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

Batch cook anything you cook on holiday so you don't have to cook as many meals. In the UK, you can get a supermarket shop delivered to where you're staying. In Europe, tend to do a Lidl shop where spices etc really aren't that expensive. Have been known to get stopped by airport security when a little jar of cinnamon or oregano shows up on the scanner but they're usually amused by it.

Boil a bag of jersey (or similar) potatoes on the first day. Then serve some with a salad and something (quiche, pork pie, etc) through the week.

We've only self catered in UK.
Evening meals:
Typically we make a Bolognese/ chicken curry / chilli in advance and take with us to have first it second night. If it's just the 4 of us usually we cook double portions of that kind of thing anyway to last 2 meals, so we'd save the second half and freeze it in the couple of weeks before the holiday and defrost in way there. We'd usually do a BBQ one night (or burgers / sausages in oven if no BBQ / bad weather.) Usually a pasta and ready made sauce with side salad (or broccoli for the kids as they don't do salad). Have also done fajitas from a kit before, or oven pizzas. I think one year I got those frozen jacket potatoes and we had with tuna or beans for a quick meal
I'll always insist on some eating out or takeaways though, so don't have to think of a full week's worth of meals.

I think last time we went over the week we had BBQ, Bolognese pre made, takeaway curry, fish and chips on beach, oven pizzas, one pub meal out and then pesto pasta with any leftover salad, veg, lunch meat etc on the last night.

Lunches will usually be sandwiches / rolls /wraps for a picnic out and about. Beans on toast for a change if back in the accomodation. Maybe a pasty or similar at some point.

Breakfast - mix of cereal toast, eggs and some treats like pastries, bacon rolls. Kids like a variety pack of cereal as a holiday tradition but that doesn't keep us going long!
. occasionally treat ourselves to breakfast out once in the week.

I make Bolognese meat sauce and freeze it, so all I have to do is boil the pasta there and defrost the sauce.
We do jacket potatoes too,
I also marinate chicken breasts and chicken drumsticks and freeze them beforehand and have it with chips or make chicken wraps/burgers.
Not much effort at all and it's much cheaper than take outs as we are family of 5 and get through a lot. So I take plenty of snacks and drinks. We only do this in the UK staycations, if we have a nearby supermarket then we only take our homemade frozen items with us and we buy the rest of the items from there to go with our meals ..

Freezer Food, things that are quick and easy after a day out;

Family Size Lasagna (ready meal) and a Garlic Baguette
Fish & Oven Chips, Peas (from freezer isle)
Pizza & Wedges (from the freezer isle), tinned sweetcorn
Indian or Chinese Takeway on one night
Curry, Rice & Naan (using boil in the bag rice and a jar sauce)

Dessert would be strawberries & cream, Cornetto Cones, Ice Lollies, Fresh Cream Cake

It’s not a holiday for me if I have to cook and clean up every night.

We're not self-catering to save money.

We go self-catering because with 3 teenage kids it's a lot more convenient having a three bedroom apartment than it is trying to book three hotel rooms. It gives us the freedom to do what we want, nobody's knocking on the door trying to clean, and we're not limited by hotel eating times. It's a lot more home from home vibe than a hotel which we like sometimes.

And I don't do self catering to save money. I like it!
Eating out doesn't come cheap these days so we don't do every day in the UK anymore.

Eat out once a day and then cold stuff and fresh bread.

If in UK and it's due to be bad weather I might cook. Sometimes the oven is shit though so it's a gamble.

Only a small bottle in the hold all the way to America 😂

In the UK I always make a giant Bolognese and freeze in 2 portions, we have spag bol one night and I make a lasagne another (v quick with Parmalat bechamel in a carton)

Then we will BBQ a couple of nights if the weather is good, otherwise roast chicken or leg of lamb with salad/veg etc. Everyone pitches in.

We will also go out one night usually and get fish and chips one night.

Depends - what we eat on ski trips is very different to what we would eat on a city break in Barcelona!

Ski trips we tend to eat out at lunch and get an early night in the evening, so filling meals like pasta, stir fries, chilli, curries. We cook “properly”, but never anything too complicated.

Anywhere hot, we tend to have mezze, or bread, cheese, olives etc, or maybe a salad. Very little cooking, just food prep. Probably get a takeaway pizza one night, or eat out.

We’ll self cater breakfast and then either lunch or tea most days
Lunch would be just some bits for sandwiches
tea will be very easy eg pizza or other stuff to put in the oven plus perhaps a salad. Would never cook properly

tbh just been on our first properly catered holiday which I’ve been putting off with one very fussy child and two vegetarians and tbh I’m sold. The food was lovely but I think we were lucky. I’d do my research properly but will be keener to book catered hotels in future (probably not in the UK though)

In the UK, we get a delivery of Cook ready meals before we go.
If abroad, I buy Simply Cook mixes and make accordingly.
We are (I think) unusual as we don't like eating out when on holiday. The thought of getting cleaned up to go back out after a day walking or visiting somewhere does not appeal. I just want my PJs on!

Or because the DCs are too small to take out to eat late (but too big to sleep in the buggy), or too conservative in their tastes to try highly variable restaurant menus (though mine are luckily now big enough to stay up late, and will eat burger and chips or spaghetti if nothing else appeals).

Main meal out each day.
Breakfast - fruit, croissants, chocolate cereal.
Other meal - bread, salad, cold meat, cheese, nice snacky bits. Icecream or sweet stuff from the bakery.
Basically, minimal preparation, cooking, or washing up!

BBQ/eat out, rinse and repeat.
Always bacon sandwiches for breakfast.

We always self cater to save money I will do a couple of meals in advance EG chili and rice which I will take frozen, then we will probably have a jar of chicken korma instead of making it fresh, sausages and mash, I usually make quite a few cakes to take as well. I do tend to stay in airbnbs now rather than camping which is a whole different self catering ball game

We are off for 2 weeks self-catering on the Costa del Sol this weekend. We will be eating out some nights. There are a couple of large supermarkets close by and who doesn't love a foreign supermarket?

On nights we are eating in, it will be quick and easy meals. Pizzas to shove in the oven. Ready cooked fish/chicken, bread and salad. Pasta and sauce. Barbeque.

I would imagine that most of us are self catering because we can't afford to eat out all the time, and the choice is either cook or don't go on holiday.

Reading this, I'm not surprised a lot of posters think holidays equal 'same shit, different place'. Although I used to take a pre prepped chicken curry camping and have that the first night. I've also done a pasta/mince/garlic bread combo on another night.

Yeah, DS2 has just aged out of the children's menu and it's devastating. (Especially in France, which has great formules enfants). His teenage brother has been eating more than me for some time 🙄.

Spent 4 days in an AirBnB in Rome while we were Interrailing. From the nearby supermarket I bought: pasta, flour, massive bag of peppers, eggs, bread, mozzarella and parmesan, tomatoes, cucumbers, tinned tomatoes and a small bottle of olive oil. From this we managed to make pasta with tomato and pepper sauce x2, tomato and pepper frittata with bruschetta on the side, and pancakes with tomato and pepper sauce with cheese and salad on the side. Plus breakfasts, and sandwiches for lunch.

I was pretty proud that the only things left over when we left were a small amount of olive oil, half a bag of flour, and some of those bloody peppers (it was a BIG bag).

Luckily we all really like tomatoes and peppers 😆

Filled pasta and a sauce (tin of sweetcorn to throw in too), garlic bread

A (nice) packet mash, tinned veg and some gravy granules to go with a pie or pasty bought whilst out & about

Probably pizza one night.

Beans on toast one evening usually if we've had a big lunch out.

No faff meals.

This is genius

Oh I feel your pain @Hedonism and @FurForksSake on the teens/preteens eating off the adult menu!
We went to Bella Italia at the weekend because they had a £5 pasta offer but then everyone wanted drinks and ice creams and it was just as expensive as full main meals and the (larger sized because they do two sizes) children's menu.

Because we're usually away for between 3 weeks and a couple of months and driving to where we're staying I take loads of ingredients to make simple meals and buy meat, fish and veg at the supermarket or market. In the UK I usually take some ready meals from Waitrose, M&S or Cook.
If we're flying and self catering it's mainly meat or fish with salads plus we'll eat out more.