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Families that Play Together
With busy schedules filled with work, school and extracurricular activities, it can be a challenge to spend time together as a family. Sometimes you just have to get away from all the busyness of life and a family vacation is a great opportunity to do just that. Some of the best family vacations we’ve had with our four children happened at all inclusive family resorts. When the food and activities are included, everyone in the family can enjoy the holiday.
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How to Choose Great All Inclusive Family Resorts
Check out our tips for booking great all inclusive family vacations. With four children, we’ve stayed at a lot of all inclusive family resorts over the years and some resorts have been better than others. Here are five of our favorite family-friendly resorts and why we like them.
Sandos Caracol Eco Resort
What We Like: Located in Riviera Maya,the Sandos Caracol is one of our all-time favorite all inclusive family resorts. The resort has great facilities for younger children. There’s a massive children’s water park, a large supervised indoor kids’ club and a nice white sand beach with included water sports. We liked the food at the buffet and there were also good à la carte dining options. We enjoyed the Mayan evening show at this resort and we had fun in the games room. There are also pheasants and other animals walking around the property.
Downsides: If you are traveling as a couple, book the adults only section. There are a lot of families at this resort. It is sometimes listed as a Playa Del Carmen resort, but it’s quite a distance to Playa Del Carmen. You would need to pay for transportation to get there.
Find out more about this resort here.
Check pricing for this resort here.
Occidental at Xcaret Destination
What We Like: This resort is located right next to the Xcaret eco-archaeological Park in the heart of the Riviera Maya, Mexico. The park is great fun for families and that’s part of the reason this resort made our list of favorite all inclusive family resorts. You can get a package that allows you unlimited admission to the park during your stay. We liked the food at the buffet restaurants and the à la carte restaurants. There is a man made beach on a shallow lagoon (featured at the top of this post) that is fantastic for small children and for people who love snorkeling. The pools are nice and the adults-only pool is very unique. There’s also a kids’ club.
Downsides: If you like to walk along a long stretch of beach and see the waves, you won’t be a fan of the man-made beach. On the upside, this resort hasn’t had the seaweed issues that have plagued other resorts in this part of Mexico recently.
Find out more about this resort here.
Check pricing for this resort here.
Holiday Inn Montego Bay
What We Like: This resort is one of the more affordable family-friendly options in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It often has kids stay free promotions that make it affordable for families and that’s part of the reason we booked a stay there. The sheltered beach area is great for kids and keeps the resort very secure. We liked the food – especially the jerk chicken. There’s a kids club and lots of onsite activities and all of these factors helped it earn a spot on our list of the top all inclusive family resorts.
Downsides: This is not a fancy resort. The rooms are basic, but comfortable. They shut down the non-motorized water sports at 4 pm. When we were there, they didn’t limit à la carte dining, but you had to stand in a line-up each day to book your evening restaurant.
Find out more about this resort here.
Check pricing for this resort here.
Paradise Village Nuevo Vallarta
What we Like: When you have a large family, it can be hard to find rooms that can accommodate everyone in one space. That is part of the reason we stayed at this resort in Nuevo Vallarta Mexico and part of the reason it’s on our list of great all inclusive family resorts. There are several different room types including condo-style rooms that can accommodate large families. There are kitchens in these rooms, so you can store milk and snacks for younger children. The beach is beautiful and there is a fun children’s pool with a water slide. There’s also a mall with a McDonalds and Dominos Pizza nearby. You can book the resort as all-inclusive or book it without meals included and cook your own if you’re in a unit with a kitchen.
Downsides: This is an older resort and it could use some updating. If you want to visit the old town area of Puerto Vallarta and walk on the malecon boardwalk, you will have to take a taxi or ride the bus to get there.
Find out more about this resort here.
Check pricing for this resort here.
Occidental Cozumel
What We Like: Cozumel is a fantastic diving and snorkeling destination and this resort has a dive shop right on site that offers reasonably priced snorkel tours. There’s a kids’ club and a children’s pool and a wide variety of activities to enjoy. They even have a mascot.
Downsides: You can fly into Cozumel, but there are more flights into nearby Cancun. If you fly into Cancun, you’ll need to take a transfer from the airport to the ferry at Playa Del Carmen and then catch the ferry over to Cozumel. The ferry ride will take about 45 minutes. Then you can catch a transfer to the resort.
Find out more about this resort here.
Check pricing for this resort here.
Related: Read our article about the World’s Most Quirky Accommodation.
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