Tell me about your experiences. Locations, brands, etc..

I'm in the early research stages, the two old threads were of some help but not much.

I'm in three weddings this summer into early fall so that's really cutting into my summer vacation so I was thinking about taking a fall vacation to really just relax.

So if i went in October the things I'd really be looking for are

-good weather
-little to no kids
-lots of booze and food
-no itinerary

5/30/2012 11:22:50 AM

went to sandals in negril a few years ago....no complaints

5/30/2012 11:31:43 AM

Riu Palace in Cabo. Everything you could possibly want. That includes women, drugs, and cockfights.

5/30/2012 11:32:34 AM

Last year I went to the Riviera Maya in Mexico. Did an all inclusive thing through Apple Vacations & stayed at The Now Sapphire resort

We never left the resort, food was decent, drinks were strong & we were steps from white sands & clear water. I recommend it!

I don't remember seeing any kids but if any were there, they were hardly noticeable

[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 11:34 AM. Reason : Kids]

5/30/2012 11:33:31 AM

sandals...

see vacation thread.

We just went to miami and spent more for the 4 days we were there with meals etc. then we did in the st. lucia sandals... and i played golf for free and had a damned butler.

We went to st. lucia

5/30/2012 11:34:31 AM

We did Secrets St. James at Montego Bay last October -> http://www.secretsresorts.com/stjames/

It is all adult, booze included (they have Red Stripe on draft and Miller Lite cans), and a general good value.

The weather was great, around 30C the entire time we were there. It is on the leeward side of Jamaica so the ocean is really calm and there is no surf. We did not leave the resort. We stayed in the pool with the swim up bar 10hrs a day.

There are six or seven different restaurants on property...the best we had was the Japanese Steakhouse. Breakfast was a little hit or miss and my wife had a hard time finding food she was accustomed to, but generally speaking, if you don't mind being a little adventurous, the food was good.

5/30/2012 11:39:38 AM

is that the Sandals La Toc, in St. Lucia?

5/30/2012 11:40:59 AM

yep

5/30/2012 11:44:57 AM

Sandals in Nassau is awesome.

The case for:
They've got tons of things to do (scuba diving, snorkeling (SP?), etc) and right at the entrance to the resort is the main road, for like a dollar per person there are busses that will take you right into downtown.

There is at least one casino within walking distance and Atlantis is not too far if that's your thing.

It's an in-between crowd, mainly mid 20s to late 30s.

The case against:

They don't have free WIFI but honestly I never even thought about getting on the computer, but if you need to check VM or wan't to use your phone you can pay, I think, $10 per day.

5/30/2012 11:50:51 AM

ours had free wifi in the lobby.

i'm pretty sure its intentional.



[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 11:53 AM. Reason : .]

5/30/2012 11:52:29 AM

just got back yesterday from my first all-inclusive resort

it was in the Playa del Carmen, MX...the Grand Occidental Xcarat

I was realllly impressed with the resort for how cheap it was, strong drinks and good food

5/30/2012 11:55:47 AM

Went to Excellence Riviera near Cancun last October, it's adults only. Weather was great, not too hot and the rainy season is in spring. Plenty of things to do on the resort and the drinks were all really good and constantly refilled. The best thing was the food, they have like 8 restaurants that you can go to (one requires reservations, the rest you can just show up) and they are all different styles. Plus you could take room service as your free meal if you don't want to get up.

Here's their website: http://www.excellence-resorts.com/caribbean-and-mexico-destinations/excellence-riviera-cancun

and I bought a deal through Expedia for the hotel + flight for 4 nights for about $1000/person

5/30/2012 11:55:58 AM

any all-inclusives places in the country?

5/30/2012 11:56:40 AM

We did Sandals The Grande in St. Lucia. We loved it.

5/30/2012 12:01:44 PM

any hidden costs? or time restrictions on food/drink?

5/30/2012 12:05:28 PM

@ sandals we didn't have any... even booze from the butler service was free.

Swim up bars-free.

now i think you're only supposed to get 3 meals per day or something but i don't remember giving them a room number or anything for them to keep track.

5/30/2012 12:09:12 PM

Quote :

"any hidden costs? or time restrictions on food/drink?"

The only one way you had to pay for scuba lessons if you were not certified, that was $60 or $70. They also sometimes made their drinks a little weak...that's probably good though. They have mini-friges in all the rooms and they stock it daily with beer and you've got three or four bottles of liquor right in the room. There's a bar (the Cricketer's Pub) that was open 24/7 that had drinks and food.

The only thing you'd need to know going in is to make reservations on somethings right away. Book scuba diving and one or two of the fancier restaurants early. And take a cheap hat and some newspapers to reserve poolside chairs if that's your thing. I noticed a lot of people would get up a little early and place a hat and/or newspaper on pool chairs so they'd have a spot after breakfast.

5/30/2012 12:13:32 PM

Quote :

"I noticed a lot of people would get up a little early and place a hat and/or newspaper on pool chairs so they'd have a spot after breakfast."

That bullshit shouldn't be allowed.

5/30/2012 12:17:04 PM

Yeah and some of the really fancy places were additional rentals too... like private beach chairs



like this place to chill i think cost money to reserve but i'm not positive.

and the spa cost money but they usually give you a credit when you show up

(we got a $200 credit or something)

5/30/2012 12:18:00 PM

^^ tell me about it. My wife and I don't hang out by the pool much so we were constantly searching for two chairs open. If people would just use them as they need them there would be lots of free ones.

People would also take more than one towel and they ran out at least once. Again, these are minor, I had a great time.

[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 12:20 PM. Reason : %]

5/30/2012 12:20:21 PM

we did excellence punta cana (someone else already mentioned going to their resort near.cancun) and utter was amazing- 7 nights for.about 1500~ a person. no kids, no hidden costs, lots o' booze. we met some people there that said they have been to 10-15 other resorts in the area and that it had the best food, a pretty crummy casino, and an alright beach by comparison. pool was amazing (it was huuuuuge- would take 5-10 minutes just to walk all the way around it)

5/30/2012 12:22:36 PM

ours had 4 pools or something and there were 2 that were always crowded and 2 that had no one by them.

Ohh and keep hurricane season (basically don't book shit in august) in mind we went in december and it was awesome.

5/30/2012 12:22:44 PM

I've had a suite once at the Sandals in Montego Bay. It was nice enough I guess. I got it at a pretty steep discount. It was worth it at that price, but never at the full price. I would have been pissed as hell if I paid full price for the experience I got.


-The personal butler you get with the suite never answered the phone and room service took hours.
-It is definitely a couples resort. You won't be meeting anyone to hook up with there.
-The restaurants are okay, but they are far from the 5-star cuisine they advertise as.
-The only rum they have is Appleton. Everything else is well liquor.
-The beach is beautiful, but the pools were underwhelming.
-The nightly entertainment was boring.
-They try to sell you drugs as soon as you are ankle deep in the water.
-Don't plan on leaving the resort. Jamaica is a complete shit hole.
-They say tipping is optional, but if you want ANYTHING done at all, you better tip them. Bring about $300 in singles.

All in all, I've had more fun and spent less on a cruise ship.

5/30/2012 12:49:22 PM

can you tip in american dollars? are drugs legal there or do the authorities just overlook it?

5/30/2012 1:01:46 PM

no. they do not like american dollars down there.

5/30/2012 1:03:58 PM

They all accept US$.

Drugs are illegal. They are all shady as hell.
If they feel like arresting you, they can.
I've heard of people buying them and smoking in their rooms with no issues, but I'd never be one to try it. I can't imagine what a jamaican prison is like.

5/30/2012 1:05:39 PM

So Pikey, are you saying that a standard room is really all you need at places like these? I hate how many different room types these places have, sure it's ocean view but i know a lot of rooms are called ocean view but you have to crane your neck over the balcony to ever see water

5/30/2012 1:33:36 PM

Quote :

"no. they do not like american dollars down there."

sarcasm is not required... I've never been to the area and didn't know if you had to convert your money to the local currency or not.

5/30/2012 1:33:52 PM

Quote :

"Drugs are illegal. They are all shady as hell."

i can only speak for jamaica, but when i did an all-inclusive trip down there to sunset beach resort, weed was very much tolerated. we weren't there 15 minutes before one of the bellhops was trying to sell us some, and there was even a head shop in the lobby of the resort. since most of those resorts are gated, safe, and extremely private, the police have no reason to just hang out there.

we may or may not have rolled up a fat spliff in the hot tub down there

[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 1:41 PM. Reason : .]

5/30/2012 1:39:43 PM

When we stayed at Sandals in St. Lucia they discourage tipping strongly. They even asked us to report employees that asked for tips. We never tipped once. We didn't use room service much so I can't speak to it.

5/30/2012 1:44:54 PM

@ la toc they said we aren't allowed to tip..

Only person i tipped there was my caddy because i learned more from him than anyone down there.

our butler rocked, their ocean view suites are ocean view no cranes or anything.

this was our friend's middle of the road room (not the cheapest with ocean view but the next cheapest)

5/30/2012 1:51:32 PM

I did Sandals in Negril and Riu in Montego Bay.

Riu was so much better, liquor in the hotel room, with mixers in the fridge, re-stocked every night.

food was amazing and the beaches were gorgeous. pools were pretty damned awesome too. swim up bar and all that jazz.

only thing i didn't like about montego bay was that it was right near the airport so planes flying over all the time.

pool:



[Edited on May 30, 2012 at 1:54 PM. Reason : POOL]

5/30/2012 1:53:22 PM

tell me more tell me more


do pools close at night at these places?

5/30/2012 1:59:27 PM

officially ... maybe but i think they all had lights and we were in one till 1-2 am a couple times iirc

5/30/2012 2:03:45 PM

I was in a pool at Atlantis once, not the main pool, one of the side ones, and some fat drunk guy dumped in there, and the workers just laughed and fished it out, didn't close it down or anything. I went to the other pools for the rest of the trip.

5/30/2012 2:08:33 PM

^Maybe it was just a Baby Ruth.

5/30/2012 2:15:04 PM

I too stayed at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica. The Grand Palladium near Montego Bay. I was iron like a lion in zion. My only regret is that we did not take the boat to Negril for a day.

Jamaican women are fucking bitches.

5/30/2012 2:24:27 PM

No, we saw the act itself

5/30/2012 2:25:26 PM

i'd kick a mother fucker in his throat.

5/30/2012 2:26:33 PM

what are the differences between a standard room and a honeymoon room?

a lot i'm looking at have "ocean front deluxe" and "honeymoon ocean front deluxe" or some variation of that

5/30/2012 4:36:01 PM

5/30/2012 4:38:30 PM

exactly what i thought too. or

5/30/2012 4:44:44 PM

honestly, resorts i've been to i don't spend much time in the room, so really don't give a shit about the view from the room

5/30/2012 4:53:10 PM

5/30/2012 5:41:58 PM

someone have their wedding at one of these places so I have an excuse to go...

5/30/2012 5:58:38 PM

We liked staying at Couples Swept Away in Jamaica. The Couples chain has a few resorts on the island but the Swept Away resort was the only one without the nude beach. My wife wasn't comfortable with that.

5/30/2012 6:47:10 PM

Fuck it, I will hit you on on g-chat friday

5/30/2012 9:27:27 PM

Hilton Papagoyo in Costa Rica. That place was the shit. Free everything, activities available if you wanted to do them, and great weather. No kids in sight when I went.

5/30/2012 9:31:36 PM

let's talk about flying into these places.

i know areas like Montego Bay have their own airports but the flights in seem really restricted.

5/31/2012 8:42:03 AM

We flew into MBJ on American via MIA. We left RDU early (7ish), had a layover in Miami, and were drinking at the resort at 6 EDT (5 local time, EST).

5/31/2012 9:29:23 AM