14 of the best all-inclusive hotels for 2023 - Times Travel (2023)

All-inclusive hotels are all the rage, with an ever-younger clientele being enticed by better design and the sheer, indisputable convenience of not needing to worry about the prices of cocktails or dinner. But which to choose? From the Canary Islands to Curacao, there are new options to consider in 2023, while the likes of Turkey, Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach and Paphos in Cyprus currently tempt with superb value. Sharjah is also in vogue for its cultural appeal; the Maldives is increasingly catering to families. Or, if you’d really rather reduce your carbon footprint, how about an award-winning option right here in Britain, on Norfolk’s powder-fringed coastline? If that doesn’t sound nearly exotic enough, we’ve also provided options in Mauritius and Tanzania, each drenched in tropical glamour and a Robinson Crusoe ethos.

Main photo: Casa de Campo Resort & Villas, La Romana, Dominican Republic

1. Roca Nivaria Gran Hotel, Tenerife, Spain

Best for convenience
The sun-soaked south coast of Tenerife is the focus of its all-inclusive scene; here you’ll find many of the Canary Island’s resort towns and best beaches close to Tenerife South airport, which serves most direct UK flights. Also present is the large, five-star Roca Nivaria where days of slumber — enjoying ocean views from infinity pool sunbeds; taking the shuttle bus to sandy Playa de Fañabé — might alternate with those spent tackling the resort’s tennis courts, zip line, climbing wall or water park. After scoffing some Spanish or Italian food each night, everyone should be happily exhausted.

Price seven nights from £1,229
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 3
Premium drinks included in premium all-inclusive

2. Voyage Bodrum, Turkey

Best for Adults
Turkey is one of the best-value holiday destinations for Brits right now. And while plenty of all-inclusives line the 1,000-mile Turquoise Coast, named for its preposterously cerulean water, few promise as much peace as much as this adult-only outpost of the Turkish brand Voyage. As well as water taxis to Bodrum’s marina-side cafés, below the town’s Greco-Roman theatre, it lays on a freshwater pool, a private pebble beach, an on-site patisserie, three bars, à la carte dining and bright, minimal bedrooms sprawling below beamed ceilings.

Price seven nights from £720, including flights
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 1
Premium drinks included

• Best all-inclusive hotels in Turkey

3. Constance Moofushi, South Ari Atoll, Maldives

Best for luxury
This sumptuous resort serves up the kind of barefoot romance synonymous with the Maldives. Thatched beach villas are lent perfect privacy by palm trees, while the overwater spa hosts his-and-hers treatments. Yet families also join couples and that same seclusion again appeals, as do dolphin-spotting outings, beach volleyball, a thriving house reef, pure shores, low-key entertainment and an array of high-end food covered by the all-inclusive Cristal Package option, which includes the main Manta Restaurant, where buffets veer from Mexican one night to Mediterranean the next.

Price seven nights from £3,393
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 2 (one covered by all-inclusive)
Premium drinks extra

4. Occidental Sharjah Grand, Sharjah, UAE

Best for culture
Sharjah is having a moment. The arrival of the impressive Sharjah Art Foundation galleries in converted heritage buildings and the Foster + Partners’ House of Wisdom library have further improved a museum-led cultural scene on par with noisier neighbour Dubai. Glossy new hotels are coming to the emirate in 2023, too, yet there’s no need to look past the established, well-run Occidental. There are many provisions for juniors, such as an indoor games area and themed buffet food, alongside plentiful water sports and wood-accented bedrooms in a beachfront location.

Price seven nights from £1,534
Spa N
Pool Y
Price ££
Restaurants 2
Premium drinks no alcohol is served in Sharjah

5. Casa de Campo Resort & Villas, La Romana, Dominican Republic

Best for golf
All-inclusive golf hotels are ideal for those travellers who love wielding wedges, totalling tee shots or sharpening their short game. Perennially one of the finest, swanky Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic pairs a private sandy beach with 63 rangy holes devised by the late Pete Dye. The challenges include Teeth of The Dog, often lauded as the Caribbean’s top-ranked course, and the dramatic, cliff-clinging Dye Fore. Equestrian, yoga and catamaran excursions are among the other resort offerings, while the pale-hued suites or villas are uniformly capacious.

Price seven nights from £1,707 including flights
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 8
Premium drinks extra

• Best all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean

6. iHot@l, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria

Best for budget breaks
Ranked top for value in the Post Office’s 2022 Family Holiday Report, Bulgaria’s purpose-built Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach sprawls along ten miles of golden sand. Different sections cater to clubbers, activity-lovers or, in the case of the especially affordable iHot@l, families. One of the area’s most modern properties, this 227-room affair provides splash pools with waterslides along tiered adult-only affairs. A lobby bar is equally Insta-worthy, and the buffet restaurant hosts themed Asian, Mediterranean, Bulgarian and American nights. If not in horizontal slumber, days can be spent diving or go-karting nearby.

Price seven nights from £503, including flights and transfers
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 1
Premium drinks extra

7. Olympic Lagoon Resort Paphos, Cyprus

Best for short-haul sun
That same Post Office study declared that holiday prices in Paphos dropped by about 15 per cent in 2022 — meaning now is the time to capitalise. Ten minutes’ drive from this west-coast Cyprus town’s extensive Roman villa ruins, the seafront Olympic Lagoon is styled in an airy manner across sea-view bedrooms, a soothing spa and all-day restaurants serving everything from coconut curries to chilli cheese fries. Tall palm trees flank freeform pools, one of which is reserved for adults, close to tennis and football facilities and a short sliver of serviced sandy beach.

Price seven nights from £739, including flights and transfers
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 5
Premium drinks included

• Best all-inclusive hotels in Cyprus

8. Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Cancun, Mexico

Best for millennials
An army of all-inclusives festoons the sandy shores around Cancun and Playa del Carmen, just a quick, convenient car ride from the former’s airport. Cooler — and smaller, at a relatively piffling 148 units, each of them accompanied by a private terrace — than most is this youthful base, which is decorated in upbeat tropical hues. Beachside tacos, homemade pasta, rum cocktails and mariachi nights all await after days of swimming, hammocks and on-the-sand yoga classes. There’s plenty of scuba diving nearby and it’s easy to get into central Cancun.

Price seven nights from £1,589
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 2
Premium drinks extra

• Best all-inclusive hotels in Mexico

9. Potters Resorts Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk, UK

Best for staycations
Potters oversees two resorts in Norfolk and Essex. It has been in existence for more than a century, but certainly isn’t slacking: in 2022, the family-run group topped Which?’s UK holiday park and resort rankings ahead of Center Parcs and Butlins. Particularly acclaimed was its impressive value for money. To that end, Potters’ original, 65-acre Norfolk coast site promises West End-quality theatre shows, a humongous activity menu (almost all of it included), an excellent glass-roofed spa and airy hotel or bungalow accommodation. The sandy Hopton Beach is just over the dunes.

Price four nights from £549
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 1
Premium drinks extra

pottersholidays.com

10. Lux Grand Gaube, Mauritius

Best for design
All-inclusives can be beautiful and cool. Exhibit A: Lux Grand Gaube. Below thatched roofs are 186 Kelly Hoppen-designed bedrooms at this secluded bolt hole on a sandy northern peninsula of the tropical Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Expect breezy, bohemian vibes enhanced by house plants, rattan weaves and outdoor bathtubs. Elsewhere, there’s a cute swimming cove, a spa, a cinema and decidedly gourmet food — Peruvian, Mediterranean and more. The activity menu is equally impressive: if seaplane rides or free photography workouts don’t tempt, how about island hopping aboard a traditional pirogue fishing boat?

Spa Y
Pool Y
Price seven nights from £1,171, including flights
Restaurants 4
Premium drinks mostly included

11. Sandals Royal Curacao, Santa Barbara, Curacao

Best for guaranteed sunshine
One of the Caribbean’s newest all-inclusive options marks an unexpected move by the Sandals brand. Having hitherto operated on higher-profile islands such as as Jamaica and Barbados, it has now plumped for unsung Curacao in the southerly, usually hurricane-free Leeward Antilles. The comprehensive, couples-only facilities — including ten bars, a two-storey infinity pool and 351 charismatic bungalows and suites — neighbour an 18-hole golf course. But the real fun is had by pedalling a borrowed bike or Mini Cooper to roam the surrounding nature reserve and desert, or plunging into one of Curacao’s 70 dive sites.

Spa Y
Pool Y
Price seven nights from £2,994, including flights
Restaurants 8 (plus three food trucks)
Premium drinks included

12. Barcelo Lanzarote Active Resort, Spain

Best for active families
This vast amalgamation of two renovated resorts in Lanzarote was completed in 2022 and the name is backed up by an outdoor play area, foosball, a fitness studio, an open-air training box, bikes for hire and a climbing wall. Three pools (one an a ten-lane Olympic colossus) help with the seduction, as do several buffet restaurants and all-day entertainment featuring team games. Five beaches are close; some suit swimming, but the more blustery Playa de las Cucharas better pleases windsurfers.

Price seven nights from £800
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 4
Premium drinks included on All-Inclusive Plus

• Best all-inclusive resorts in Lanzarote

13. Lux Me Daphnila Bay, Corfu, Greece

Best for Grecophiles
So you’d like the close-at-hand convenience of an all-inclusive, but also some of that low-key, unspoilt-Greek-island vibe? No problem. On Corfu’s easily accessed eastern coast, this stylish, chilled-out place even contains its own soulful seaside taverna. Bright and white, its more private rooms occupy cottages, just up the leafy hillside from a private, pristine beach. Tennis, riding or mountain biking are available, and guests can also eat out at two swisher sister hotels (Corfu Imperial and Eva Palace) within their board. Families and couples are equally well catered for.

Price seven nights from £719 including flights and transfers
Spa Y
Pool Y
Restaurants 5
Premium drinks included

14. Fanjove Island, Songosongo Islands, Tanzania

Best for post-safari relaxation
All-inclusive stays have long been a very popular postscript to safaris for visitors to Tanzania, especially when honeymooners visit. As well as the ever-more crammed Zanzibar, the potential destinations stretch to two paradisiacal private islands: ultra-exclusive Mnemba and more affordable Fanjove, whose ten wood-and-thatch beach villas have recently been updated, lending more luxury to the rustic, castaway vibe. The safari board here is equivalent to all-inclusive, with fusion food, laundry and sunset dhow cruises in search of whales all covered. In between those, lie on the islet’s deserted white-sand fringes or snorkel a coral reef just offshore.

Price seven nights from £5,999, including all flights and transfers
Spa N
Pool N
Restaurants 1
Premium drinks extra

theluxurysafaricompany.com/zanzibar/fanjove-island

Take me there

Inspired to take an all-inclusive holiday but yet to book your trip? Here are the best packages from TUI* and Jet2*.