Day 1 of holiday. Hell.

This is something that individual governments need to deal with, with the owners of the properties that are being let out. Every holiday let I’ve stayed in during recent years has been owned by a local. And in fact in Croatia and Italy the owners have been living onsite/next door, having repurposed part of their property as a separate apartment or villas on their smallholding.

Holiday makers staying in a self catering let are also generally more likely to be spending in the local community, as opposed to the someone who never leaves their AI hotel which is a global organisation.

I think you’re already there so enjoy it. We’re not an all inclusive family, we did it once and made the most of it but it’s not really our place. That was a 5 star with restaurant though.

Instead, we did a family holiday to Italy this year and much preferred it.

@Pregnancyquestion I honestly don’t care but I like to keep travel classy not trashy which is why I don’t mix with that crowd …. It’s nice they all stay in the same compounds/ hotel 😀

Go to a high end, more expensive, all inclusive. They exist, we went to one in Greece, fabulous location, food, pools, beach. Cost an arm and a leg, but it was truly fabulous. We took the view we'd rather have one decent holiday every couple of years rather than a rubbish one annually - so maybe we wouldn't be your kind of people either?

Why on earth would you care enough to make a judgement on the type of holiday someone likes?

No one is right or wrong - it’s just a matter of taste and if you aren’t at the level of getting individual a la cartes and good wine or paying Ikos money ( people roll it off the tongue as if everyone has £12k plus to spend on holidays) then it’s not snobbish to admit it’s not for you . I’ve done it twice, first time was a flash looking hotel , lovely pools etc, supposedly 5 star ( but it was Egypt) - we all got incredibly ill , their were individual restaurants but you could only book 2 a week and the main dining hall had the ambience of school dinners, complete with food on the floor and feral kids running around and clearly watered down drinks - truly awful and a big well respected chain too

2nd one - much nicer, calmer, lots more Europeans, less Brits, food a bit samey but not bad , - this was Majorca

I wouldn’t pick it again ( as it was I went with our son on my own so picked it for having other kids around etc) but it was ok -

Snap! We went to 5 star in Cape Verde in Oct 2017 & loved it so much we booked to return in May 18. It was my DC first AI & they were gobsmacked at the luxury. It was a bit of a come down when we went to a 3 star in Lanzarote the following year!

You are not being a snob!
im a snob because I literally judge anyone who goes AL or on a cruise.

Been to AI a few times. The 5 star luxury in Mexico was amazing & not comparable to the budget family friendly 3 star places in the Canaries/Med.
With kids AI made for an easier more relaxed holiday, I found. My DH is disabled & everything fell to me so AI was more of a break than the many SC holidays we’ve had. But if you want luxury you really need to pay for it whether it’s a SC villa or a high end AI.

What was your budget may I ask?

Upscale people don't do AI at all IME. It's usually villas in beautiful quiet places.

The choice of location is absolutely key too.

I've had a lovely half board holiday in Greece, and very classy stays in Spain too.

If I go to Spain I go where the Spaniards go and likewise if I go to Portugal / France etc. Much much nicer experience.

5* all inclusive is the way to go.
We haven't done all-inclusive since about 2018, but went to the same 5* place in Cape Verde two years in a row, we liked it that much.
Unfortunately, the only way to skim off the peasants is to pay more. And while that is no guarantee of success, it helps.

It’s quite possible that OP grew up with luxury but now can no longer afford it. Downward social mobility is rife in the middle classes due to career choice and stagnant wages. I think a good lesson is to learn to make the most of things, whatever they are. I don’t know what the weather is like in England right now, but surely it’s nicer in Greece? Enjoy being out and about in shorts and flip flops and able to have a cocktail or two on the balcony on a weeknight - I’m sure you’ll miss that when you’re back home.

Nothing snobbish about liking self catering. You don't have to drink to be able to benefit from an AI package. Provided you choose carefully you can get a cost benefit from it, as you can easily spend a lot on lunch every day plus some soft drinks or ice creams by the pool, and that's before you have any drinks with evening meals. But when I've had AI I've mainly liked the convenience of it.

5 star all inclusive is lovely. You’ve probably picked a bad place

Maybe other people there feel the same? Wouldn't we all like absolute luxury but just can't afford it?

I have limited experience with all inclusive but from what I experienced wasn't a huge fan. Not necessarily because I wanted more luxury but just prefer to be left to my own devices and have an experience that feels more individual. I don't like being in crowded places, I find them noisy and unpleasant so would prefer a quiet villa somewhere. If you get annoyed by other people I wouldn't go in an AI. At the end of the day, you are sharing the hotel with other people. When you book an air b and b you can have the whole apartment to yourself.

You're not chained to your hotel bed. Just go out explore and have some local food, avoiding tourist places. That's what I do. I'd just suck up the extra cost. I've never earned more than £24k and manage to have perfectly nice holidays just by being savvy at where I spent my cash 🤷🏻‍♀️ pay big for experiences yes, say no to overpriced tourist traps where everyone is English.

I'm not a snob, but I expect reasonable behaviour from those around me whatever their nationality. Which is why I stick to nature based places rather than cities or resorts because people = noise and drama in my experience.

You sound like such a dickhead. “They wouldn’t be as comfortable in luxury as me”. Given you can’t afford it, why do you presume this?

@Crushed23 But the only difference is the attitude of the guest surely? I suppose there'll have been people staying at our honeymoon hotel who didn't leave the resort between arriving in and leaving the country, but we didn't see much of them as we weren't there much. Likewise the OP has free will to leave her holiday resort if she wants to, given she isn't 'the type' to enjoy it, despite having booked it, twice.

Even if you've spent every last penny on the package and can't afford a sandwich and a can of Fanta Limon out and about for lunch, you can go out and explore on foot between breakfast and lunch and then again between lunch and dinner.

There’s a big difference between booking AI because that’s the only option in order to stay in the hotel you want to stay in, and you just do what you normally do - eat out every day, explore the local food scene and night life, leave the hotel during the day and travel around an area etc. - and the kind of big AI resorts where the whole point is to have everything on site and paid for upfront so you have every meal and drink there, stay in for the evening entertainment, and spend most of your time around the pool, as does everyone else who booked the resort. As others have said, the latter is in no way a holiday to me. I’d rather slum it in a hostel on a city break than do that kind of trip. But each to their own, of course.

Stay at home. Pot noodle. Sorted.

If the food arrangements are ruining your holiday, you need to concentrate on other things. No nice places to visit, good books to read.....You'd be better off going to a small hotel Italy and eating out. You dont sound like you have much initiative.

I don't understand why anyone would want to go all inclusive in Greece given that the local tavernas are so good. Personally I would rather avoid other people all together and book a villa. I didn't see any British people at all the last time we went to Greece other than at the airport.

I'd have to disagree.. p&o have dress codes and formal nights, it's full of drunken riff raff in cheap suits thinking their something special. Disney have no dress codes and it's the most relaxed cruise ever, don't think I ever saw a drunk person onboard

True. The Cornish hate second home owners because of this and I do appreciate locals being pissed off about it.

However, I believe in capitalism and think people have the right to do what they wish with their own property.

Personally, I'd rather stay home than have to share my space with other people, so holiday rentals it is.