SAN FRANCISCO — Want a relaxing, safe,
good-value vacation?
Then an all-inclusive resort, with your room,
food, drinks and activities included in one pre-paid price, is just
the ticket. But if you seek adventure, immersion in a foreign
country, a new experience, then you should probably steer clear.
In a twist on what it means to travel to
foreign lands, you’ll never have to leave the premises of
these self-contained vacation cities.
“This is sort of a cruise on
land,” says Ann Gray, owner of Interlachen Travel, a travel
agency in Edina, Minn.
And for many land-based resorts,
“all-inclusive” includes a lot more perks than cruise
lines count in their base price.
While cruises often charge for drinks and
off-ship excursions, more all-inclusive resorts of the land-based
variety are throwing everything into one price tag, including
unlimited alcohol, as many as eight off-site excursions, plus
activities such as snorkeling, horseback-riding and windsurfing.
“You’ve prepaid for this all in
advance. Everything seems free. It really makes a vacation,”
Gray says. “Plus, you get the convenience of not having to
sign or check the bills or worry about tipping.”
Certainly, travelers appear to be lapping up
the convenience, or are eager to give it a try: 63 percent of
leisure travelers said all-inclusive resorts are extremely or very
desirable, according to the 2005 National Leisure Travel Monitor, a
survey of travelers by market-research firm YPB&R/Yankelovich
Partners.
Life without a wallet sure is easier. Rather
than paying for each meal or umbrella-laden cocktail, or blithely
charging it to your room, you leave the cash in the hotel safe. And
these resorts can offer a good value for your money.
But travelers who crave variety, adventure or
even just immersion in another culture will likely be disappointed.
“If your desire is variety, the
all-inclusive probably isn’t the best choice for you,”
says Peter Yesawich, chairman of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown &
Russell, the Orlando, Fla.-based marketing company.
“Part of the appeal of the all-inclusive
resorts is the confinement,” he says. “It’s the water
sports, the nightly parties. The whole concept is to keep you on the
property. Obviously if you’re more adventurous that’s not
going to appeal to you,” he says, noting that’s why such
resorts haven’t caught on in places such as Orlando or Las Vegas.
In those places, “there are so many
options for dining and entertainment off the property. You come to
Orlando, you don’t want to be stuck in the same hotel for
three meals,” Yesawich says.
“You go to Cancun or Maya Riviera where
there’s kind of a paucity of restaurants . . . it’s a
wonderful vacation experience for people who are on a budget. You
can do the water sports as long as you want all day long. You can
drink as much beer as you want,” he says.
Increasingly, resorts are including cultural
or other off-site activities, perhaps a move to attract older
travelers.
Younger travelers — 18- to 26-years-old
— were more likely to opt for an all-inclusive resort, with
76 percent saying the option is extremely or very desirable, while
only 53 percent of adventurers aged 60 or older said that,
according to the Travel Monitor.
“Probably the retired don’t go for
these as much. They want more options. The culture, the tours, the
really good food, the best restaurants,” says Gray.
All-inclusives offering childcare make a good
value for families. “If you totaled all [the costs] up
independently you could very well end up getting a good deal going
to one of those all-inclusive resorts,” says Don George,
global travel editor at Lonely Planet, the travel book publisher,
in Oakland, Calif.
“Beyond the pure economics for family
travelers, there’s the hugely important peace of mind
quotient,” he says.
But not all travelers will save money. For one
of her low-budget clients, Silvia Moltman, a travel agent in
Alpine, Calif., booked a regular hotel instead.
“I found I could save him in Cancun
something like $200 on his total five-day trip if he would go with
the hotel that was not inclusive,” Moltman says.
Often an all-inclusive resort will “cost
more than a resort that does not have an inclusive plan,” she
says. “Bottom line, it’s really a matter of including,
not a matter of giving away.”
But there are values to be had, depending on
the type of traveler you are. If you’re likely to eat all or
most of your meals on the hotel premises, and love the idea of taking part in many hotel-offered activities, the
all-inclusive will likely save you money.
The trick is to compare your costs before you
book.
“Do the math and see if you can price
out the individual ingredients and see how they compare to the
all-inclusive option,” says Chekitan Dev, marketing professor
at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.
“Take the overall price and first pull
out the room cost,” he says. Then divide the balance
remaining by the number of days you’re staying to get your
daily budget for food, beverages and activities.
Then look at hotel Web sites or call hotels in
the area (that are not all-inclusive) to get a sense of what a meal
generally costs.
“If you’re spending a week, the
half an hour that you invest in looking at this can save you
potentially a lot of money either way by buying the package or not
buying it,” Dev says.
“Sometimes they can be more
expensive,” he says, with resorts thinking that, because
they’re saving people time they can charge more. That works
for some resorts “because people won’t take the time to
price the individual components,” he says.
“Other operators have figured out that
people are savvy enough that they’re going to look at the
price,” he says.
The same is true for any travel package, he
says. “I’m going with my family to San Francisco in
June. I priced out some package deals and I was better off doing it
on my own.”
An all-inclusive resort in the Mayan Riviera
ranges from $85 per night to $300 per night, Gray says, depending
on how luxurious the resort.
Other sample trips, recently put together by
George Evans, vice president of All Inclusive Resort Travel Inc.,
an agency based in Margate, Fla., include:
Round-trip airfare from Detroit,
departing Dec. 26 and including accommodations, meals, drinks, some
water sports, taxes and tips, for a family of four for seven days
in Montego Bay, Jamaica: $5,300.
A trip for two from Atlanta to
Mexico’s Maya Riviera, to spend seven nights at the
couples-only Desire Resort and Spa, including food, 24-hour room
service and premium cocktails: Under $3,000 per couple.
A seven-night trip to the luxury Grand
Lido Braco Resort & Spa, in Rio Bueno, Jamaica, including
junior suite at the beachfront and a clothing-optional setting
— not including airfare: About $4,000 per couple. The resort
is “top end,” Evans says. “Gentlemen have to wear
a coat to dinner at the French restaurant.”
Or, for the more budget-minded: A
seven-night trip from Buffalo, N.Y. to Jamaica’s Riu Tropical
Bay Resort runs $1,310 per person, including airfare,
accommodations, food and beverages.
Be sure to check around for specials. One
resort on Travelocity offered a last-minute 50 percent off deal for
the last week of April, says Amy Ziff, editor-at-large for
Travelocity. Others often offer a “fourth night free”
or similar discount.
More resorts are also starting to offer some
all-inclusive plans among their regular a-la-carte rooms, Ziff
says.
Also check Expedia, which offers a page
devoted to all-inclusives in destinations ranging from the
Caribbean to Palm Beach, Fla., to Tunisia to Indonesia.
As is true of all resorts, no two are exactly
alike. To ensure you get the experience you’re expecting, ask
questions before you book.
What’s not included? “Some
all-inclusives will give you food [but] if you want drinks from the
bar you pay extra for them,” George, of Lonely Planet, says.
Or, “it might be sailboards are free but you have to pay
extra for horseback riding. It’s good to know up front what
those costs are.”
What kind of vacationer does the resort serve?
If you’re a family of six, you don’t want to end up at
a honeymooners’ resort. It’s unlikely a travel agent or
a resort would let that happen, but ask nonetheless to ensure the
resort caters to people like you.
How many meals? Confirm how many meals are
included, and what the process is for making reservations for those
meals. Some resorts limit the number of meals, or require a complex
process to reserve at on-site restaurants.
“Sometimes you have to be there by 8 in
the morning to make reservations,” Gray says. “That can
take some of the relaxation out of an all-inclusive
vacation.”
Domestic alcohol only? If you’re a
connoisseur of fine vodka, ask whether premium alcohol is included.
Some resorts consider “all-inclusive” limited to
domestic brews.
Buy complete with airfare, or not. If
you’ve got frequent flier miles you can redeem, or know of a
great discount airfare to the destination, consider booking your
airfare separately.
© 2005 MarketWatch.com Inc.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2005.
