Suite life in the Caribbean

Order breakfast while still in bed at the new Aura Cozumel Wyndham Grand Bay. You'll have just enough time for a dip in the private plunge pool before room service delivers smoked salmon, fruit and coffee.

Check into a suite at Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica and head straight to the sand while a butler unpacks your luggage and presses your clothes.

Spend the day exploring St. Lucia's rain forest, then head down to the bar at East Winds Inn for a sunset libation. A glass of French Pertois Moriset Rose champagne makes a perfect lead-in to a dinner of lobster caught fresh that afternoon, and one shared with a maximum of just 60 guests at this intimate resort.

If you thought all-inclusive options in the Caribbean were limited to impersonal resorts short on island personality and quality dining, you're in for a revelation.

Yes, you can still find plenty of cost-wise hotels geared to travelers who want no more than a beach, a swim-up pool bar and a bill sans surprises. But today the options include upscale resorts with only a few dozen rooms. From the fussiest jet-setters to wallet-busted real estate evacuees, just about every traveler can find a fixed-price Caribbean resort to serve his or her needs.

Though the vast majority of hotel rooms in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and along Mexico's Caribbean coast are all-inclusive, set-price resorts have also opened in St. Lucia, Antigua and Cuba. In fact, few islands are bereft of at least one all-inclusive option.

Jamaica, one of the early meccas of all-inclusive vacations, once again is experiencing hyper-growth. By the end of 2009, the number of hotel rooms will climb by 20 percent, thanks in part to established firms such as Sandals, which is opening Grand Pineapple Beach Resort, priced lower than its current Sandals and Beaches resorts. SuperClubs just opened its second branch of Rooms on the Beach, a no-frills hotel that includes only breakfast, with rates starting at $100 a night in high season.

Airfare to bigger destinations such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic also tends to be lower, especially compared with islands in the eastern Caribbean.

Understanding "all-inclusive"

Price and style vary significantly, from luxury boutique hotels charging $700 per room in low season to sprawling campuses with basic rooms that cost less than $200. Says Adam Stewart, CEO of Sandals, "All-inclusive can mean anything today."

And that can cause confusion. With such marketing phrases as "super-inclusive" and "ultra-inclusive" bandied about, no wonder travelers are baffled.

Last year, Sandals barred the use of the term all-inclusive, replacing it with a trademarked tag line: "Luxury Included." Stewart says the company invested $300 million in improvements to its existing hotels, including expanding some 300-square-foot standard rooms into 1,000-square-foot suites with swim-up pool access. "We haven't built a regular hotel room in six years," Stewart adds.

"I think it's better to emphasize value," suggests John J. Issa, executive chairman of SuperClubs, the Jamaica-based operator of the Grand Lido, Breezes and Hedonism resorts. "We're all upgrading our linens and adding flat-screen TVs. But it's no longer homogenous. The term 'all-inclusive' covers so wide a cross-section."

So, how's a traveler to sort it all out?

As always, price is one signpost; less expensive typically means fewer frills. But beyond butlers, dining options and spas are other matters of style.

Differing approaches to fun

Family-oriented: Two decades ago, most all-inclusives were designed for couples. Then, Sandals launched the Beaches brand to capture the family market. SuperClubs has the infamous Hedonism resorts with an atmosphere that borders on X-rated, but also has family-oriented Breezes and Starfish hotels. Most Club Meds have shifted from their earlier free-wheeling incarnation to a family-friendly ambience, where parents can join their kids in circus and trapeze classes.

Kids may think they've died and gone to Disney World-by-the-beach later this month when the upscale Beaches unveils the expansion of its Turks and Caicos resort, with 600 new rooms and 16 restaurants. Its Pirate's Island Waterpark will grow to 10 times its original size, with nine waterslides and a surf simulator. There's even a separate youth spa menu with facials geared for complexions of teens and tweens.

Euro-style: Spanish-speaking destinations have long courted the European market. So it's no surprise that if you stay at one of the midpriced, Spanish-owned Barcelo properties in Mexico's Riviera Maya, you'll find a cacophony of languages, a breakfast buffet oriented to European tastes (lots of cold cuts and cheeses) and hundreds of lounge chairs lined up in the sand, a la the beaches of the Mediterranean.

Club Med -- with its French roots -- also tends to a more European style and crowd.

Boutique: If the quantity of restaurants and pools at some of these places does not spur a hunt for your passport, there are a number of smaller hotels such as the Aura Cozumel and East Winds Inn that focus on intimate settings.

In Jamaica, just a stone's throw from a giant Riu resort, 65-room Sunset at the Palms is one of the few in Negril that doesn't lie directly on the beach (though it has undeveloped beachfront land with a beach bar across the road). The hotel turns its drawback into an advantage, emphasizing its intimate environment among lush, tended gardens, away from the beach bustle. The resort consistently ranks at or near the top of Jamaican hotels recommended by Trip Advisor readers.

Still, the price may be right: The Riu chain often advertises off-season per-person rates below $100 a night.

Something for everyone: North of Playa del Carmen in Mexico's Riviera Maya, Iberostar offers almost 2,000 rooms scattered across a mini-city of five side-by-side hotels with shopping mall, spa, discos and a shuttle service between them. Prices and amenities are set at four levels, from the budget- and family-oriented Paraiso Del Mar and Paraiso Beach starting at $2,170 per week, double occupancy, to the adults-only, all-suite Grand Hotel Paraiso, priced from $4,872.

The third of a three-hotel Iberostar complex near Montego Bay, Jamaica, will be open by the end of this year.

Stealth options: Some hotels don't wear the all-inclusive badge on their sleeve. At Curtain Bluff in Antigua, "fully inclusive" includes more than almost any other hotel in the region: meals, drinks, waterskiing, diving and even deep-sea fishing. What you won't find are rah-rah theme nights and at dinner -- served in a single restaurant -- men are required to wear long pants (no jeans), a collared shirt and dress shoes. Rates start at $695 per room, plus 20 percent tax/service.

And then there are the traditional hotels getting in on the act. The dominance of all-inclusives in Jamaica prodded Ritz-Carlton to create a competitive deal. The Key to Paradise package for the fall season starts at $429 per room and includes three meals, drinks, tax and gratuities. For a true luxury hotel with room-only rack rates starting at $299 plus 21.25 percent tax/service, the package offers excellent value.