$$-wise: Showcasing the budget-wise options with big facilities is the Spanish Riu chain. Its resorts are eye-grabbing, and Riu calls all but one of its 23 Caribbean hotels ''luxury'' and ''five star.'' But pools and beaches can be crowded, and a la carte dining options limited. At the 400-room Riu Palace Riviera Maya, for instance, guests line up to snag reservations for one of 12 tables at the gourmet restaurant Krystal. 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 five hotels on its own mini-city with shopping mall, spa, discos and a shuttle service. Prices -- and amenities -- are set at four levels, from the budget- and family-oriented Paraiso Del Mar and Paraiso Beach starting in October at $2,088 per week, double occupancy, to the adults-only Grand Hotel Paraiso, priced from $4,718 per week, double occupancy.

'STEALTH' OPTIONS

Some hotels don't wear the all-inclusive badge on their sleeve. At Curtain Bluff in Antigua, ''fully inclusive'' -- a term not announced in neon letters -- includes more than almost any other hotel in the region: meals, drinks, waterskiing, diving and even deep sea fishing. What you won't find here is 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. Fall rates here 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 the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall to create a competitive deal: its Key to Paradise package including three meals, drinks, tax and gratuities, starting at $429 nightly in fall. For a true luxury hotel with rack rates starting at $299 plus 21.25 percent tax/service, the package is a good deal.

San Diego-based freelance writer David Swanson is a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler and writes the Affordable Caribbean column for Caribbean Travel & Life magazine.

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