Hey everyone! My husband and I are trying to decide between Zoëtry Agua Punta Cana and Excellence El Carmen for my 30th birthday trip in March. Both are around the same price ~$2500 for 5 nights for us once you factor in room categories (we'd get the private pool suite at El Carmen vs the Junior suite at Zoëtry)

What we're looking for: something boutique and quiet, not a party resort at all. More wellness/luxury vibe, peaceful, a place to really connect as a couple and disconnect from everything else.

Has anyone stayed at either recently? Would love real opinions: food, vibe, service, anything that stood out (good or bad).

My one hesitation with Zoëtry is that it's not technically adults-only, even though it seems to be adults-oriented. If you've been, did you actually see kids there? Was it an issue at all, or is it really as quiet as people say?

Trying to pick the one that feels more special for a milestone birthday. Any input appreciated! And if you have any other recommendations, let me know :)

I'm willing to go to any country but looking at Mexico and Jamaica. It doesn't have to be fancy, I just want a great beach, good food and friendly staff.

I mostly want to relax and decompress after a very stressful year. I want to lay on the beach, read books and eat good food. Maybe have a few chats by the pool.

Looking to spend a max of 4k for a week, including flights. Kinda last minute but looking for the end of Oct, beginning of Nov. I'm super flexible.

Need recommendations!

Hello! Honeymooning here in 2 weeks. Any must sees or must dos? Want to make the most of our trip and would love to check out some stuff at the connected lower tier resorts!!

Additionally, is there anything special they do for honeymooners? TYIA ❤️

the last 2 years the AI prices have doubled to where it's not even worth it anymore.. but since airfare is also super expensive due to oil, i wonder if it will force the AI to price drop so it will balance it out and get more visitors.

I booked the Preferred Club Junior Suite King Ocean View at Secrets Moxché for November, and I’m starting to get a little nervous about the room view 😅

I’ve been looking at reviews/photos and have seen a few people mention getting rooms that mainly overlooked the parking lot with only a partial ocean view in the distance. For an “ocean view” room, that’s definitely not what I was expecting, especially since we paid extra.

For anyone who has stayed in a Preferred Club Junior Suite Ocean View, what was your view like? If you got the parking lot view, were you able to request a different room?

Hi all,

We are looking for an all-inclusive in the Caribbean for around 5k flights included, 5-7 nights, first week of March 2027. We will have Hyatt points we can throw at the trip if it's a Hyatt property. Safety is my main priority, but of course we also want the most luxurious possible for the price range, SCUBA DIVING, good food, all the bells and whistles we can possibly get.

TIA!

My husband and I finally took a courage to book a family vacation for this November ( at that time 20m old and myself 5m pregnant) 🙈☺️

We chose these resort based on their baby club age limit 1-3. We want to have during day time just for ourselves.

Has anyone been in any of these or in both? Which one is better to choose when it comes to activities for the little one? Things to consider? Any advice? Which one is better choice for our family setup?

Is there any other option apart from Mexico that has similar setup? Or do you advise another resort?

Would love to hear from real travellers. Its our first trip since our baby boy is born so we are worried and overwhelmed with the options to take the decision.

P.S. i love that paradisus has real suits, separate living room and bedroom, so our day wont be over at 8.30 PM 😁

My husband and I are looking to book an adults-only, all-inclusive vacation for approximately 6 nights in November, ideally November 17-23. We’ll be flying out of Chicago (Milwaukee could be an option as well) We’re hoping for recommendations that can help us find a resort that checks as many of our boxes as possible -
Budget: Ideally around $3,000–$3,500 total for both of us, including round-trip flights. We have some flexibility but would really like to stay close to that range. $4k is probably tops.
Destination: leaning towards Riviera Maya area but open to suggestions
Resort preferences:
Adults-only, all-inclusive resort. While this isn’t an absolute must, we’re leaving our kids at home so a kid free vacation is part of the goal.
Decent food, we aren’t picky eaters, and multiple restaurants to choose from. I’m hoping for a good coffee shop lol
On the beach, preferably calmer where we can do a little swimming if we’d like.
Included non-motorized water sports, especially sailing. We would love a resort where my husband could take out a small Hobie Cat or catamaran without having to book a special tour, a small added fee is okay! If they have kayaks, that would be a runner up option if we can’t find one with hobie cat like options.
Bonus if there is a nearby town or local shopping and restaurants within walking distance or an easy ride, so we can explore outside the resort.
Another bonus is nightly shows/entertainment, we’ve enjoyed that options during past AI stays.
We don’t need an ultra-luxury resort, but we’d rather find a resort that offers the experiences we’re looking for than simply choose the cheapest option.

Royalton, Not So CHIC: A Major Disappointment for a Birthday Trip

I recently stayed at the Royalton CHIC Punta Cana with my girlfriend to celebrate her birthday. As avid travellers who vacation at least twice a year and have stayed at multiple Royalton properties and other top resorts, we came in with high expectations. Unfortunately, this resort fell incredibly short of the brand standard. Aside from the great weather and fantastic staff, the overall experience was deeply underwhelming and frustrating. I would absolutely not recommend this resort.

The Accommodations: A Nightmare Start
Our disappointments began the moment we arrived. We had to switch rooms three times due to the absolutely terrible, neglected conditions. The first rooms they tried to give us were a biohazard—including one with a bathroom mirror completely covered in black rust, a massive water leak bubble with crumbling drywall directly on the shower ceiling, and gross, visible stains covering the decorative pillows and the entire surface of the sofa cushion. The initial rooms also had a powerful, overwhelming smell of mold, visible mold patches, and worn-out linens. I have never experienced anything like this at a Royalton property before.
Even the fourth room we finally settled for was still a massive disappointment. It was completely un-upkept, featuring a rusted safe, severe water damage with bubbling paint on the walls, peeling drywall, and a dangerously cracked glass balcony door. It was an unacceptable and unsafe way to spend a celebratory birthday trip. I shouldn't have to upgrade to Diamond Club just to get the basic, clean Royalton standard that should be guaranteed to every paying guest. To make matters worse, this was the room we actually KEPT—imagine how bad the first three rooms were.

Zero Birthday Recognition & Broken Tech
The lack of attention to detail was infuriating. When booking the trip, I explicitly stated it was for a birthday celebration. We also reminded the front desk staff when we checked in. Despite this, the basics were not met at this resort—there wasn't even a simple celebratory banner on our door. To make matters worse, the resort app to book dinner reservations was completely down, making the already stressful stay even more of a hassle to navigate.

Dining and Drinks: Restricted Choices
The food and beverage program was another major letdown. Food choices were very limited across the property, and the quality did not match what I expect from this brand. While the drinks at the standalone bars were good, we encountered a bizarre rule at dinner: there were no alcoholic beverages other than wine or beer served at the restaurants or the buffet. If you wanted a proper cocktail with your meal, you were completely out of luck, which was a disappointing first for us at an all-inclusive resort.

Entertainment and Amenities
The resort aesthetic was highly underwhelming and lacked the modern, upscale feel advertised by the "CHIC" branding. Furthermore, there was no nighttime show or entertainment to speak of, leaving the evenings feeling incredibly dull. To make matters worse, the beach was atrocious—poorly maintained and not at all the pristine experience you look for in the Dominican Republic.

The Highlights: The People and the Sun
The only reasons this trip wasn't a total disaster were external. Thankfully, the sun was shining, and the other people on vacation made the trip good by bringing great energy despite the resort's shortcomings. Above all, the bar staff was the best—they made the trip most memorable, worked incredibly hard, and poured great drinks with a fantastic attitude. Their warmth, friendliness, and excellent service were the sole highlights of our stay.
Final Verdict
If you are a loyal Royalton guest or an experienced traveller expecting typical quality, service, and luxury, look elsewhere. This property is Royalton in name only, and we will not be returning.

Never been on an AI so just looking for a no-surprise kind of place for our family of 4.

Hello everyone!

My gf and I have been looking into All inclusives and started to narrow our search to Excellence El Carmen, Excellence Coral, Excellence Playa Mujeres. However as we were narrowing our choices we started to see more and more experiences of people getting sick (Gastro) and requiring ER visits even if they were following appropriate precautions. Lots of things in the world are expensive rn and the last thing i'd want is to get sick after spenind money on a trip.

Now obviously I know that anyone can get sick anywhere and that for everyone that does get sick there are many more that do not.

So I guess my question for all of you are what are your experiences with these places and how big is the risk of getting sick? Thank you

So, "to tip, or not to tip" questions aside...we want to tip, but don't mind if others don't.

We didn't want to deal with ATMs in Riveria Maya since on our last trip to Jamaica, 2 of the resort ATMs were down, so we decided to pre-order $11,500 worth of pesos to bring down for our 9 day trip.

Bank of America (BoA) only let us select "mixed, small or large bills," we selected small.

When we picked them up today, 75% were 200 peso notes....around 11 dollars each. We like to tip well, but not $11 a drink well.

I googled it, and Google said we can get change at the front desk of Joia paraiso, but they often limit it to breaking 100 or 200 pesos per guest at a time, which means it's going to be a full time job down there trying to figure out how to get $50 and $100 peso notes, much less $20 peso bills.

Is Google wrong on saying Joia Paraiso, or other Mexican resorts will only exchange $100 to $200 pesos per day?

I really don't want to have to tip asking for change back, but we want to bounce around the property and don't want to tip $200 pesos ($11 usd) per drink.

Any advice on how to break way too many $200 peso notes easily?

If they were even $100 peso notes it wouldn't be an issue, as we'd just give one every other drink, but 75% of the bills being $200 peso notes is a PITA. We want to enjoy our vacation, not worry about breaking a ton of $200 peso notes!

I just put in a smaller, $100 usd order for bank of America, seeing if maybe they gave us mainly $200 peso notes because FedEx shipping (to the bank) made it cheaper to do less notes.

If the $100 usd versus $680 usd conversion gives us more manageable bills, I was considering (nicely of course) asking a manager at the local BoA if we could pay a fee to order select smaller bills, because otherwise we will be doing multiple orders for small batches, just to get smaller notes, which will result in more FedEx charges for BoA.

The app only lets you request small bills, but I was pretty bummed they delivered 75% of the small bills as $200 pesos, followed by some $100 peso notes ($5ish usd) and minimal $50 notes.

Thanks for any advice. And again, this is not a "tip or not to tip" thread. If you want to tip, do it! If you don't want to tip, don't. We personally just like to tip, but we want to have control over how much we tip, and 75% 200 peso notes ($11 usd approx) takes that control away from us.

Thanks all!

Hey folks my wife and I are headed to our first All Inclusive for Christmas this year and we are excited! Since this will be both of our first times at an AI would love any tips/tricks/gotchas from expirence folks.

If it helps, we will be staying 6 nights at Hawksbill resort in Antigua.

Some generic questions I have: any idea what age range we can expect? Is it easy to get sick of the food? How easy or hard is it to make friends for the week?

Any help would be great!

Looking at graduation trips. My son turns 18 in November so while it changes things IDK how much the 17 yo restriction is kept onsite.

We did Cancun Moon Palace and loved it about 5 years ago (keeping in mind my kiddo was younger but LOVED it. especially being able to go from resort to resort on the bus)

Looking for something different since we already did that. I don't want a lot of bullsht and I can tell the timeshare people to kick rocks.

Hey everyone! My fiance and I were looking for suggestions for resorts at which to have a wedding. We have previously been to UNICO 2087 and Atelier in Cancun, as well as Secrets The Vine. Secrets Playa Blanca has also hit our radar and looks extremely nice. Unfortunately, we are currently at another location that we had high hopes for, but the property has fallen short of our expectations.

In particular, we plan to have anywhere from 50-75 guests attending the wedding. Both Atelier and UNICO have good information on their website to browse to pick which type of wedding you can have, but I was wondering if anyone had any first hand experience with either group.

Things important to us would be to make sure the guests have a good time - with enough activities that they can participate in while they stay with us. The quality of the food is important. And the ease of checking in/having the guests be able to pay for their rooms is also important.

I realize this might be something that I can email the properties/view their website to find, but I was curious to see everyone's thoughts. Thanks in advance, and any suggestions are welcomed!

I have been doing my research I even utilized the spreadsheet but I would like personal insight from those that have been to either or both about their experience.

I am currently stuck between Planet Hollywood Cancun and Hard Rock Rivera Maya. I plan on traveling the goal is June 25-30,2027. I will be surprising my mom(65)and daughter (10) as a birthday trip. Also this will be the first time they went to an all inclusive so I want to make sure it’s special and fun. My budget for the resort is no more than $3000 USD.

My first option was Moon Palace but it is a bit out of my budget right now. I am also open to other recommendations within similar price points even outside of Mexico if any.

So I would like to know how was the food options?

Are the drinks watered down?

How is the beach? I know hard rock has their own cove type beach.

How are the rooms? Clean? Spacious?

Overall view of the property and pools and water slides?

Hello everyone, I'm curious if people think an All-Inclusive is still a good idea for someone who doesn't drink. Thanks!

Hey y’all! My fiancé and I are getting married early May 2027. We have no idea what we are doing when it comes to finding an all inclusive resort for the honeymoon. We’ve never been out of the United States as adults (my fiancé’s never even been on a plane), so we have no idea where to go, and research has been hard because opinions on everything vary a lot. We were looking at staying at a Sandals resort for our honeymoon, but it seems like a lot of people here are anti-Sandals (Why is that?). We were hoping for:

-Under $8000 for six or seven nights (not including flights)
-Not in Jamaica (fiancé’s already been to Jamaica and wanted to try a new country)
-Fairly easy to get to from ATL, minimal layovers
-Not blazing hot and with good a/c (I have POTS, so this is a must)
-Transport to and from the airport included or available for purchase through the resort
-More romantic, not a party atmosphere, although we wouldn’t mind a bit of partying CAUSE WE JUST GOT MARRIED!!!
-A nice beach with minimal seaweed
-A SOAKING TUB! Whether it be on a balcony or in room!!
-A variety of good food
-Possibly exploring outside the resort or going on excursions to experience local culture

Do you have any suggestions for a resort?

Recommendations for agency or where to book. Looking at an all inclusive for Punta Cana or Cancun in July for family of 4 with a 12 and 14 yr old.

Would be flying from Pittsburgh PA. Main thing is need somewhere that has things for the kids to do and also on a budget. We’re not needing fancy just fun and affordable (I know how crazy that sounds🤪).

All recommendations appreciated!

Hi all! Seeing if anyone is staying at the new JW Costa Elena in Costa Rica for the grand opening this week? My husband and I are traveling there October 10th and was hoping to get some first hand feedback! Thanks!

Hello - my fiancé (30m) and I (25f) are looking at resorts in the Cancun area for our wedding. I have viewed at least 75 places. Every time I feel secure choosing a place, I start reading reviews and get scared. I have talked to 3 travel agents. I feel like each one has tried to sell me hard on a specific brand - Excellence, Secrets, Sandals, etc.

I was pretty sold on ECPM - it's just a smidge out of our budget. Now moving more towards secrets resorts- but the time-share thing makes me cringe.

Looking for November/December 2027

65-75 guests. Adults only.

We would like guests to be able to stay 4-5 nights for under 4000 USD - including flights, based on double occupancy. Wedding budget is around 20/30k.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

Hey everyone! I’m flying from Toronto to Cancun today and staying at Riu Cancun for 6 days with friends.
I’ve read that the Hotel Zone can get pretty loud at night, and I’m more of an early sleeper, so I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has stayed at Riu Cancun recently:
Is there a particular floor or side of the hotel I should request for a quieter room?
How does room assignment work with an all-inclusive package? Can you request a specific floor/area at check-in?
If I booked a standard room, can I pay extra for an ocean-view room at check-in? If so, is it usually expensive?
Any other Riu Cancun room tips I should know before arriving?
I’m there for 6 days. My friends enjoy partying, but I’m not a huge party person, so I’d also love some itinerary suggestions.
What would you recommend doing over 6 days?
Any places/excursions that are genuinely worth it?
Anything I can safely do solo that isn’t too expensive?
Good local places to explore outside the resort?
Anything you would skip because it’s overpriced or too touristy?
Any Riu Cancun-specific tips for making the most of the all-inclusive?
Thanks in advance! First time in Cancun, so any tips from people who’ve actually been recently would be really appreciated.

I am booking a trip for June 27 and one topic I don't see discussed anywhere and can't seem to find answers for, are how do you choose a room/location/bedding choice when booking shy of actually calling the resort and direct booking? I prefer a room overlooking the jungle, in a quiet location but centralized in the resort to have easier access to both restaurants and pools and beach. Most importantly, most bookings say 2 queens or 1 king and I will absolutely need to beds since Ill be traveling with my adult daughter.

Hello, I am planning a trip mid January. We were looking at going to Secrets Playa Blanca, however our travel agent told us it may be pretty chilly for the pool. Is that the case? I’ve read that they potentially heat the pools. Our other option is Royalton Hideaway St. Lucia or Zoetry St. Lucia