Apple Vacations
is a travel website specializing in vacation packages to over 40 beach and ski destinations, primarily in Mexico and the Caribbean, departing from over 200 cities in the U.S. While you are on your trip, Apple Resort Representatives will meet you at the airport and will greet you when you arrive at the resort to make sure that your vacation goes as planned.
APPLE VACATIONS REVIEW
The Apple Vacations website is fairly easy to navigate and has many options available to find the cheapest deals from your nearest departure city (see “Pricing” below). However, we couldn’t find a rate calendar, which would make it so much easier to find the best price around our preferred travel dates. We liked that many of the flights on the Apple Vacations website are non-stop from major cities, as they know this is what most customers want. The hotel reviews are all written by previous Apple Vacations customers, and this really helped us to weed out the bad apples (hotels).
What are Apple Vacations fees?
We found the Apple Vacations cancellation fees to be very steep. We cannot suggest enough that you obtain travel cancellation insurance prior to, or soon after, booking your vacation (we recommend SquareMouth.com). These fees charged by Apple Vacations are in addition to regular airline and hotel cancellation penalties:
- Cancellations between 44-31 days to departure = $125+ per person fee
- Cancellations 45 days or more to departure = $45+ per person fee
- If you cancel within the last 30 days prior to departure, you may be subject to 100% penalty (Translation = no refund for you)
- These fees are subject to change at any time and may be outdated.
Does Apple Vacations have good prices?
We really like the Apple Vacations All Inclusive Deals Page and also the Last Minute Deals page to find the best prices. You simply plug in your departure city and it quickly shows you to the cheapest Apple Vacations deals. To find the cheapest deals, sort the results by “Price”. We found the vacation deals for large groups to be especially awesome. If you are planning a wedding, family reunion or other group getaway for more than 20 people, Apple Vacations has great deals available. However, we found that booking the advertised promotions are not as easy as they should be, especially when you have a family. For instance, we found a promotion advertising “Two Kids Stay Free“, yet we were unable to get a quote for that hotel in which 2 kids were actually free. In fact, we found many family vacations that were ridiculously expensive. Taxes and fees in the amount of $1016 were added to one family vacation, and we did not see where it itemized these out for us. The Apple Vacations pricing is much more favorable when booking couples vacations for only two people. If you are booking a family vacation, we recommend Travelocity.
Apple Vacations has been in business for over 40 years and claims that over 70% of their customers are repeat customers. This tells us they are doing something right. Apple Vacations has also earned an impressive number of awards, including Travel Weekly’s Readers Choice: Best Tour Operator to Mexico (2004-2012), and they have sent more people to the Dominican Republic than any other travel agency. They are also on TravelSiteCritic.com’s Top 10 Travel Sites list, as rated by their customers. Apple Vacations has received some of the best customer reviews here at Travel Site Critic, and we found very few customer complaints online. If you have a problem with your reservation, Apple Vacations customer service can be reached at trips@applevacations.com, and be sure to leave a comment below for our readers.
Apple Vacations Deals and Coupon Codes:
Up to 60% Off All-Inclusive RIU Hotels & Resorts
Up to 50% Off Aruba Vacation Packages
Up to 40% Off All-Inclusive Secrets Resorts & Spas
Up to 60% Off Jamaica Vacation Packages
Up to 65% Off Cancun Vacations
What makes Apple Vacations good or unique?
Apple Vacations is the only travel agency that we know of with their own hotel rating system. Apple Vacations hotel ratings are given by Apple Vacations travelers who complete a survey after their trip. Each hotel and resort is given an Apple score, and quite simply the more Apples the better. The “Golden Apple” hotels are the cream of the crop, and are only given to hotels and resorts that earned exceptional ratings on the Apple Vacations traveler survey. If you see a little plus symbol (+) next to an Apple it means the hotel offers more services or amenities compared to other hotels with the same Apple rating.
Reviews Disclosure: Some of the links on this website are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase an item, I receive an affiliate commission. It doesn’t cost you more money & supports our work on this website. Thank you! Read our reviews disclosure for more info.
We have used Apple several times for booking Breezes Super Clubs Resorts In Jamaica. No problems or issues. Their prices were the cheapest when we booked. I would not hesititate to book with them again.
Apple Vacations website slow, errors, mismatched property photos, misleading low pricing. After calling 3 different times, on 3 different days, sales reps were always rude, condescending and disrespectful… if they act like that before you give them money, just imagine how nasty they’ll be after! Save yourself the aggrivation, you can get treated like dirt for free… give your money to someone who can give you respect.
Apple Vacations customer service, especially the core customer service is the worst I have encountered and I have traveled a lot. My trip I am to go on in three days, they call me and say.. we have no hotel… but one and it is a much lesser quality. I ask for anything but this one as I know it has no beach…. I save money for a year, book this vacation, then it is totally blown away and after talking to three people (this included manager of Core customer service) and approximately three hours on the phone, I had no one that felt any remorse… just pretty much take it or leave it lady!!! That is what I got from Apple Vacations. I will go back to my standby…travelocity, Funjet or American Vacations. Southwest vacations are nice too! I work in a customer service area in finance and was so surprised by the lack of service, empathy and actually got hung up on two times with no return call!!
Dude – If you couldn’t find a number on Apple’s website you have issues.
It’s prominently displayed in the upper right – immediately underneath their logo.
I have dealt with their customer service people numerous times and all they can to help you when it’s their product that caused the problem, but it sounds like your issue was with Delta. How is it Apple’s responsbility when you miss your connecting flight? Take some personal responsibility man. If you’re not going to be at a hotel – you call and let them know. It’s common sense.
This is why people need travel agents and to stop trying to be cheap and do things on their own on the web when they have no idea how to operate.
Our honeymoon to Aruba booked via Apple Vacations was a disaster. Delta had double-booked their plane and kicked us off the connecting flight in Atlanta. This was on a Saturday evening when our local travel agency was closed. Reservations had been made via Apple Vacations and I went through all of their printed materials, as well as their entire website. There was no phone number listed anywhere! So all I could do was to leave an email informing them of the delay and that we wouldn’t be able to make it to our destination that day.
Next day we arrive at the airport in Aruba greeted by the Apple Vacations rep who found out about the delay from Delta the day before. She takes us to the hotel and we are informed that our room has been booked since we were no-shows. They’d let us stay in the room for 24 hours but then we’d have to leave. The hotel manager was very unapologetic and it got clear that they were able to charge somebody extra for getting a last minute reservation in so they had no interest in dealing with us budget travelers. My wife was in tears, and while driving around looking for alternate hotels my wallet with a few $100 got stolen. Awesome!
The local Apple Vacations rep is able to find two alternate hotels- one that’s a star rating lower and one that’s at the same rating but slightly more expensive. I finally manage to have the local rep give me the Apple Vacations HQ phone number and tell them the story. Their answer: tough luck, you should have looked up the hotel phone number and talked to them directly. We might give you a discount if you go to the cheap hotel, but we won’t pay for your stay at the more expensive one.
After 40 minutes of long-distance debating where they would not budge I gave up and we checked into the cheap hotel. To make a long story short: the local Apple Vacations rep did a decent job but their customer support is non-existent.
Apple Vacations rocks! I have used them 3 times and never have any problems. I’m shopping for another deal on their site right now. I totally recommend them!
I agree that sometimes you can find cheaper deals, but in terms of value and service? Apple Vacations has it head and shoulders above others in Mexico and the Caribbean. I especially like that there are Apple Reps in all of the major hotels and if they’re not physically in the hotel you get a cell phone number so you have someone available in the resort if you have an issue. I love that they include free ground transportation with every package. Their website also has an 800 number with actual, educated human beings on the other end of the phone. If you have questions or need guidance on what hotel or package is best for you – they will walk you through the whole process without making you feel stupid or like you’re asking stupid questions. I frequently stay at the Grand Palladium resort in Riviera Maya and if you are an Apple Vacations customer, you get preferred rooms near the beach. Apple is definitely the big dog on the porch in the Cancun area. The last time I went (April 2010) I was at the Apple desk booking a zipline tour and the Apple rep went out of his way to help a Travelocity customer get the tour he booked when they messed up his reservation. The Apple guys are awesome!
I can honestly say that from beginning to end my family was taken care of like we were rock stars or something and I will NEVER book with anyone else!