At most of the resorts we book, the rate includes the room, the meals, and a set of drinks. Non-motorized water sports and the fitness room are included at most of them too. Gratuities are included at Sandals, Beaches, and much of the Hyatt Inclusive Collection. The spa, motorized sports, and a day off the property are usually booked separately.
Resorts also differ by who they accept. Sandals, Secrets, Breathless, and Hyatt Zilara are adults only. Beaches, Hyatt Ziva, Dreams, and Club Med’s beach villages take children, and the kids’ clubs do not all start at the same age. A couples resort with a quiet pool is the wrong booking for a reunion. Ski, including Club Med on snow, is its own page.
The airfare is often the larger part of the cost, and the airports near you do not all serve the same islands. We book the flight from the airport you use. A “free flight” offer is often a higher room rate that assumes you take the resort’s air. We price the room and the flights separately, so you can see the hotel cost and the airfare on their own.
Adults only, Caribbean
Jamaica, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, and Grenada. Sandals is a couples resort. Secrets, Excellence, and the smaller couples resorts are alternatives, not copies of Sandals. Say whether you want a quiet pool or a resort built around bars and shows.
Families
Beaches in Turks & Caicos and Jamaica, Hyatt Ziva, Dreams, and Club Med’s beach villages. Ask the age the kids’ club accepts, and whether the rooms connect. A reunion with teenagers needs a larger club and rooms that connect. A trip with toddlers needs a club that takes young children. Ski, including Club Med on snow, is its own page.
Mexico
Cancún and the Riviera Maya for a short flight and a long beach. Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta when you want the Pacific and a drier winter. Hyatt Ziva and Zilara, Secrets, Excellence, and Palace are the lines we set side by side. We look at the beach in front of the hotel, not the brochure map of the coast.
Punta Cana
A wide range of properties and a straightforward flight from the Northeast. Prices vary widely from one hotel to the next. The hotels are not one resort, and the beach in front of each one is different.
Overwater villas
The Maldives take a much longer flight and a much higher nightly rate than a Caribbean resort. An agent requests most of those stays, because they are not posted. If you want to book that stay, say so. Booking a Caribbean week does not take you to the Maldives.
When to go
Caribbean hurricane season runs June through November. The resort rate for a late-summer week can be lower, and that week can also carry a real storm risk. The Mexican Caribbean is hot and wet in summer and more reliable from December through April. School breaks and the weeks around Christmas sell out, and the rate for those weeks is higher than the rate for a week in September. Overwater villas are booked on their own dates, and an agent almost always requests those rates.
A posted nightly rate is not always the rate we can book. An agent requests preferred rates, wedding blocks, and most villa stays. Send the dates. You pay the resort. We do not hold the payment.
