Why I Don’t Like Resorts …

This may seem strange, but I don’t like resorts.  I recognize why so many people love them, and I have enjoyed both times I stayed at a resort … for the first day.  You can stay in a beautiful room, every need you may have is catered to, you have a large, luxurious pool at your doorstep, a slow relaxing walk to the beach (which you never take because a golf cart takes you,) there are excellent restaurants, and the list just goes on.

 

In short, you’re living like a king – with one major difference; YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO.

 

The planned events in places like these never appealed to me; yet, having the all-inclusive luxury at your disposal, you feel obligated to stay on the resort to take advantage of it; it makes no sense to go pay for food, drinks or entertainment somewhere else when you already have the luxury level of all of these in your plan.

 

Part of the total concept of the places, wireless internet is available.  While I’ve never been one to watch any T.V. or use any internet while travelling on vacation; both times, however, that I’ve been in a resort setting, by the end of day 1, I’ve been digging out the laptop I never thought I’d be using on vacation and tracking down the password for using the internet.  I simply felt bored and in need of something semi-productive to do.

 

I suppose part of the lure of resorts is that you can do just that; live in luxury, relax, and do nothing – unwind from all the stress of life.

 

Both resorts I’ve been in have been in Mexico.  Yet, I’ve had several other vacation/multi-day-travel experiences in Mexico that have been far less luxurious, but, for me far more enjoyable.  (These include my trip to Veracruz and to Progreso.)  In places like this there are certainly lots of tourists, but you see them blending in with real life.  In Veracruz my wife and I stayed in a cheap hotel where they gave us half price ($10) because the room had no TV.  Although the hotel had everything I expected from it (comfortable bed, warm shower and cleanliness) I felt no regret abandoning the hotel to go out and see the city – see the people, the parks, the children playing in the streets, the colonial city square full of splendid lights, the market food, street musicians and the baker who went well out of his way to show the warmest welcome possible to an old friend (my wife) … to me this was 1000 times more of meaningful and enjoyable. In Progreso I visited the old expat bar, where retired Americans and Canadians that had been there for several decades complained of the (very unwanted) influx of tourists that the new highway would bring.  Although some of them glared at me suspiciously as one of the unwanted outsiders, I found it easier to connect with more of these people than most of the people in the resort.

 

At the resort, I think the only person I connected to somewhat was the worker taking care of the kids who used to be a student at the English school where I worked.

 

I don’t oppose resorts in principle – there are some that have made real efforts to show environmental and social responsibility, although by no means all, just like any other business – but I still have to say honestly, I can understand the point on a logical level (i.e. why they should be enjoyable) but by my experience, I simply do not find them enjoyable.