Port St. Lucie Voco All-Inclusive Opens Jan 30

Published on Jan 15, 2026, 11:51 am CST

6 min read

Key points

IHG is taking bookings for voco Sandpiper All-Inclusive Resort in Port St. Lucie, Florida, with stays starting January 30, 2026
The 335-room resort is the former Club Med Sandpiper Bay and recently completed a reported $50 million renovation
Dining spans multiple venues and bars, with Executive Chef Mark Jones leading the food program
The resort is positioned for families, groups, and sports focused trips, with pools, a kids splash pad, and included paddling on the St. Lucie River
Travelers should plan ground transportation in advance because the resort does not offer a complimentary local shuttle

Impact

Where It Matters Most: Families, groups, and domestic leisure travelers looking for a drive to Florida all-inclusive have a new U.S. option on the Treasure Coast
Booking Timing: Early 2026 dates may price dynamically, so compare refundable versus prepaid rates, and watch for package promos tied to longer stays
Airport And Transfer Planning: Most visitors will connect via Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) and should plan rental cars or prebooked rides due to limited public transfer options
Points And Value Math: IHG One Rewards members can compare cash rates versus points redemptions, and confirm what is included before valuing the package
What To Do Now: Verify inclusions for your party size, lock airport transfers, and confirm cancellation terms before committing to nonrefundable deals

IHG Hotels and Resorts has opened reservations for voco Sandpiper All-Inclusive Resort in Port St. Lucie, Florida, positioning it as the company's first all-inclusive resort in the United States. Stays are now being sold for arrivals beginning January 30, 2026, at the former Club Med Sandpiper Bay site after a renovation reported at $50 million (USD). For travelers, the practical change is simple, a U.S. based, points bookable all-inclusive option has entered the market on Florida's Treasure Coast, and it comes with a resort layout built around pools, sports, and water access on the St. Lucie River.

The resort is being marketed as a 335-room property with redesigned rooms and suites, and accommodations positioned around resort and water views. IHG's resort pages emphasize private balconies or walkout patios as a common feature, which matters for travelers comparing family occupancy, quieter room locations, and easy outdoor access.

Food and beverage is a core part of the all-inclusive promise, and voco Sandpiper is leaning into variety rather than a single main restaurant model. IHG and travel trade coverage point to multiple dining concepts, including a buffet format venue and additional specialty outlets, plus several bars spread across pool and waterfront areas. Executive Chef Mark Jones leads the culinary program, and IHG highlights his Michelin-star kitchen background in its dining overview.

Who Is Affected

The travelers most directly affected are U.S. based vacationers who want an all-inclusive format without an international flight, passport timing, or cross-border medical and weather contingencies. Port St. Lucie sits in a drive market that can pull weekend and short-break demand from South Florida, Central Florida, and the Southeast, and IHG is explicitly positioning the resort for road trip style arrivals alongside fly-in guests.

Groups are a second obvious audience. The resort is advertising 18,000 square feet of meeting and event space, which puts it into contention for corporate offsites, youth sports travel, and association meetings that want a bundled food and activity format. That group demand does not just fill rooms, it also concentrates arrivals into tight waves, which can make transfer planning and check-in logistics more important on peak weekends.

There is also an airline and airport layer to this opening, even though it is not a disruption story. As more guests route through Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) for a Treasure Coast resort stay, late afternoon arrival banks, baggage claim dwell times, and rental car availability can become trip friction points on the same days large groups turn over. The second order ripple shows up in the local travel stack, rideshare pricing, car rental sellouts, and even limited hotel inventory on the night before check-in for travelers who arrive late or who prefer an airport buffer night.

What Travelers Should Do

Start by confirming what "all-inclusive" covers for your travel style, and what it does not. Use the resort's official inclusions, dining details, and activity descriptions to sanity check expectations for specialty dining, premium drinks, spa services, and powered water sports, then align that with your party size and daily schedule. If you are booking with points, confirm the rate rules and what is bundled so your points valuation is based on real out of pocket savings, not assumptions.

Decide early whether you should rebook, or wait for pricing to settle. If you need specific dates around school calendars, tournaments, or meetings, lock a refundable rate now and set a personal threshold to switch to a better deal later, for example if the same room type drops meaningfully, or if a promotion becomes available that you can apply without losing flexibility. If your dates are flexible, waiting can make sense because newly reopened properties often adjust pricing once true demand and operational cadence become clear.

Over the next 24 to 72 hours, monitor the practical logistics, not the hype. Check transfer options, because the resort states there is no complimentary local area shuttle, and the simplest plan for most parties will be a rental car or a prebooked ride. Also watch for small but important operational details such as restaurant hours, reservation requirements for specialty venues, and any phased reopening notes that sometimes accompany a newly refreshed resort.

Background

This opening is a conversion and repositioning play, not a brand new build, and that changes how travelers should interpret early reviews and early operations. A former Club Med all-inclusive campus is being folded into IHG's voco brand, which is designed for faster conversions and quicker market entry than a ground-up resort. In practice, that means the bones of the resort, its footprint, its sports oriented layout, and its waterfront setting were already aligned with an all-inclusive model, while the guest rooms, public spaces, and dining program are being updated to match voco's premium positioning and IHG's distribution and loyalty ecosystem.

The travel system ripple is mostly about distribution and demand shaping. Once a resort like this becomes bookable across a major hotel platform, including points, corporate travel tools, and packaging channels, it can pull demand from outside the traditional all-inclusive feeder markets. That can change seasonality patterns on the Treasure Coast, and it can shift how travelers route, which airports they use, and how far in advance they book ground transport. It also matters because voco's growth has been driven by conversions globally, and IHG has positioned voco as one of its fastest growing premium brands, which suggests this is a model they can repeat if the U.S. all-inclusive experiment performs.

For travelers, the key takeaway is that a domestic all-inclusive is no longer automatically a small, independent, or one-off product. Port St. Lucie voco all-inclusive pricing, policies, and on-property experience will be shaped by the tradeoffs of a large distribution engine, including more dynamic rates, more visible promotions, and more standardized terms that reward reading the fine print before you click purchase.