Sandals resorts vs other all inclusive-advice needed

HIGHLY recommend Secrets Silversands resort in Riviera Maya! Our honeymoon was perfect. We upgraded to a swim-up suite and it was so worth it. Service was impeccable!! Food was delicious, and you didn't need reservations and there weren't long waits at the restaurants. Beautiful resort and great entertainment. Let me know if you have any questions about it!

@annakay omg that does look amazing. I will Look into that more. I have been looking in Mexico but FH has been there a bunch so prefers to go somewhere else. There are none stop flights which really is nice

Our travel agent didn't recommend Sandals either. We're staying at one of the El Dorado resorts in Playa del Carmen...I know you said no to Mexico, but this resort looks like it's in Tahiti!!!

http://www.eldoradosparesorts.com/

Omg Katelina- did you get an over water bungalow?????? We looked at them but they were over 10,000 a week

We're also going to Secrets Silversands and we cannot wait!!! Secrets resorts had the best Google and TripAdvisor reviews for food.

I originally wanted to go with sandals bc I thought they could automatically be trusted for quality. After research I found Excellence Playa Mujeres and I found a lot of reviews from people who had been to both that one AND sandals, and they all preferred Excellence. I see you don't want Mexico, so maybe look into Excellence Punta Cana

@Helena, no, we priced them out too! $10k for the week :-P So we're going to the Casitas Royale which is their best adults-only resort. My cousin is our travel agent so she got us an upgrade to the swim-up suite for the cost of a regular suite! We're so excited!

My mom was just at the Maroma resort, and she got a tour of the overwater bungalows...she said they are A-MAZING!!!

I know a lot of people who have travelled to numerous resorts and they all say Sandals is their favorite. It's seems to be an all around type of thing, the prices, grounds, service, and amenities are all favored by everyone I know!

Annakay511: that is where we are staying for our honeymoon... we are doing the swim up rooms.. Do you rec any excursions or most do's while we are there? Did u enjoy the swim up room?

I haven't gone yet (99 more days!), but I'm going to Sandals Royal Plantation for my wedding/honeymoon. My older sister had her "babymoon" there and loved it. Super small (about 70 rooms I believe) you can go next door to Ochi if you're looking for crazier night life or more restaurants, tons of water sports, and everyone gets butler service included in their stay.

We've found that Secrets in Mexico (specifically, The Vine), have incredible service, amazing food and top shelve liquor. Employees are so gracious and accommodating. Generally speaking, service in Jamaica and Punta Cana pale in comparison to that in Mexico.

@alyssachu That's where we're honeymooning! Majestic Elegance in the DR. We booked thru Cheap Carribean as we wanted an all inclusive and those are hard to find outside of Mexico, DR, and a few other places (Bahamas, Costa Rica and Thailand). I'm looking forward to checking out the DR.

There are lots of all inclusive resorts. Not a fan of Sandals, but we are having our destination wedding at Secrets Puerto Vallarta. the wedding coordinator and travel agent has been a life saver.

@Olivia-the Sa'an Kian section of the resort is adult only. It's really small and more intimate over there. However a lot of the restaurants are over in the main resort section so there are children there. But the beach has a whole section for the adults only part and there are no children there

We did the Bavaro Princess in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and we didn't love it. We loved being together of course, but the food was not great and the concierge continually sent people to harass us until we either bought things from them or ran away. Maybe it's the same everywhere, but I was expecting the concierge to act more in our interest, not the salespeople's interest.

The owner of Sandals is known to be a homophobe, fyi. https://news.vice.com/article/as-jamaica-reviews-its-homosexuality-ban-a-top-newspaper-is-waging-an-anti-gay-campaign

Thank you guys. I am really trying to convince my fiance to go to Mexico because of all the things we can do off the resort. I love hearing where everyone is going!!!

I just booked a 6 night stay at Cocobay Resort in Antigua. It's adults only, and all-inclusive. We booked their premium waterfront cottage which has a private plunge pool, and a tub on the balcony. Total hotel price is $4131. If you book directly with them, you can get 15% off, and they'll also include r/t ground transportation.

@gymrat I just fell in love. Googling in the morning

update- i just fell in love...... gosh dang is that beautiful

We booked a week at an 18+ resort called El Dorado Sensimar for under 3k Canadian including flights. The resort is owned by a company Kharisma, came recommended by co-owners of the company Fh works foe