Tuesday, August 21, 2007

All Inclusive Holidays, Good or Not

By Johnathan H. Bakers

When there is a budget to a vacation, all-inclusive deals are the best option. For a low-price, the all inclusive holiday packages feature round trip airfare, luxurious rooms, meals and drinks and resort activities. These cheap-travel deals are great if you have teenagers because they are not much of a concern and pretty independent. All-inclusive packages also feature a free tour or two and on-sight recreation. With an all-inclusive deal you don’t need to spend on anything else, except for when you want to go out on your own, or feel the urge to go curio shopping.

The benefits of an all-inclusive package outweigh the cons of cheap vacations. The buffet-style allows you to experiment a wide variety of food. The service is always good plenty of are activities included in the package. The all-inclusive trips also include diving, snorkeling and a host of other water sports. There are several activities like swimming, tennis and golf that may come as part of the package.

A good bargain is to buy an all-inclusive package to Disney World, which includes many activities. Some include visits to water parks, biking, and horseback riding. There are also miniature golf courses for the golf aficionados. They offer free shuttles back and forth, and need not worry about renting a car, which is an added expense.

A family with older children might treasure an all-inclusive package with a skiing adventure in the Rockies or a trip to a ‘dude’ ranch in Arizona. Whatever your likes and dislikes, you can find activities for all to enjoy on an all-inclusive holiday. You should explore your destination on-line.

An all-inclusive vacation in Cancun sounds like heaven. The resort on a reef just off the major island is different from the regular hotels in the heart of Cancun. But you can be subjected to sales pitches to buy time-shares by low- priced resorts. What you thought would be a perfect vacation could turn into a bad dream when you realize that a few places, workers still expect a tip, even if there are notices advertising to the contrary. Tipping would also get you that extra bit of service. At the resorts, there are tip jars everywhere. Tipping is banned in some resorts and you need to find out in advance what kind of a resort you are going to.

Another disadvantage of taking an all inclusive holiday is that after reaching the resort, everything you do has to be paid for and some resorts also have limited access to activities. If not careful, a vacation you thought would help you to get away from it all may actually turn into a vacation that is restrictive and more costly. A trip to the mainland and back is the only feature offered by some packages. That means that they get you to the resort and back, to leave for home. All other visits and excursions become your responsibility and you have to pay for it.

All-inclusive packages provide you with a cheap vacation, but you should be sure that where you are going is all-inclusive. There are plenty of resources available online for vacationers to gather information about their destination. They need to check the tariff before making reservations. The tourists need to research online, on the resort and the regular services offered and compare those that are available within the ‘all-inclusive’ package. The difference should be clear and worth the money it costs.

Johnathan Bakers's short articles can be encountered on a lot of online publications related to Murcia. His comments on Torrevieja are published on http://www.alicante-spain.com/benidorm.html .