Welcome to our exclusive list of the world’s 25 top-rated all-inclusive resort destinations. Our analysis of over 2,000 all-inclusive resorts worldwide reveals the finest vacation havens that captivate travel aficionados and guests.
We undertook a detailed two-part investigation, including a statistical and a qualitative review sentiment analysis, to rank and identify the most cherished experiences and top-praised amenities that set these resorts apart. Our findings also reveal the common critiques guests have about these vacation paradises.
Join us on this luxurious journey as we showcase the unmatched offerings of these elite vacation spots.
These jump links breakdown everything you will learn on this page:
Categories: Top All-Inclusive Resorts by Type
Understanding All-Inclusives: Definition & Features
The Elite 25: Best All-Inclusive Resorts Globally
Visual Guide: Interactive Map & Table of Top Resorts
Research Process: Our Methodology & Approach
Categories: Top All-Inclusive Resorts by Type
Best Overall: Excellence Playa Mujeres, Mexico
Best Adults Only: Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun, Mexico
Best Luxury: Secrets Cap Cana Resort & Spa, Dominican Republic
Best Family-Friendly: Moon Palace The Grand – Cancun, Mexico
Best Adventure/Sport: Voyage Belek Golf & Spa, Turkey
Best Couples: Paradisus Palma Real Golf & Spa Resort, Dominican Republic
Best Wellness: Akumal Bay Beach & Wellness Resort, Mexico
Understanding All-Inclusives: Definition & Features
What is an All-Inclusive Resort? Also sometimes called a resort with “everything included,” or referenced by the ellipsis “all-inclusive(s),” these destinations try to offer everything you might want on a vacation, typically in one complex. You will find a range of onsite amenities at each resort. According to the EHL Hospitality Business School in Switzerland, most all-inclusive resorts are like full-service resorts, including multiple onsite restaurants, exercise spaces, spas and meeting places and are frequently luxurious properties. All-inclusives bundle everything into one “package” or bill.
What Does All-Inclusive Mean? According to EHL, the main difference between full-service and all-inclusive resorts is how you pay for them. With an all-inclusive resort package, your room, unlimited food and most drinks, services, amenities, gratuities and all the extras are bundled together in one bill instead of separate bills for all the amenities, experiences, activities, meals, spas and more. One of the main benefits of selecting an all-inclusive package is knowing what you will spend at the resort without being surprised by all the added-up charges during your stay.
What Countries Have All-Inclusives? We found a total of 2,163 all-inclusive resorts across 77 countries worldwide. Egypt tops the list with 265 resorts, followed by Mexico with 237, Turkey with 215, Spain with 103, and Greece with 86. Our analysis shows that Mexico has the most top-rated all-inclusive resorts worldwide, with 15 on our top 25 list. Turkey has two best globally. The Dominican Republic, on the other hand, may only rank #18 for the most all-inclusive resorts globally, but it has eight of the world’s best ones.
The Elite 25: Best All-Inclusive Resorts Globally
We used two types of analysis to evaluate all-inclusive resorts: a statistical analysis and a qualitative review sentiment analysis. The statistical analysis counts and rates customer reviews from Tripadvisor to calculate a Customer Review Score. On the other hand, the qualitative review sentiment analysis extracts customer feelings, emotions, and nuanced points of view from reviews with the highest Customer Review Scores through natural language processing. Together, these analyses provide a comprehensive understanding of customer satisfaction and a holistic evaluation of the highest-rated resorts worldwide.
Visual Guide: Interactive Map & Table of Top Resorts
Research Process: Our Methodology & Approach
Independent: We conduct our research independently to recommend the best destinations using data analysis. Our top recommendations are based solely on data extraction and a ranking formula. Our research is editorially independent, but we may earn a commission for any purchases made through links on this page.
Data Source: We conducted a comprehensive search for all-inclusive resorts worldwide, one country at a time, by using the property type filter on Tripadvisor and selecting only all-inclusive resorts. Out of the 195 countries globally, we found that 77 countries have all-inclusive resorts for 2,163 all-inclusive resorts worldwide. We sought to see which resorts are statistically objectively the favorites among those who stay there.
Data Extraction: We used Web Scraper, a data extraction tool, to extract review data for the 2,163 all-inclusive resorts on Tripadvisor. We pulled all review data between 9/18/23 and 9/19/23.
Statistical Analysis: We based these rankings on an analysis of the 2,163 resorts. Our team has developed a unique algorithm to rank hospitality establishments called the Customer Review Score. The score considers the number of Tripadvisor reviews and the average review score for each location. The more reviews a resort has, the higher it will typically rank. However, to avoid over-emphasizing the impact of wildly high review counts, the algorithm utilizes an exponential function, giving diminishing returns for higher review counts. The algorithm thus balances review frequency with review quality. The final scores are presented on a 5-point scale.
Qualitative Review Sentiment Analysis: We take customer reviews seriously at Trips to Discover. To gather the most recent 100 customer reviews for each resort from Tripadvisor, we used Outscrapper, a reliable data-scrapping tool. We used ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis for qualitative review sentiment analysis, which knows how to write and execute Python code and can work with file uploads. Qualitative sentiment analysis is a method that uses machine learning, statistics, and natural language processing (NLP) to understand the underlying parts of guest emotions on a macro scale.
Human Authored: Our qualitative analysis focused on different perspectives, including what distinguishes the location for customers, shared perceived advantages and disadvantages for patrons, and crucial decision-making factors for those who choose to stay there. To ensure accuracy, we meticulously cross-checked the sentiment analysis output against the raw review data. We wrote each resort’s final customer review summaries (the “what guests are saying” section) based on the information from the fact-checked AI-generated qualitative review sentiment analysis.
Replicability: All the data used for this project is publicly available for study replication. The 2,163 resorts used in this analysis are on Tripadvisor with the latest customer reviews, where you can identify review scores, counts and more!
Data: You can download the data behind our research here in Google Sheets. It includes all 2163 resorts used in the analysis with direct links to their Tripadvisor pages. You will also find all the review tallies, ratings and Customer Review Scores for these resorts. This workbook also contains all 2,500 resort review samples used for our sentiment analysis in that book. We have removed all proprietary calculations from the books. You can view the raw qualitative sentiment analysis outputs based on these 2,500 reviews here in Google Docs; however, We are choosing to withhold the valuable and meticulously crafted prompts used to create these analyses. Please feel free to use or share this data with whoever may find this helpful — we ask that your purposes be noncommercial and that you link back to this page so its contributors can receive proper credit for their work.
Contact: The ranking algorithm is proprietary, but if you want to build a similar project or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected], and he can walk you through the process.