I blocked my work calendar for the week of March 6th to take a long-awaited solo trip to a nice all-inclusive beach resort in the Caribbean. In February of 2020, I stayed for a week at the Hard Rock in Punta Cana, which was great, but also overrun by families there on spring break. Since I’m going solo, this time I want more on adults-only resort of similar quality, in terms of a nice beach, nice pools, and top shelf food and drinks.
As I’m researching places, it’s becoming increasingly clear that not all of the top resorts have bounced all the way back from the COVID down time, so reviews from prior to 2020-2021 might not reflect current quality. The search engines all seem to take me to Trip Advisor affiliated sites, that all seem to be promotional in nature.
So I’m hoping that of some of my fellow dopers have already gone through the process, and may have some advice for me. Since i’m only 3 weeks away, I’d like to book the resort and flights this week.
I suppose this could also go in the “Your current first world problems” thread.
As much as I love the Caribbean, I don’t get the love for all inclusive resorts. Years ago I spent a week at the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The great memories I have from that week all involve the trips I took off the resort property.
Also, keep in mind that with regard to COVID, things can change rapidly. We had plans for January in St Martin and Omicron wreaked havoc with our plans.
Also, be prepared for your flight details to change frequently after they are “confirmed”. We will hopefully be visiting St Martin in March, but every few days we get notified about changes in our flights.
I can’t help you with finding resorts - but I do want to let you know that some countries (even those that don’t require visas) are now requiring advance travel authorizations due to COVID. I don’t mean just that you need a negative test result within X days of arriving ( although some countries do require only that) , but that you have to upload some combination of proof of vaccination/negative test/insurance coverage to a portal, possibly pay a fee and wait to receive authorization back.
Yep, St Martin in January was requiring a negative test prior to entry, with very specific timing. You also have to buy insurance to cover your stay beyond how long you expect to stay.
A friend used the insurance when she was unable to find a test prior to leaving, due to Omicron. No tests were available so she couldn’t leave. Her insurance paid for a cell-like room that she could not leave. Three meals were delivered to her room each day.
My main areas of focus are DR and Cancun, but am open to other ideas. I’ve stayed at the Hard Rock in Punta Cana and Live Aqua in Cancun, and loved both of them. As for the reason why I want all-inclusive, I just want to relax by a nice beach or pool every day and have access to decent food and drink easily when I want.
Ok, I am confused - what is a non-all-inclusive resort and how does it differ from a hotel where the price only includes the room and perhaps a pool and a gym?
I stayed at the Allegro Cozumel in Dec 2020. At that time they were only 50% max and there were not that many people there. The island was pretty empty too as they were not allowing the cruse ships in.
I don’t remember the food really, so it wasn’t great, but couldn’t have been horrible either. They also had limited times for food so that wasn’t the best, but the hours were not horrible either. They did have one or two reservation places open. The drinks were good, typical for an all inclusive.
The beach was nice, not many waves, and clean. There was an eel that I saw a couple of times, and a number of other fish that I would go watch from time to time. Three pools, the hot tub did not work too well, not sure if they never had it on or what. I didn’t spend much time in the pools.
They are family oriented, they have day care and things for kids to do. I can’t answer what that was like as there were not many kids there when I was there.
The island itself was nice. We took a scooter around the island one day. If you do that stay on the main roads as the cops will pull you over, they got me and like 5 others all at once even though the guy I rented the scooter from said it was ok to be on the side road. There are some Mayan ruins that was a nice walk, and a couple of other beaches that we didn’t go to as one had to pay to get to them. Downtown was nice, but no one around so we were always being hassled to buy something.
I think the food is hit or miss at all inclusive resorts. My Wife generally doesn’t like them, I generally like them. We are both adventuresome and like to explore, but it is also nice to really just chill by the pool, play volleyball do a little snorkeling and have lots of food and drink right there.
One thing to consider for Cancun is the sargassum “seaweed”. We went to the Cancun area last year in May. In the first part of our trip in Isla Mujeres (island off of Cancun), there was none. For the second part of the week we were in Akumal, about an hour South of Cancun and the beaches were intolerable due to the smell from the rotting seaweed. I see from this article, that March is when the seaweed often starts to arrive on Cancun. Just one thing to keep in mind as you book your trip.
Be aware, the Dominican Republic does not require a negative test and does not require Covid vaccinations for travelers from the U.S. So depending on your situation, that may be a good thing or a bad thing. Personally I wouldn’t want to be surrounded by hordes of unvaccinated people.
Before my most recent trip, I knew nothing about it. Now, it would be as important to my plans as the weather. It made the beaches completely unappealing. For whatever its worth, the islands off Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Cozumel and Isla Holbox all have almost no problem with it on their main beaches. Cozumel has some well rated all inclusive resorts (Secrets, Allegro Cozumel), and is just a fun place overall.
Oh man, that’s a bummer, because the DR was actually one of my top destinations and I don’t want to go to a place that is going to basically cater to anti-vaxers who are banned from other options.
I’m actually thinking about taking a trip to a resort, too, but my girlfriend likely can’t go with me because she burned her personal time off on sick days and has other travel appointments this year that will eat the rest. Are there places that cater towards single travelers that have maybe a smaller room that’s a little cheaper or something like that? Because usually the really good deals come from the fact that you’re splitting the room between 2 people, so you’d be paying not quite double to travel solo unless there’s some sort of special accommodation for single travelers.
This may be too late, but don’t sleep on the British Virgin Islands for relaxing, quiet and less-crowded vacations. There aren’t really any mega resorts and there are many small places that cater to adults only.
I personally highly recommend Guana Island, which is a private island that only holds about 30 guests at any one time. It’s absolutely stunning, quiet, relaxing, great service, luxury but still down to earth - not overly pretentious, it maintains a true laid-back island feel. It’s my all-time favorite location in the Caribbean by a large margin.
I stayed at the Akumal Beach and Wellness Resort which is right next to Secrets and really enjoyed it there. It’s all inclusive and while it’s not adults only, it does have a minimum age, maybe 12 or 15, so the few youngsters we saw were mostly teens.
Another possible option if you’re considering Mexico is Huatulco, which is on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca. Way less touristy than Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo.
Both of these trips were pre-Covid, but some of the travel-related businesses we used have Facebook pages I follow and they seem to be posting pretty regularly, which I guess is a good sign.
I was using that simply to mean “a resort that isn’t all-inclusive”. Most are not, but many are still eager to supply you with food and drink (even poolside) - and of course to add this to your room bill.
I kind of sort of understood that - but I don’t think I’ve seen anyplace that called itself a resort and didn’t include at least meals and some sort of entertainment so I wasn’t sure if you were referring to hotels.
I’ve stayed at La Concha and El Conquistador in Puerto Rico, and both were a la carte with food and drink. I’d describe the former as a hotel and the latter as a resort.
As for my trip, it looks like I’m now also going to have to be cost conscious. Some of the ones I’ve mentioned that I’ve stayed at in the past are now over $800 a day, and I’m trying to keep it below $500 a day. And flights are over $500 too. I knew I waited too long, but now looking for last minute deals.
I’m sure it makes me a cheapskate, but for $500 a night for a single guest, I would stay away from the main strip in Cancun, go to 1 of the other amazing beaches in the area, hire a chef to cook for me everyday, and still save money.