NUEVO VALLARTA, Mexico -- Decisions can be tough to make at Marival Resort & Suites: margarita or martini, steak or calamari, tennis or climbing wall?

All without pulling a peso from your pocket.

Marival is a giant all-inclusive resort, a sort of dryland cruise ship where you pay one upfront fee for lodging, food, drink and entertainment. For a vacation abroad with four children, this is the only way to go.

An Internet search introduced our family to the concept of all-inclusive resorts -- a concept at which I initially turned up my nose. But a look at the Web sites of some of these resorts quickly changed my mind.

Without knowing anything about the place, we settled on Marival, a sprawling 495-room Mediterranean-themed resort on the hotel-lined beach in Nuevo Vallarta, just north of Mexico's famed vacation magnet of Puerto Vallarta. It was advertised as family-friendly.

Booking a room was easy. We were also warned to make our dinner reservations at the same time, to make sure we could get into the better restaurants.

A resort shuttle picked us up at the airport, and we gazed at the Bay of Banderas as we drove along the palm-lined highway to the resort.

The place was gorgeous, open and airy. We had two rooms, which were small but functional, overlooking the lighted tennis courts (we play tennis as a family and courts were mandatory).

We immediately rushed down to the beach, well-stocked with chairs and umbrellas.

Our 10-year-old preferred the huge swimming pools, which were warm and had swim-up bars. I began sampling tropical drinks, and we all got too much sun as we splashed in the warm bay.

Marival has four formal restaurants -- serving Italian, Mexican, steak and "international" cuisine. To get into these places you need reservations, and it is too late to reserve them once you get there. They also ask that you dress up a bit. Otherwise there is a huge buffet restaurant, and snack bars scattered throughout the grounds.

The first night we ate at the international place, located outside in a center courtyard. The service and food were good, and you could order anything off the menu and anything you wanted to drink. There was no bill at the end.

Afterward, we walked on the beach, took in the evening song-and-dance show put on by the hotel, and went to bed.

We settled into a routine of taking breakfast and lunch in the huge buffet restaurant -- which had a mixture of the common items you might find in a casino buffet -- plus a few exotic items common to Mexico. Our 12-year old became enamored of Zucharitas (sugar-frosted flakes), which he liked to pronounce.

The second day it was tennis in morning, before the real heat began, and then plenty of time swimming and boogie-boarding in the ocean.

We shared Marival with a lot of Americans, including what seemed to be entire classes of California high schoolers on their senior trip. Kids also filled the resort's disco, Cesar, which didn't open until 11 each night and featured mobs of kids dancing to rap music.

Here's the thing about these giant resorts: You can't be turned off by the sight of your fellow Americans lining up for food and booze all day long. If being in the company of sunburnt salesmen wearing Tommy Bahama shirts and sandals, book a backcountry hike in Patagonia.

For me, the place was perfect. The kids didn't have to constantly beg for money; they could snack whenever they wanted.

There was a gym, game room, numerous recreational facilities, kids' programs, cooking classes. We never ran out of stuff to do, even with kids who were 20, 17, 12 and 10.

Our family was so overdue for a vacation that we barely left the resort the five days we were there.

One day we booked an excursion into the jungle around Puerto Vallarta for a morning of riding zip lines high up in the tree canopy. For someone who fears heights, it was quite a bit of fun. On the way back, we had the bus drop us in downtown PV (as we seasoned travelers call it), where we hit the tourist shops along the river.

The resort also had a deal with a local golf course and you could go out each morning to hit on a driving range and have a group lesson with a pro, without extra cost.

I realize that a stay at an all-inclusive might sound dreadful to many travelers. But being able to turn the children loose on the resort grounds and know they would be entertained and fed was a joy. Not having to fight over where to eat each night was a gift. And free-flowing booze has its attractions as well.

IF YOU GO

Marival Grand & Club Suites is an all-inclusive resort in Nuevo Vallarta, near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Rates vary by season, room, number in party, and travel provider. Typical rate per night for two, booked online for the springtime, starts at $304, including unlimited food and drink and access to most activities and facilities. www.gomarival.com; (011-52-322) 226-8200.