Recently, I’ve been interested in researching resorts, and attending a few myself. I really enjoyed myself there. In this research project, I tried to find the best all-inclusive resorts in the world, which is no small task. I used a combination of consumer ratings online and editorial rankings from travel magazines and news articles.

All-inclusive resorts typically mean you pay an upfront cost that includes lodging, food and drinks, activities, and sometimes amentities like wi-fi, gratuities, and fitness center and pool access. Extras beyond that usually require an additional cost.

All-inclusives are great if you’d rather know upfront what you’re largely paying for a trip, instead of spending here and there and having to keep an eye on your bank statement to figure out if you’re within your desired budget.

The Best All-Inclusive Resorts in the World

1. Twin Farms (Barnard, Vermont)
2. Jade Mountain (Soufriere, St. Lucia)
3. Blackberry Farm (Walland, Tennessee)
4. Miraval Arizona (Tucson, Arizona)
5. Alila Ventana Big Sur (Big Sur, California)
6. Malolo Island (Fiji)
7. Nihi Sumba: Hoba Wawi (Sumba, Indonesia)
8. Grand Velas Los Cabos (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico)
9. Isla Palenque (Boca Chica, Panama)
10. The Brando (Arue, Tahiti)

I looked up some pricing, which is variable depending on the season, but the top ranked resort is not always the most expensive, which is most likely due to the cost of living and strength of a currency when you travel there.

Another thing I noticed is that the top rated resorts tend to also be the most luxury-oriented, which explains the higher prices.

But if you like the idea of knowing what you’re paying for and what dollar amount ahead of time, and you like not having to plan things like transportation, activities, or restaurant reservations outside the resort, then an all-inclusive might be a comfortable fit for you.

To start, I should mention that I had never been to an airport lounge in my life. I was a recent Alaska Airlines credit card holder, and I was very excited to explore the world of airport lounges. But maybe I should back up, for those unfamiliar with this world. Let me attempt to explain it a little.

What’s an Airport Lounge?

An airport lounge is a section within an airport, created to be a more comfortable area for travelers to wait for their flights than general seating at the gate or an airport restaurant. Typically, these lounges are exclusive and allow access only to loyal members of their brands, such as airline loyalty programs, first class fare holders, or owners of specific credit cards that offer lounge access as a benefit.

What are the Benefits of Visiting a Lounge?

Lounges typically try to attract travelers with more comfortable seating, complimentary drinks (sometimes including alcoholic drinks), free Wi-Fi, charging stations for devices, and sometimes showers, spa services, and more. They tend to be quiet places to work or relax and unwind during a layover or maybe before your flight takes off.

An Honest Review of the SeaTac Airport Alaska Airlines Lounge (North Satellite):

Access to the Alaska Airlines lounge is a benefit that comes with our (my husband and I) Alaska Airlines branded credit card, but we still needed to pay. More on that later. I was very excited to use it because I had never been to a lounge before and wanted to see what all the hype was about.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the front desk representative. She immediately asked us if we were first class ticket holders on an Alaska Airlines flight. We said no, but that we were Alaska Airlines credit card holders. Maybe I misinterpreted her reaction, but she seemed less interested in helping us and a little confused about what program I was talking about. I don’t know if she was new or not, so maybe I’m being unfair, but after explaining to her that we were interested in purchasing the discounted day passes, and that we were Alaska credit card holders, with a same day Alaska airline ticket, she scanned our tickets and took our credit cards as proof, and allowed us into the lounge. It wasn’t a big deal, but her reaction made me feel like a second-class citizen for not being a first-class ticket holder. It was fine, though. Maybe she was just new to the job.

When we got beyond the (not literal) velvet rope, I noticed the architecture in the lounge was beautiful. There were couches around a fireplace and modern looking features everywhere. There were also floor-to-ceiling windows showing the outside world of the airport, planes taking off from their gates - you know, airport stuff.

Unfortunately for us, the best seats in the house were all taken. That’s fine though, because we found a seat at a table, where we dropped off our stuff, and went to find some complimentary breakfast foods.

This is when I get a little picky. The breakfast, I shouldn’t criticize because it was complimentary, and who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. But to be honest, the food seemed like a free budget to moderately priced hotel buffet. When I go to a hotel, I’ll typically spring for the paid breakfast over the free one. This is because I just find that the paid breakfast is much better than the complimentary breakfast. That’s what it was like here. And I hate to be a complainer about it, but the food was lukewarm sausage, cold cut sliced meats, mixed fruit salad, yogurt, cheeses, muffins, cold cereals and hot oatmeal. I mean, it was fine. It was really fine. But I was more impressed with the barista beverages like lattes than the foods. There was a juice machine with fountain drinks too. The line for the barista was kind of long, but maybe I just showed up too late in the morning, plus, lines are just part of life anyway.

Maybe I should have been more impressed with the bar. It did look like a nice bar and the bartender seemed friendly when I overheard her talking to a patron. It was in the morning, though, and I’m not much of an alcohol drinker, so I missed out on that perk.

My last criticism is that the chairs were often torn in places and had stains on them. That’s not to say there was no one cleaning up. There were. I saw staff working hard to keep tables cleaned and garbage put away. I’m sure they were doing their best. But I was expecting that with the whole “are you a first-class ticket holder?” gatekeeping, that it would be a lot more than it was.

Which leads me to some of my final thoughts.

Are Airport Lounges Worth Visiting/Paying For?

Maybe I would sing a different tune at a different lounge, but my answer to whether or not I would pay $60 per person ($120 total for the two of us) to stay in a lounge, the answer would be: no.

And here’s why: I don’t think we got $120 worth of food, or ambiance, or comfy seating or exclusive VIP treatment. It just felt like another over-hyped, over-priced velvet rope to make wealthy people feel superior to everybody else. I would rather go to a restaurant somewhere in the city where I can get a lot more for a $120 bill at the end of the night at a fine dining restaurant. The seating wouldn’t be torn and stained, the food would be better, and it would probably have a nice view of the waterfront. But not at the airport.

Ouch. I know. I’m being honest though. I think even if it was free, I probably wouldn’t go back to an airport lounge. You can get a better quality meal, for half the price, even within the airport. It was quiet as a library, and it didn’t feel like a welcoming, comfortable place by the one staff member who greeted us.

How Alaska Airlines Can Improve its SeaTac North Satellite Lounge:

Here are some things I think could be done to make an airport lounge, specifically for this Alaska Airlines SeaTac North Satellite lounge much better:

1. Better food. Your complimentary food and drinks are probably the number one reason people are going there. $60 for a budget-moderate hotel buffet is not a good value when often hotels will charge half that for a much better breakfast buffet.
2. Clean, stain- and tear-free furniture. This doesn’t give a good impression when you’re paying $120 for two people to, essentially, sit down for an hour or longer before their flight leaves.
3. Most importantly: train your staff to understand your own programs so they’re not confused and neither are your customers. Don’t have staff greet people with a question like: “Are you a first-class ticket holder?” It makes it seem like first class ticket holders are the only people who are allowed access in the lounge, and it makes your clients feel like mere peasants. Also, I read the consumer reviews after returning from our visit at this particular Alaska Airlines lounge, and found that many of the first class ticket holders weren’t even allowed access into the lounge because they weren’t traveling enough miles on their flight. If that was me, and if I had paid a small fortune for a first class ticket, I would never fly Alaska Airlines again. Don’t do that, if that’s still the case.

Anyway, that’s my honest opinion and review. In conclusion, I don’t think I will go to another lounge, especially since it’s expensive, to me, to visit. The value is just not there for me. If it was free, I might go, but only if I read the consumer reviews and it was exceptional.

For now, I’ll stick to an airport restaurant or God forbid, waiting at the gate with the rest of us peasants.

For this post, I set out to discover which cruise lines are the best in the world. A seemingly impossible task, but let’s just try anyway.

I also ranked each cruise line based on its consumer reviews, its star ratings on the web, and its editorial ranking. When I say editorial ranking, I mean its ranking in various magazines, news articles, and trusted sources on the internet, by real people, as much as possible.

I compared similar but not identical trips to get an estimate of how much the same trip might cost across cruise lines. Often I used a 7-8 day trip to Alaska and compared the prices of those itineraries against each other. But if I couldn’t find that, I tried to get the next best thing. So take my results with a grain of salt.

Top rated cruise lines:

1. Celebrity Cruises
2. Princess Cruises
3. Holland America Line
4. Virgin Voyages
5. Royal Caribbean International
6. Viking
7. Norwegian Cruise Line

Recall that the above list is based on reviews, star ratings, etc.

Now, let’s take that same list of top-ranked cruise lines, and compare the cost of an all-inclusive cruise to Alaska for approximately 8 days, not including travel insurance, airfare, hotel, or car rentals.

7-8 day Alaska trip or similar total estimate for 2 people per 1 cabin:

Prices range greatly depending on the season you are traveling in, or if a sale is on, so I didn’t use exact dollar amounts. I didn’t find any of the cruises on the list to be budget, or absolute luxury pricing. So I included the following scale:

$$$$ = luxury
$$$ = upscale
$$ = moderate

1. Celebrity Cruises $$$
2. Princess Cruises $$
3. Holland America $$
4. Virgin Voyages $$
5. Royal Caribbean International $$
6. Viking Ocean Cruises/Viking River Cruises $$$$
7. Norwegian Cruise Line $$

As you can see, the cost across cruise lines varies, regardless of the ranking based on reviews, star ratings, etc. So either the rankings don’t truly correlate to quality, or there are simply some great deals to be found if you choose a lower-priced cruise that nonetheless is highly-rated.

Hello, readers! I just got back from Key West, Florida and the Bahamas on the Celebrity Equinox, of Celebrity Cruises.

This was the first Celebrity cruise, and first cruise ever I’ve taken. My husband and I went on the trip and I wanted to detail the experience for those who have never been on the ship, or maybe never been on a Celebrity cruise at all.

Overall, remarkably, I could not find anything that went all that wrong with the cruise. This is a big surprise for me, considering I look for details for my articles that might show the overall big picture of all things travel related. We had a great time. Maybe I’m just easy to please because I’m on vacation. But I really am struggling to find anything that went wrong. Incredible!

The best part of the entire cruise was the service. I’m from Seattle, Washington. I’m used to bussing my own tables, and hospitality that is less often a human being saying, “How can I help you?” and more often, “Here’s a robot when you call customer service for help and the robot doesn’t even answer your question, or help you with your specific question at all. We might call you back, but probably not.”

Not the case on Celebrity cruises. I felt like we were treated like royalty. And I don’t say that lightly. It wasn’t just that the people working there were nice. They went above and beyond their job.

We had a stateroom attendant who was extremely kind to us. Always offering help (I would get lost finding where my room was a lot), and keeping our room in top notch shape. There was even a problem one morning where we didn’t get exactly the right room service breakfast order. It was promptly fixed before I had even called, and then for the rest of the trip they called us to make sure everything was correct each morning.

The cabins were the right size for us, just two people, and larger than I expected for a cruise ship. Some people complained in reviews that there wasn’t an outlet near the bed. I don’t really care about that. I can walk two feet and find an outlet to charge my phone on the room’s desk. Trust me, you’re on a world-class vacation. You’re not getting your limbs sawed off. You’re on vacation.

Dining was great. We got a 3 specialty restaurants package, where you go to a fancier, reservation-only restaurant, and get a huge meal, with several courses. We were stuffed by the second course. I honestly don’t know how we finished the rest of the meal. Truly not a real problem.

My favorite part of the entire cruise was a show, in a small theater, called “Love and Marriage.” Three couples, of different ages and years of marriage, came up on stage and answered some pretty saucy questions about their love and marriages. The host was hilarious, as were the guests. I felt like everyone in the audience was enjoying the show too, as they were laughing just as much as us. I’d detail the questions they asked, but it would make you blush.

The other fantastic show featured an Aretha Franklin tribute concert. The singer, Cece Teneal, was an incredible singer. She really honored Aretha’s contributions to music. The band playing with her was great too. Cece really got everyone out of their seats dancing. Later, I heard she did a “Divas of Soul” concert that I am disappointed I missed out on. But that’s on me.

We went to the Solarium every day. It’s the indoor area featuring pools and hot tubs, though there are outside pools and hot tubs on the ship too. I liked the quiet atmosphere, and even fell asleep one day laying in the sun, enjoying a comfy lounger, which tells me it must have been truly relaxing.

As far as taking your family on the cruise, I would recommend it for your older kids and leave the younger kids to other cruise lines. There were young kids on the ship, but not many of them, and they were extremely well-behaved. So I think the Celebrity line is better suited for adults and older children.

I feel that the value you get for the money spent is right on par. I would say Celebrity is an upscale cruise, with upscale prices. Not budget, not moderate, and not luxury, but somewhere between moderate and luxury. I would say we felt like we got great value for what we spent. Even with small details missed like getting the wrong order. That kind of stuff doesn’t really bother us.

I looked at the reviews of the cruise we went on, before and after we went on the cruise. And I gotta say, I feel like a lot of the negative reviews are people having first world problems. You’re on an amazing vacation, on a beautifully decorated ship, and all you can do is complain because your coffee wasn’t made to your liking? Really?

Maybe some people go on more luxurious lines, where everything is perfect, but I don’t really care about that. I understand humans are capable of error, and that doesn’t bother me. There’s not enough beef dishes on the menu? You can find a buffet, that’s included in what you paid, and there’s every kind of cuisine you can imagine, cooked to your liking. And you still find things to complain about? Wow, I bet those people are a hit at parties.

Someone complained in that reviews that trivia wasn’t fun. We went to trivia a lot, and people were really enjoying themselves, including us. The hosts were fun and engaging.

We saw pop-up choreography that you could join in on. That was a lot of fun to watch: just people enjoying a drink and dancing to some pop hits.

I think if you are expecting your vacation to be perfect, without a single error, you should stick to the luxury cruise lines, or maybe make your expectations more reasonable. We had a great time. I wish that reviews didn’t have a negativity bias. People are more likely to leave negative reviews than go out of their way to make a positive review.

That’s why I wanted to write my positive review. Maybe it will help balance out the negatives people seem to find in the insignificant details.

Remember, you’re lucky enough to take a vacation. A lot of the global population doesn’t get to do that. Stay humble, and you’re sure to have a great time.

I know we did!

My husband and I decided to stay at the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach hotel because:

1. It had good consumer and editorial reviews on several different websites.
2. Our credit card has a relationship with the Hyatt hotel brand, where I could accrue rewards points to be redeemed for travel reward discounts and perks in the future, through my credit card reward’s online portal.
3. I wanted to achieve World of Hyatt hotel member benefits in the future, and climb up the ladder to earn things such as free night stays (during off-peak times), room upgrades, and late check-out, to name some of the more salient perks.

As with most things in life, our stay at the hotel had pros and cons.

The Pros

1. The location: The location was only half a mile to the beach. To some, it’s not close enough if it’s not on the beach, but for us, it made a big financial difference. The hotels on the beach were much more expensive than the ones a little further away, and we didn’t find the walk to be far or unenjoyable. Waikiki Beach is a very popular beach, and as a result, prices for a hotel on the beach are higher than we’re comfortable with, even though we went during shoulder season.
2. The beach gear: We didn’t use all of the amenities offered at the hotel, but a small, though useful, perk we got was to borrow umbrellas and towels for the beach, which we used every day during our trip. It might seem like a small thing to enjoy, but when you’re out in the hot blinding sun reflecting off the sand and onto your skin and eyes, having a giant umbrella is a wonderful thing to have.

3. The hot tub: My husband and I are very much an aquatic couple, so lounging about in the hot tub, which is not a device we own at home, is extra-special when we go on vacation and have one. This hot tub was pretty big and had relaxing jets, which felt great after a long day of sightseeing. As a bonus, there were cabanas to dry off in and soft cushions to lay on after a nice dip in the water.
4. Small, but fun perks: A giant swing and hammocks in the lobby were a fun-to-lay-on experience. But since we were the only ones in the lobby room, plus the staff at their desks, I didn’t hang out long. If only those hammocks were in our rooms! Now that would be nice. Second, we got complimentary reusable water bottles too. These came in handy because we didn’t have to keep buying disposable bottles, and we could just get water and ice from the ice machine, in the hotel, and bring it to the beach every day.

The Cons

1. The wading pool: One of the first things my husband and I like to explore when going to a new hotel is the pool. Especially in a warm locale. While the pool was beautiful, it was only about 6-12 inches of water, so it was more for lounging in lounge chairs in, and not for swimming. It was a bit of a bummer. I noticed in other people’s reviews of the hotel that they experienced the same letdown. I think if the pool had been a normal size, it would have really improved the stay.
2. The “resort” fee: First of all, let’s make one thing clear: this place bills you as a resort, and yet it’s not really a resort. It’s a hotel. Let’s be honest. A resort includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, activities, sports, entertainment, and shopping, all on the premises. This hotel didn’t have an on-site restaurant, a swimmable pool, sports, entertainment, shopping, or even a working bar. There was a bar, before the pandemic, but they said it was never reopened after the pandemic. There is no room service. There’s beach chairs, umbrellas, and beach towels. There were some activities such as twice weekly yoga, but certainly not an extensive list of activities on-site like other actual resorts. They should not be charging a resort fee. Bottom line. So that was pretty disappointing.
3. The very expensive and impossible to park in parking garage: We rented a car for about two days when we had planned on renting a car for 6 days during our stay. One of the reasons we returned the car early is because we didn’t like paying $42/night for parking in a parking garage that was nearly impossible to maneuver a car around. We had a normal, compact rental car. However, the spaces were so tiny and there were large cement pillars in the way, and tons of other cars in the garage. So we had to circle around multiple times trying to find a spot to fit the car. And I consider myself a city driver, so I’m no stranger to fitting a car in tiny parking spaces. Also, $42/night to park is steep for our wallet. Needless to say, I returned the car early and told the front desk so we wouldn’t be charged further.
4. The shower: A known problem that a lot of other reviewers mentioned is that the shower is barely a trickle at times and runs either really cold or super hot and doesn’t seem to stay at one pressure or temperature for very long. We brought this up to the staff, who said they were going to bring someone in to look at it, but I don’t think anyone came by because the problem wasn’t fixed at any point during our stay. For what you pay, you would expect a functional hot shower. Taking a 3-minute shower because you don’t know how long you’ll have water pressure or heat is really annoying.

Overall, I would stay in a Hyatt again, and give it another chance, but I wouldn’t have high expectations, or stay in the same Hyatt Centric I did this time. There are other Hyatt levels I might be interested in trying, at different price points. So I think I’ll try them again but I won’t be expecting the moon and the stars.