What the price usually covers
- Your room for the nights you booked
- Meals at the buffet and, on most rates, a set number of sit-down (à la carte) dinners
- Drinks: local beer, house wine, cocktails made with house spirits, soft drinks and bottled water
- Pools, beach loungers, towels and daytime activities like aqua aerobics or beach volleyball
- Evening shows and, at family resorts, the kids' club
- Non-motorized water sports such as kayaks and paddleboards, at many resorts
What usually costs extra
- Flights, and the airport transfer to the resort
- Premium drinks: top-shelf spirits, bottled wine and some specialty coffees
- Spa treatments, excursions, scuba diving and motorized water sports
- Room service at budget resorts (sometimes included, often not)
- Club-level or "premium" upgrades with a private pool, lounge or beach area
- Local tourism taxes that are paid separately, such as Quintana Roo's VISITAX for Cancún and the Riviera Maya
- Tips, which are optional but common
Our trip calculator adds these costs up for you. The advertised nightly price is usually only a little over half of what a trip really costs.
Questions to ask before you book
- How many à la carte dinners are included, and do they need reservations?
- Is the beach swimmable, or is it a "view" beach with strong waves or rocks?
- Which restaurants, bars and pools are only for the premium tier?
- Is there a resort fee or a charge for Wi-Fi, safes or beach towels?
- How far is it from the airport, and what does a shared shuttle cost?
Budget resorts: where they save money
Lower-priced all-inclusives keep costs down with older rooms, bigger buildings, more buffet meals and fewer specialty restaurants. That's fine for many trips. What matters is checking recent guest photos of the rooms, because budget resorts often vary a lot between buildings or wings. Read reviews from the last six months, not the last six years.
A simple plan for your first trip
- Pick the destination first (our comparison guide below helps), then the resort.
- Choose shoulder season (late April, May, November or early December) for lower prices with decent weather.
- Book 5 to 7 nights. Shorter trips lose too much time to travel days.
- Price the whole trip with the calculator before deciding the resort is a bargain.
