to have access to all 3 location's activities and restaurants. The big downside to St Lucia was that the beaches were not private.
One of the other pluses to the Grenada location is that the airport is only 1 mile away. You can actually see the runway from the resort, but it's not an issue since only 3 or 4 flights land per day. Where lots of people complained about the long drive times to other Sandals resorts(Jamaica).
Overall I would love to do it again.

relaxing, having drinks carried to you, seeing nice looking women in bikinis, taking a nap or eating a meal at off times just cuz you feel like it, no kids screaming or asking for shit, no jackasses at work complaining...WTF is wrong with you?? This can't possibly be an enjoyable vacation!

I've been to several during various stages of my life. For adults only quiet I'd do
excellence in Punta Cana which we've been to a couple of times. Only top shelf liquor and my wife picked it for the food reviews which were spot on. Nice mix of Americans, commonwealth, and some Europeans. We were 30ish and probably the youngest people there which was a good thing.

Pineapple Beach Club Antigua. Amazing resort --- incredibly relaxing vacation. Did not have to leave the property --- decent snorkeling off shore and watersports are included. If you want a drink at 9:00 AM, no problem. The food was consistently good. It has been about a decade since I stayed there [two kids now, 8 and 9]-- but if relaxation is your main goal -- this resort will do it.

I can't imagine ever doing an all inclusive vacation.


Same, but my wife and I just did spent a week at a an All Inclusive in Cuba (Varadero). HOWEVER there was a greater MO for this - we ( both my wife and I), were going with a group of pretty serious road cyclists/racers, and road over 100km/day in 6 days of riding.

For this, the All Inclusive had it's benefits. It was relatively speaking inexpensive. The food was always ready and plentiful - as was the beer! The accommodations reasonably nice, and the setting pleasant. We spent the mornings riding, then had a big late lunch and the afternoons, relaxing, by the pool or at the beach. An early dinner, and then early to bed ( we made sure to get a room as far away as possible from any of the outside bars - many partied into the wee hours of the morning). Repeat the next day!

However, this would not be the kind of place I would want to go to for a traditional vacation. The people were nice, but, we were freaks, in a land of gluttony and people trying to do as little as humanly possible. We tried our best NOT to stick out, but we sure did! The average person has a very strange and odd view of higher level endurance sports. Example - we had just wrapped up a long hot ride, and we were all sitting at one of the outside bars drinking beer. The people were aghast that we were drinking beer - they thought all athletes lived like monks!

What mattered most was the riding was awesome. We are already planning on going back with this same group next spring!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Did Le Blanc for our honeymoon. We were upgraded from Moon Palace. If you are looking for a place to relax on the beach or by the pool this is it. The restaurants were good to very good and the service was excellent, especially if you tip some. They had excursions to go on but we just did our own thing. It is close to some night life which is good because the only night life on property is lame.

Bad experience: My wife took a spill in the room as the floors are slick if you open the glass doors with the A/C on. We thought she broke her arm and needed to go to the hospital. While they set us up to go to the Canadian sponsored hospital they said that we needed to take a taxi. They said this as I was looking at 5 property owned Escalades sitting at the front door. They did send one of the PR people to the hospital with boxed lunches and she stayed until we left. In fact she rode in the taxi back to the resort with us(we paid).

ETA: I would go back here if I go to Cancun again. I would prefer somewhere less developed though.

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Yes

I prefer really good food and alcohol.

My 2 cents, FWIW:

I've been to Barcelo Maya Beach Resort twice. It's now 4 (or 5?) resorts in one, but all on the water. Went once with wife long ago BC (before children) and then a couple of years ago with kids.

It isn't adults only, that's the downside. The Barcelo Palace might be?

Other downside: if you're going to run outside, get up at 530 unless you're used to that climate. It was rough for me.

Upside: lots to do. We went to Xel Ha which was AWESOME. Xcaret which was nice, and then took the ferry to Cozumel and rented a car for a day, did a drift snorkelling adventure, which was awesome as well. PM me for details if you want them.

We're going back next year I think. I can't sit still, on a beach chair all day, doing nothing. But I had a blast, there was tons of stuff to do.

Cancun: Beautiful resorts and beaches. Two steps outside of the resort, third world hell hole.

Caribbean: My only experience is with St. Thomas, St. John and St, Maarten. We enjoyed the vibe there much more than Mexico. I would go back to St. John again in a heartbeat.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

A week is a long time to sit and do nothing. Especially if you are the Slowtwitch type.
Consider a boutique hotel or Air Bnb. You can certainly relax and drink, but the barrage of pool games, obnoxious drunks and bland food is nonexistent. Unless your into that sort of thing.

How much do they cost?

Done both types and both areas. For what you are looking to do, without a doubt, go to Negril Jamaica. You'll feel like you are away from it all. Negril is a 2 hour drive from the airport (resort shuttle) to an area that is almost all resorts. Look at Swept Away which is now a Couples resort. Top shelf booze and amazing food (which you can do buffet or prepared dishes). Great workout facilities (Olympic pool) and spa.

Sound like you deserve this...

Thanks for the recommendation. Went to CSA Negril; almost didn't choose it though after reading some reviews. Not as nice as I thought, but then rarely does anything live up to expectations. Could use some updating (which it looks like they may have actually been starting when we were leaving with a large portion of the property barricaded off with construction noise emmanating from behind). Most people were nice. Really enjoyed the garden atrium room and hammock. Most important is that we relaxed and had fun just chilling, a little boozin, chatting up others, 1 SCUBA, the beach, sleeping, and the sunset catamaran.

Next up is Cozumel for a couple days and then heading across to Playa del Carmen for the remainder. Going to SCUBA hard the first 4 days in Coz. Giddy with new gear purchases to use there!

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Gnothi Seauton.

Sunset catamaran = booze cruise? Did you jump off the cliffs at Rick's Cafe?

Glad you're having a good time.

I just spent some time at an all inclusive after two of the busiest, most stressful years of my life. All I wanted to do was relax.

I was bored by the end of day two. For some people, relaxing means doing things. That's not a knock on people who like that type of vacation, it's just not for everyone.

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Long Chile was a silly place.