Every family that calls me starts in roughly the same place: an all-inclusive looks like one price, a cruise looks cheaper per night, and a regular hotel looks cheapest of all until you add up the meals. Let's price all three properly. The example below is two adults and two children, seven nights, departing from a mid-size US airport in shoulder season.
Option 1: All-inclusive resort (Riviera Maya)
- Resort, 7 nights, family room: $3,400
- Airfare, four people round trip: $1,600
- Airport transfers: $160
- Tips beyond what's included: $250
- Two off-property excursions: $450
- Souvenirs, spa, misc: $250
Realistic total: about $6,100. Food, drinks (including alcohol), kids' club, and most on-property entertainment are genuinely covered. This is the most predictable of the three — you can leave your wallet in the room and largely mean it.
Option 2: Caribbean cruise (7-night, interior cabin)
- Cruise fare, four people, interior: $3,000
- Airfare to the port: $1,300
- Pre-cruise hotel night and parking/transfers: $300
- Gratuities: $500
- Drinks à la carte (no package): $350
- Three shore excursions: $700
- Wi-Fi, specialty dining, arcade: $250
Realistic total: about $6,400. The base fare is the cheapest of the three, but cruises have the widest gap between fare and final spend. Book a balcony and add a drink package and the same trip clears $8,000 fast. Skip the packages and stick to two excursions and you can bring it under $5,500.
Option 3: Destination stay (condo or hotel, e.g. Orlando or a European city)
- Lodging, 7 nights: $1,900
- Airfare: $1,600
- Rental car or transit: $450
- Food — a mix of groceries and restaurants: $1,100
- Attractions and tickets: $1,400
- Parking, misc: $200
Realistic total: about $6,650 — and far more variable than the other two, because attraction tickets swing enormously. Theme-park-driven trips run high; a city-and-beach trip in Portugal can land closer to $4,500.
So which is actually cheapest?
For a typical family week they land remarkably close together — usually within a few hundred dollars. What differs is where the money goes and how much of it you can control:
- Cheapest floor: a destination stay, if you cook some meals and choose free attractions. It also has the highest ceiling.
- Most predictable: the all-inclusive. Best choice if surprise costs stress you out or your kids eat constantly.
- Best value per destination seen: the cruise. Nothing else shows a family four countries in a week at this price.
Pick by family, not by price
Kids under six: all-inclusive, almost always. Kids seven to twelve: cruise, for the onboard activity and short port days. Teens: cruise or a destination stay, since they want independence. Multi-generational groups: all-inclusive, because everyone can do their own thing and still eat together.
Our vacation types comparison breaks the three styles down side by side, and the cruise guide and Mexico resort guide go deeper on each.
Let us run your actual numbers
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