There are a number of different vacation options that are now considered all-inclusives. This includes culinary vacations and spas.
Tuscan Way at Casa Innocenti (culinary option): Wine tour around Tuscany with master chef Carlo Innocenti at La Locanda del Prete for 1/2 week (3 nights/4 days): $1,280 at current exchange rate. One-week wine tour (10 wine tastings) with sommelier Romeo Innocenti at La Locanda del Prete: $2,880 at current exchange rate. Book now and get 10 percent off: $1,152 for 1/2 week at La Locanda del Prete, $2,592 for one-week wine tour
What's included:
Six nights accommodations at Casa Innocenti, a medieval house, the highest of the village, next to the village Castle (12th century A.D.). 45 minutes from Siena, two hours from Florence
All meals and wine, including local wine tasting in Montalcino
Four hands-on cooking courses in Tuscan country cooking from master chef Carlo Innocenti, with wine included
Five guided excursions to nearby villages of Monte Amiata, the Etruscan sites of Pitigliano, Sorano, Sovana, the soothing springs of Saturnia, the village of Montalcino (famous for its Brunello wine), and the Renaissance town of Pienza
4-night and 5-night tours begin on “Day 1,” which is a Sunday. On the last day, departure is after breakfast.
Transportation (to and from Rome)
What's not included:
Airfare
Gratuities
Other alcohol besides wine
Rancho La Puerta: Weeklong packages start at $2,795. Although this upscale resort claims to be all-inclusive, its central feature of a cooking school (La Cocina Que Canta) is NOT included.
What's included:
Accommodations
All gourmet, organic meals (no alcohol)
50+ different classes each week: cardio, yoga, Pilates, tai chi, dance, and many other traditional strength, stamina and flexibility disciplines
Through the month of August, intensive yoga ashram/Eastern spiritual study will be included.
What's not included:
Spa treatments (sample prices: facial $85/50 minutes, massage $50/35 minutes)
Personal training sessions
Cooking classes at La Cocina Que Canta — hands-on classes, $75 per person for 3.5 hours. Demonstration classes, $35 for 2.5 hours
Mohonk Mountain House, N.Y.: Midweek “Spa-tacular” vacation package starts at $308 per person, per night. Available through June 27, 2008.
Year-round getaway package available Sunday through Thursday nights through March 2009. Rates begin at $240 per person, per night, based on double occupancy.
What's included:
Overnight accommodations
Three meals daily prepared by award-winning chefs
Afternoon tea and cookies, served daily from 4 – 5 p.m.
Indoor heated pool, fitness center/classes, yoga/meditation, guided hikes, tennis, mid-week golf, lake swimming, boating, ice skating, X-country skiing, snowshoeing
Children and teen programs
Nightly entertainment
What's not included:
Spa services (sample price: hot stone massage, $125/65 minutes, facial, $140/70 minutes)
Rock climbing (starts at $223 per person for a half-day and $324.00 for a full day)
Weekend golf: Day visitors and overnight guests pay $24 for 9 holes and $29 for 18 holes
Caving, horseback riding, carriage rides, mountain biking, fly-fishing
Taxes and a 15 percent gratuity
Deerfield Spa, Poconos, Pa.: Two nights (minimum stay), from $360 to 595. Mini-Week (5 nights, Sun-Fri): from $800 to $1,275. Weekly (7 nights, 8 days): from $850 to $1,420. All weekly stays include one free $70 massage. All mini-week stays include $150 worth of personal services.
What's included:
Unlimited exercise classes (Pilates, yoga, aerobics, dance, tai chi), two gyms, outdoor heated pool, hiking on the Appalachian Trail
Three meals a day plus two snacks
Evening activities: line dancing, belly dancing, step, evening yoga, evening Pilates, bingo, Texas Hold 'Em
Free massage if you stay a week
Includes 17 percent surcharge, so no tipping allowed
Special programs throughout the season, including cooking classes, nutritional and health expert consultations, dance week, fall foliage hiking
All facilities are open 24/7 at Deerfield, including its heated (to 84 degrees) outdoor pool, outdoor hot tub, sauna, gyms, outdoor sport court and living rooms
What's not included:
Spa services (massage: $70/50 minutes, facial: $110/50 minutes)
Airfare and transfers
This is not a place to go for alcohol. It’s all low-cal, healthy cuisine.
Via Rail Canada: Even some train trips can be considered all-inclusive: Consider this three-day trip between Toronto and Vancouver (or vice versa), stopping in the resort town of Jasper in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. Includes meals and sleeping car.
For travel through May 31, a double bedroom for the three-night journey in either direction with one stopover in Jasper is about $1,211 per person plus tax, when purchased at least five days in advance. This represents a savings of 37 percent for regular fares.
What's included:
For passengers traveling in premier Silver & Blue Class, the ticket is all-inclusive — breakfast, lunch and dinner are included in the ticket price
Sleeping compartments with down duvet bedding, bedding and shower access
With the three-day trip, you can choose to either go the whole way in our fell swoop, or break the trip up — VIA Rail does not charge extra for getting off at one stop along the way and getting on one of the next trains that comes through.
What's not included:
Alcoholic beverages, which includes fine wines and regional beers
And then, the subject of cruises. Historically, a cruise was always considered “all-inclusive.” For the price of your cabin, you got all your meals, all your activities on board, your entertainment etc. Not anymore ...
Yes, if you restrain yourself and have only water with every seated meal on your ship, then it’s possible to still make the argument that cruises are all inclusive ... but these days, other than scheduled meals and some entertainment, just about everything on a cruise ship is a revenue center for the cruise line — the bar (yes, even soft drinks), the signature restaurants, the ice cream, the activities on board, and ,of course, let’s not forget the spa, the shore excursions ... for example:
Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas
An “all-inclusive” eastern Caribbean cruise (Miami; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Miami, Florida) can start at $599 per person (for an inside room).
What's included:
Meals (buffet and dining room)
Nightly entertainment, pools
What's not included:
Beverages, including soft drinks, bottled water and alcohol
Spa services
Shore excursions
Tipping your waiter, head waiter, dining room steward, bus boy, table captain, cabin steward, butler, maid, pool boy
Dining beyond the dining room or buffet
Johnny Rockets '50s-style restaurant, $3.95 per person. Portofino Italian Restaurant, $20 - $25 per person (including tip). Chops Grille, $25 per person. Ben & Jerry’s, pay per ice cream
Here’s the bottom line to protect yourself before you decide to take an “all-inclusive” vacation:
1. Watch out for the dreaded asterisk. And there’s almost always going to be one. The asterisk should tell you what’s NOT included in your deal.
2. But don’t depend on the asterisk to practice full disclosure. Call ahead and arrive at a mutually agreeable definition of terms from the travel provider as to what they will and will not include.
3. You can sometimes negotiate your own definition of all-inclusive. It’s called bundling, and this often works at resorts ... for example, instead of going to your wallet every time you make a phone call, use the Internet. You can ask the resort/hotel to bundle the charges into a one- time fee (many times broken down as a daily charge) for unlimited local and domestic long-distance charges as well as Internet and WiFi. A number of hotels and resorts do this for about $10 a day. Sure beats $18 a day for Internet, $1 per local call, $1 per 800 number call and all those long-distance phone charges.
This also works on cruise ships. A number of lines will sell you an unlimited soft drink card — either per day, or per cruise, that allows you just that — unlimited soft drinks. Believe me — at $1.50 per drink plus mandatory tip in some cases, the charges add up on a cruise for Diet Coke!
4. Last but never least, if you are on an all-inclusive vacation and the travel provider did not disclose the charges that are NOT included ahead of time, you have rights. You can dispute the bill, either directly with the travel provider or with your credit card. But the key — as always — is to be responsible enough to demand to know the NOT INCLUDED charges and services before you ever make the decision to do an “all-inclusive” vacation.
Source: Today
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23828622/page/3/
