Nice all inclusive

One More Solo

One More Solo

One More Solo

Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2004
Posts
17,058
Location
Shepley
My wife and I went on honeymoon to a Riu resort in Cape Verde back in 2012. It was OK and fit our budget at the time but also felt a bit Club 18-30, the food was meh and the resort itself wasn’t much to look at. I said never again but we’ve just come back from Excellence El Carmen in the DR and had a great time despite my wife being on crutches/wheelchair bound due to a pre holiday broken ankle (don’t ask).

We’ll definitely go back at some point when we fancy a break from our usual city breaks and cycling holidays, but are there any similar resorts within easier reach of the UK?

Example of things we liked about the Excellence:

Adults only (a must)
All restaurants bar one a la carte rather than buffet and decent food (ie refreshing lack of french fries despite all the Americans)
Nice beach which is good for swimming
Swim up rooms
 
Loads in the Caribbean but it all hinges on budget. The cheaper end will usually be buffets but pay more, you get better restaurants. I found the Iberostars pretty good for the price and they cater for many price points and their Iberostar Grands are great. Was staying at the Rose Hall Grand in Jamaica and ate at their steakhouse one night, ordered a porterhouse and was asked would you like a lobster tail with that sir? Hell yeah!! Was told you can call the butler to deliver a bottle of something to your room, so we ordered a bottle of rum and they came and gave us a full bottle of Appletons, tipped the butler $5 and his pal came a few minutes later and delivered another bottle I presume for the tip which we took home with us
 
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We went to Sandy Villas in Corfu earlier this year. Very well priced for what you get, adults only, all inclusive, nice food good entertainment. Beach was ok, not the nicest I've been too but nothing to complain about.
We went for the villa with shared pool option which was great, added benefit of the people we shared with didn't use it. But they have swim up rooms available too.

Place itself was very nice. I can't remember if it's classed as 4 or 5 star but I'd say it's a good 4 star.

I would 100% return
 
AI you really do get what you pay for

The last 2 all inclusive we did was Turtle Beach and O2 beach club at barbados both were phenomenal.

The prior was a mix at Turkey and Tunisia, the chepaer scale really wasnt worth bothering with in my eyes dross food an dthe drinks were crap.
The Baiai Lara we stayed at in Turkey was notably better but then again was more expensive than the last.
Turkey is off my list now tho
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
AI you really do get what you pay for

The last 2 all inclusive we did was Turtle Beach and O2 beach club at barbados both were phenomenal.

The prior was a mix at Turkey and Tunisia, the chepaer scale really wasnt worth bothering with in my eyes dross food an dthe drinks were crap.
The Baiai Lara we stayed at in Turkey was notably better but then again was more expensive than the last.
Turkey is off my list now tho
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I totally agree - I was just wondering if there are any of these nicer all inclusive resorts nearer to Europe as the Caribbean seems to have a monopoly on them. The Ikos resorts do look great aside from the kids bit, though. They're expensive but it's a lot cheaper to get to Mallorca than the Caribbean.
 
I went to Ikos Andelusia in May and it was absolutely awesome. 110% recommended.

It was super easy to avoid kids. There was a family pool that had all the young children, an adjacent one that had a mix and then 4 pools that were child free as it would be redundant to take children to them compared with the child friendly ones.

My parents are there right now living it up… gits :p
 
One More Solo said:
The Ikos resorts do look great aside from the kids bit, though. They're expensive but it's a lot cheaper to get to Mallorca than the Caribbean.
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If it’s in your budget then I couldn’t recommend Ikos enough. We tend to go to Olivia in Halkidiki but we’re thinking of trying Odisia in Corfu next year (fingers crossed for no wild fires!).

What’s impossible to tell from the photos is the level of service. It’s far beyond what I’d expect from an all-inclusive resort. You sit down on a sun lounger and within two minutes someone is along to take your drinks order. It was like White Lotus but without the murders. :D
 
We tried the Excellence Playa Mujeres in Cancun earlier in the year as our first all inclusive experience. Despite it being universally aclaimed online, it was probably the worst hotel experience we have ever had due to the quality of the food. I remember arriving on the first night and we popped into the steak restaurant, fairly late in the evening so the restaurant was quiet. I ordered a fillet medium rare, and despite being virtually the only customers being catered for at that time, what turned up on my plate was an overcooked, chewy, grissly mess. The food quality at the other restaurants was of similar standard.

It wasn't cheap - from memory it was just about the most expensive all inclusive in Cancun aside from Le Blanc, so I thought "you get what you pay for" combined with outstanding reviews meant we couldn't go wrong.

Unfortunately it's probably put us off ever trying one again. We generally prefer venturing out from the hotel to explore anyway and I would much prefer saving a few hundred a night on the hotel to instead spend on a Michelin restaurant in the evening and guarantee some good food.
 
I've never really done an all inclusive (outside of a rough Majorca hotel in 2004), the closest would be my honeymoon to Navini Island in Fiji (https://www.navinifiji.com.fj/) - you book the room and all food, excursions and transfers are included. You still have to pay for alcohol but that's due to pretty much everything being imported.

I understand the allure of AI but my wife and I don't like big resorts, anything over around 20/25 rooms we tend to avoid.

EDIT: Now i'm looking to see if I can make another trip to Fiji work with a child in tow :D Highlight of that resort was they took us on a trip to Castaway Island (the tom hanks one) early one day before all the day trippers got there - that's a bucket list destination for sure.

EDIT 2: Nope - works out £750/night at todays rate, it was less than £300/night 10 years ago :(
 
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Only once have I been on an AI holiday - a family excursion paid for by grandparents. We'd not long lost my partner and they wanted to do something for the family, my kids etc.

It was horrendous. Salou in Spain. Food was poor but edible. Hotel was full of Russians who ate like they had not eaten in months and ques were for everyone else - towards the end of the "holiday" meal times became a source of dread for me. There was a big storm which completely washed away the man made beach. One saving grace, I ditched the fam and took my eldest to a theme park with roller coasters etc.


Anyway, eldest is now wanting to take an AI with her own family, they have 2 girls under 2. She's been looking at Spain, Canaries but I was wondering whether she'd get more bang for buck going outside the EU?

We went to Croatia was year and it was great. Popped over to Bosnia & Hz which literally felt like a town I know very well in Ukraine, just closer to the sea - proper USSR cookie cutter (Yes I know not USSR per se but exactly the same playbook, genuinely felt more at home there than in Dubrovnik :) ) Montenegro on the other hand was far more picturesque. The Iberostar website offers decent priced AI holidays in Montenegro. Just wondered if anyone had any experience of the place - we were only there for the day.
 
SixTwoSix said:
I understand the allure of AI but my wife and I don't like big resorts, anything over around 20/25 rooms we tend to avoid.
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Yeah, before we had kids I was the same. I wanted to go explore but AI gives you too much of an incentive to stay and use what you’ve already paid for.

Now we have two primary school age kids, my attitude has changed. We just want a chill, pack our children off to kids club for a few hours and sip margaritas by the pool.

I definitely wouldn’t go to an AI resort without a personal recommendation though. They vary too much in quality. We went to one in Barbados, which had great reviews, but the food and service wasn’t great and it attracted the wrong crowd.
 
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