If you self cater on holidays - what sort of meals do you make?

Cooking multiple nights on a holiday isn’t really a holiday to me so we try to plan one meal of the day ’eating out’, so lunch or dinner, and then we just have bread, cheese, ham, other meats, salad, all that sort of stuff in that people can sort for themselves. Will happily do a barbecue if we have access, but neither DH or I want to cook proper meals.

If we are in the UK I might do a bit more but if we are abroad I am fully investing in the bread and cheese way of life.

I think that poster means cheap convenience foods. Rather than M&S microwave meal a Asda savers frozen 99p cottage pie I guess.

Sorry, what are you talking about??

I think a lot of people on here would be a lot more content if they slummed it (by their standards) and actually had a holiday and realise that health is 70% luck and they need to relax about food.

We used to get Simply Cook but found that the recipes were still quite involved, and it was hard to get options that the DCs would try (though they have improved in their tastes to maybe it's worth another try).

Exactly. I am happy to stay in a hotel as a couple but with kids/teens self-catering is so much better.
I dread to think how much we would spend on cold drinks/ice lollies/snacks otherwise.
As you say, it''s not so much about SAVING money, it's more about not wasting money, which I hate doing.
As I said upthread, cooking something easy then shoving everything in the dishwasher is massively more appealing to me than having to regroup and get ready to go back out after a tiring day.

Depending on where we're going and how we're getting there we often take a little box with herbs spices oils etc if we're driving there.

When we fly somewhere we just buy some or often the places we choose seem to have stuff like that. The last place we stayed in had a better stocked larder cupboard than I bother keeping at home.

I think it depends if we're abroad or home, but generally always go SC. More so because I don't want to be tied to that hotels food!
Abroad, we'll almost always eat in for breakfast. We'll have snacky things, sandwiches, salad. We might buy bit from the supermarjet like a cooked chicken etc. in the UK, we'll take some nice ready meals - M&S shop enroute. If it's a cold weather trip, perhaps take a slow cooker with a chilli or slow cooked beef in.

And for us it's partly because eating out every meal doesn't feel like particularly good value for money, when we don't necessarily want a full restaurant meal three times a day. And partly because we really enjoy getting into the food scene of the place we're in outside of restaurants and having the option and flexibility to wander round the markets/delis/supermarkets and pick up whatever takes our fancy that day (and that is relatively easy to prep.)

We tend to be pretty active during the day on holiday so it suits us to breakfast at home, eat out at lunch and then have a lighter meal in the evening in a more relaxed way back in the villa/cottage/apartment and play cards/a board game/watch a film.

For uk holidays we order a grocery delivery which usually includes

breakfast stuff plus drinks and snacks
pizzas and garlic bread for first night
bbq stuff (burgers, salmon, rolls, corn, coleslaw, I might bring ketchup, oil, mayo)
pasta & pesto with sausages / halloumi, salad and garlic bread
Ingredients for chilli with jacket potatoes & cheese
Then add a takeaway chippy or curry one night plus a pub meal out… , and that covers us for a week.

This is what we do - we’ll take some basics, it doesn’t take up much room. Not the full spice cupboard, but maybe 5-10 little pots? If it’s in the UK and we’re driving I’ll have a whole bag with bits and pieces, oil, a few condiments, silver foil, decent large baking tray / pot / knife in case the ones there are rubbish. Abroad we will likely plan a mix of eating out, and making food ourselves with ingredients bought from lovely markets. Will probably take some photos of recipes we’d like to try too. It’s a bit harder to manage than at home and sometimes we have to chuck something nice at the end - eg we’d bought some fish stock from fishmongers and there was unavoidably far more than we needed for the meal we were making, so it had to go down the sink which was a big shame. But worth it overall!

And, for everybody that orders using that link, you get a free box too.

All of which are substantially cheaper than eating out!

SimplyCook are on a mission to fight food boredom and are giving you a SimplyCook trial box for free!
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Per PP posh ready meals are our go to if not eating out. If somewhere hot might do a lot of salad and cheese/meats (esp in a villa with a pool - this just sort of fits). Then we’d buy a small bottle of good olive oil and wine or balsamic vinegar for the dressing. And meat to BBQ if one is available. But also we do love to cook so sometimes, if not abroad, will plan a special meal that we bring the extra ingredients for like spices.

I don't self cater for financial reasons, it's because I like it. I enjoy the flexibility, can eat in if I want or eat out if I prefer. There's no rush to breakfast in the morning. I can shop in local supermarkets and markets which I love. I don't really like hotels, the rooms are too small and confined, and it's too restrictive.

Not when they are chatting Hello Fresh boxes, Waitrose/M&S, fancy chickens. As well as the places they are staying in.

We normally do hotels
If we go self catering we eat out

No way we are cooking on holiday

We often take a cottage on the west coast of Scotland miles from anywhere. when I cook I usually make extra so the meals are in the freezer...eg chilli or a casserole so I take all these meals in a big freezer box along with all my other food and having made sure there's a freezer at the property I fill it up and we eat it all over the week. Works really well. There are just 2 of us though!

Easy stuff and I book a Tesco delivery for the first afternoon/evening for UK holidays. I check the kitchen set up beforehand, eg some places don’t have a freezer or just have a tiny freezer box, so I know not to order frozen stuff.

I’m with you OP. I enjoy cooking but I have no desire to do it on holiday. Otherwise it’s basically the same chores in a different location. And importantly, food is a big part of travelling to me. I want to eat the local food. So on the rare occasions we have been self catering abroad, breakfast tends to be cereals/yoghurt/toast (or pastries if there is a nearby cafe) and then we eat out for most meals. Though sometimes buy local cheese, salad and fruit if we want a light lunch. I would never stay somewhere that didn’t have several eateries nearby.

Edited to add - we know we are lucky to be able to do this, not just financially but because we only have one DD and she is a good eater and will try new things.

Pretty much the same stuff we eat at home.

chilli , spaghetti Bol, curry - just in a different kitchen!!

Self catered last month, hob only. Pasta/tortellini and nice premade sauces, steak/schnitzel and new pots, burgers and chips (pots fried in frying pan), all with lots of salad and nice dressing.

Same as this for us. We often s/c in France and got to the bakery every morning and get croissants and pains au chocolate for breakfast and baguette for lunch. Then we'll have cheese and salad with the baguette for lunch (minus the salad for DD). In the evenings, we make pasta and tomato sauce or pasta and pesto for DD, DH and I will have salad/ a takeaway/ grilled fish/ sometimes eat out but rarely as it is difficult with DD.

We recently had a week in Italy which was a bit better as most restaurants would make her pasta with just tomato sauce (solo pomodoro!) if we asked so we got a few meals out.