Con’s Of All-Inclusive Resorts: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Picturesque beaches, sunshine on your face and sand between your toes. This is what you can expect from an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana. But what else can you expect from an all-inclusive? What about the negative aspects of staying at one of these resorts?
I recently visited Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. I stayed in two separate all-inclusive resorts to obtain a broader perspective on resort life. Each of the resorts had its charms and its downfalls. If you are interested in the Pro’s of All-Inclusive Resorts please check out my other blog post on the subject.
The two resorts I stayed at are:
Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort
Caribe Club Princess Beach Resort & Spa
Here are the cons of staying at an all-inclusive resort.
I would also like to mention that Punta Cana has been getting some bad press lately about being “dangerous”. When I was there for 9 full days, there was never a moment where I felt my safety was in jeopardy. It is just like any other city or country. There are good and bad neighborhoods. Go into every trip or vacation with an air of caution and always have your street smarts on alert. For more information on staying safe while traveling Safety is #1.
Hard to Get Around Outside of the Resort
The saying “highway robbery” is an understatement when trying to commute around Punta Cana outside of your resort. The resorts make it impossible for you to leave. They want you to stay and spend all of your hard-earned cash within their resort. Here is my experience when leaving the resort.
Also please keep in mind, there are no Uber’s or ride-sharing services allowed in and around Punta Cana. A taxi, shuttle bus, or a car rental is your only option when commuting around.
Taxi
This was one of the stressful aspects of my stay in Punta Cana and their resorts. They price gouge you when hiring a taxi. Before booking your resort make sure to read all the fine print. Some of the resorts include transportation to and from the airport and resort. If so take advantage. You will be shelling out a whopping $45-65 USD per ride if not.
The resorts are running a scam where you “have to” take their preferred taxi service, which is highly overpriced. They will not allow any taxi service but theirs to enter the resort. So you are stuck with their high prices. I had to transfer from one resort to another and I only traveled about 20 minutes and it cost me a whopping $45 USD!
Also, be prepared to pay cash for your cab ride. The cabs do not take credit cards. If you do not have the amount handy they will drive you to the closest ATM at a shady gas station. This was a little stressful and caused me some anxiety. So the moral of the story here is to make sure you are carrying enough cash on hand.
Shuttle Bus
Your second option for getting around is to use a shuttle bus service. You can hire one of these at the airport. However, you are not saving much money. They charge per person for the ride so a taxi might be a better option for you.
At one of the resorts I stayed at, they offered a shuttle bus to a local shopping mall that was about 10 minutes away from the resort. The shuttle ran on a time schedule about every 2-3 hours. The price was $5 USD per person.
This was a nice little trip away from the resort. The only complaint I have is they are a little aggressive at the shopping center. They were continuously harassing you and pushing you to buy something from them.
If you book an excursion outside of your resort the company that you book through will pick you up at your hotel with a shuttle bus. This was an easy way to get where you were going. The only downside to the bus was, depending on which resort you are staying at you could be on the bus for a long, long time picking up each person from all of the various resorts.
Check-In
Depending on what time of year you decide to go to your all-inclusive vacation your wait time for customs and checking into your hotel can be extensive.
I went during winter vacation break for the USA and had to wait in line at customs for over two hours in a hot, jammed packed roped line. Just be ready and do your best to be patient.
When checking into your resort the lines can also be extremely long. Punta Cana has a very laid back feel to it. The people who live and work there take the laid back mentality to a new level. Just try and relax, after all, you are on vacation.
Food and Drink
One of the pros of an all-inclusive resort has got to be the all you can drink and eat. There are some cons to this as well.
Restaurants
Restaurants fill up quickly and some of them require a reservation. The resorts did not tell me about the reservation until I was two days into my stay. Because of this, I ate often at the buffet. The buffet was not at all bad, I just enjoyed the feel of the individual restaurants more. Make sure you ask when you check in about their dining policies and procedures.
You will be eating at the buffet-style restaurant most of the time, that is where they serve your breakfast, lunch, and buffet dinners. The con to eating buffet style is the chance of contamination. You and 200 of your closest friends will be touching the same serving utensils. There are also loads of kids I saw pick up food and put it back. Not to mention sneeze all over everything. So be aware your chances of getting sick are much higher when choosing to eat there.
Alcoholic Beverages
One of the perks of an all-inclusive is all you can drink alcoholic beverages. The cons of this are they only include “national alcohol”, which is the “well” liquor. If you want a higher-end or higher-quality liquor there is an upcharge of about $7 USD per drink.
The Beach
The beach is one of the main reasons for going to an all-inclusive. They offer great things like fresh beach towel service and beach chairs to relax in.
One of the major flaws in this was there were not enough chairs for everyone. There are signs posted all over the resort in 8 languages that you are not allowed to reserve or hold yourself a chair. Starting at 7 am people would put out items to “hold” the chairs. No one followed the rules. Because of this, you would not be able to find a chair until after 3 pm if you were lucky. So be aware and maybe you will have to break the rules too if you want a chair.
Another con of the beach is the harassment to buy merchandise, get your hair braided, or to buy an excursion outside of the resort. Even the private beach and resorts have people that sell on their beaches. This can either be a pro if you are looking for these services or con from it becoming annoying. Most of the salespeople moved on after you told them no once, so it is not an invasive problem.
Another con is smoking. People puff away all over the place, especially the beach. It did become a disgusting problem for me. I am not a smoker and am very sensitive to second-hand smoke. One resort had no smoking restrictions so you could smoke anywhere and the second resort had designated smoking areas, which most people did not follow. Just keep this in mind if you have any health concerns or are bringing your family.
Resort Harassment
One of the facts when staying at an all-inclusive resort is at the end of the day they want to make money. There are all kinds of ways the resort will try to bleed you dry. Two of the most annoying for me were the membership/timeshare sale and up charging on things like using the in-room safe.
Both of the resorts tried to sell me a timeshare or membership to their resort. They usually spring it on you two days into your stay. They try to get you to sit in a 90-minute presentation. If you sit through it they offer you a gift bag which included liquor, cigars, coffee, and chocolate. I decided to give it a try so I could be able to write about the experience afterward. The presentation was more like 3-4 hours, not 90-minutes. They show you around the resort and the rooms you could have if you sign up. At first, I thought it could be a cute idea and I would like to make vacationing there a new tradition. However, in the end, the price sticker just to join started at $14,000 USD! That was a big firm no thank you from me. Some people will find this a nice addition to their lives, I am not knocking the membership, it was just not right for me.
Another way the resorts try to penny, nickel, and dime you are by small charges. At Caribe Club Princess they charge a daily fee to use their in-room safe. There were also other little up charges that they could get you on. Just be aware and ask when you check in so you have no sneaky charges on your account when you check out.
It’s Not All Con’s!
I hope this article helps you in your travels. I think the all-inclusive resort was a wonderful experience overall and I would definitely go back. Again, please read my article the Pro’s of an All-Inclusive.
I do not want the cons of the resorts to detur you from giving one a try. I gained a broader perspective by visiting the Dominican Republic. The resort was a great way for me to find peace and stress relief. I struggle with bad anxiety and staying at a resort actually eased this aliment.
When I left and took off for home, I felt a little sad. I began to miss all of the beautiful wonders that mother nature showed me. It truly touched me and forever will be in my heart. Give an all-inclusive a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Just remember my fellow travel friends, we are in this together.