All-inclusive vacations are appealing to families and people on a certain budget.  Included in an all-inclusive package will be a round-trip airfare from a departure destination, transport between airport and your hotel, your hotel fee and all meals and drinks.  This is a good deal if you have teenagers because you don’t have to worry about keeping them fed.  All-inclusive packages will also normally include a couple of extras, such as a free tour or two, and on-sight recreation.  All-inclusive means that once you get to your destination, you don’t have to spend any money except on souvenirs of your trip unless you go outside your resort.  These vacations are a no hassle way of taking a vacation and being able to relax and enjoy it without figuring out how much your accommodations will cost and finding the right place to stay.  Prices vary and depend on the time you plan to spend at the resort and what amenities you want or expect.

There are many advantages of an all-inclusive vacation package.  The buffet-style food gives you a huge choice in what you want to eat, is easily available and will allow you to sample different varieties of food you normally wouldn’t try.  The service is always helpful and you will find many activities included in the package.  The all-inclusive trip that we took included two tours of our choice as well as snorkeling and other water activities.  Many sights have pools, tennis courts, or golf courses.  These activities are free and part of the package.

One of the best advantages in buy an all-inclusive package to a major theme park such as Disney World is they have so many activities that are included.  For instance, water parks, miniature golf, canoeing, biking, and horseback riding.  The best part is they have free shuttles back and forth between the different areas so you don’t have to worry about transportation.  No need for the extra expense of renting a car.

If your family includes older children, you might enjoy an all-inclusive package such as a skiing adventure in the Rockies, or a trip to a “dude” ranch in Arizona. No matter what your tastes are, you can find an all-inclusive vacation to make everyone happy.

There are a few cons to an all-inclusive vacation.  You should explore your destination on-line and sometimes that still doesn’t tell the whole story.  We booked an all-inclusive vacation in Cancun that sounded like heaven.  The resort was found on a reef just off a major island and not on the “strip” of hotels in the heart of Cancun.  Sounds perfect right?  When you are booking your all-inclusive vacation, be sure you know exactly what all-inclusive means.  Some resorts offer low prices but you are subjected to sales pitches to buy time-shares.  What you thought would be an ideal vacation could turn into a nightmare when you realize that in some places, though it advertises no tipping, the workers still expect it.  If they aren’t tipped, your service will be affected.  At least we found this to be true at the resort we stayed at.   At our resort, there were tip jars everywhere and tips were absolutely expected.  Some resorts ban all tipping and you need to find out ahead of time which type of resort you are going to.

Another downside to taking an all-inclusive vacation is that if you go off the resort you will pay for everything you do.  In our case, our resort was small and had limited-access to other activities.  What we thought would be a vacation to get away from it all, instead turned in to a vacation that was restrictive and more costly than we expected.  For instance, the all-inclusive package included only one round-trip ferry ride to the mainland.  That means, they got us to the resort and would get us back to the mainland for our trip home, and all other visits or excursions off our resort was our responsibility to pay for.  The resort was beautiful, but we were expected to tip, we had to sit through a sales presentation, and it was restrictive on that particular resort.

All-inclusive has a nice sound to it, but be sure that where you are going is all-inclusive.  Research on the Internet or ask for friends or family members recommendations.