Most of you know that I have not always been too wild about Mexico as a tropical winter sun destination. But, as I reported in a blog post last spring, I have been impressed with the remarkable improvement in the quality of the higher-end resorts in the last several years. They were pushed by the cruise boom 15 to 20 years ago and it took them awhile to figure why they were losing their clients to the cruises. And, so began the birth of the "All-Inclusive Resorts". Early on, the food was awful and the service - well, it was spotty at best! But, they certainly have figured it out and now can rightfully boast that their resorts are a worthy match... particularly in the areas of food quality and personal service. By far, the best of the All-Inclusive Resorts center around Playa del Carmen and Riviera Nayarit - the new resort area just a couple miles north of Puerto Vallarta. There are All-Inclusives throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, but these two areas offer the most choices.
The earlier post that I referred to focused upon our favorite - the Riu Palace Riviera Maya at Playa del Carmen. (For more on that great 5-Star resort, refer back to my post of last May. Scroll down this page and click "older posts".) Now, we can heartily recommend the newest Riu Resort - the Riu Vallarta at Riviera Nayarit.
My travel agency has featured Riu Resorts all over the world for about 6 years now simply because they send our clients home happy... and, on our end of the table, they are delightful to work with. Tell your travel agent to send you to a 4-Star or 5-Star Riu Resort!
Cheers,
Dick
Last Saturday, I was sitting in a coffee house updating a few of our web pages (new specials). At the next table is a middle-aged couple - each with a laptop open. They are searching for flights to & from Tampa. About every two minutes, one of them announces to the other that they have hit on something. Honestly, I wasn't meaning to eavesdrop but, being in the travel business, I couldn't help picking up some of their chatter. Among the things they "found" was a double connection - first O'Hare, then Dallas. Another "find" was cooler: Just one connection on the way down (Atlanta) but the return was from Tampa to Phoenix (honest!) and a flight home from there. Then there was the one that was Minneapolis - Newark (I wouldn't wish that one an enemy!) - Tampa. They weren't done yet! They found two non-stops: The only problem was that their return was from Orlando so they talked about renting their car in one city and returning it in the other. Undaunted, they trudged on finding single connections each way... but the return entailed a four hour lay-over getting them home at 11:30 that night. But they were saving a ton of money, right? The only audible references to fares seemed to indicate that they were looking $290 to $390. Starting to develop saddle sores, I packed up and left. They had been at this for over an hour when I exited - they might still be there! Although I couldn't hear the dates that they were looking at, it was a pre-holiday trip. On Monday I had one of our agents take a look at Minneapolis - Tampa round trips on Northwest non-stops only. We came up with fares - you guessed it - around $280 and on one set of dates we found availability at $240.So the question is: Why do they do this?There is an answer... tune in tomorrow and I'll solve the mystery!Dick
Most of you know that I have not always been too wild about Mexico as a tropical winter sun destination. But, as I reported in a blog post last spring, I have been impressed with the remarkable improvement in the quality of the higher-end resorts in the last several years. They were pushed by the cruise boom 15 to 20 years ago and it took them awhile to figure why they were losing their clients to the cruises. And, so began the birth of the "All-Inclusive Resorts". Early on, the food was awful and the service - well, it was spotty at best! But, they certainly have figured it out and now can rightfully boast that their resorts are a worthy match... particularly in the areas of food quality and personal service. By far, the best of the All-Inclusive Resorts center around Playa del Carmen and Riviera Nayarit - the new resort area just a couple miles north of Puerto Vallarta. There are All-Inclusives throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, but these two areas offer the most choices.
My travel agency has featured Riu Resorts all over the world for about 6 years now simply because they send our clients home happy... and, on our end of the table, they are delightful to work with. Tell your travel agent to send you to a 4-Star or 5-Star Riu Resort!
