The Ambivalence about all-inclusive

When researching hotel options I came across the option to go for a cheaper room in central Santa Maria. No foods included, no cleaning, more of an apartment really. What steared me away from that option was the fact the prizing was almost the same as at one of the all-inclusive hotels with pools, bars, restaurang and house keeping. There were no money to be saved. And when we are here, I kinda get why. The town is not developed at all, there aren't a whole lot of restaurants, we are on an island that has to import foods and water so the family owned restaurant competes with the big hotel chain that can import foods in bulk. There are no budget alternatives! With that being said, this is the first time we go all-inclusive and I feel oddly weird about it. There are staff everywhere. House keeping, gardeners, pool keeping, bar-and restaurant staff. Outside the restaurants there are designated staff to just give out anti bacterial gel for hands. Food is free, drinks are free and easily accessible. And everything is in such abundance it makes me feel guilty. Guilty for being previliged. For ordering a coffee and deciding to throw it out when realizing I ordered instant coffee and get a coffee brewed in the bar instead. Guilty for being a little bit excited over the cheese table where they have cut and serve 10ish different cheeses. besides the cheese- i have never seen so much food before! I feel embarrassed! And guilty for considering staying at the hotel area where everything is easily accessable instead of headed out and exploring the island and meeting the real people and culture. I feel embarrassed.

So with mixed feelings, this is how the day went. After breakfast we hung around the pool a couple of hours. After lunch we decided to check out the beach. It was a short walk and it was beautifully situated with white sand, palm trees and turquoise water. It was orange flagged and it was ok to bathe with precaution. The beach was absolutely lovely, not many people at all. The waves were high and quite strong and at one point we were outmatched by an especially strong wave and Viggo went under a couple of seconds before I managed to get him on his feet. In that same wave I lost my sun glasses and I thought they were forever lost. By sheer luck a Dutch tourist managed to fish them up as they floated past him and he managed to retrieve them and get them back to me. After that we decided to return to the resort and rest a bit.

We went to an tour guide meeting and booked an island tour for tomorrow and a lemon shark expedition later this week. The buffet food is in abundance and very varied but we also pre booked the Asian a la carte restaurant and the exclusive Kulinarium restaurant later for this week. We took the short walk back to the beach to watch the sunset and that was the end of a lovely day!Read more