Holidays- villa or all inclusive?

[Seaseasea]

Hi, looking to book a holiday this summer (first time in a long time thanks to some luck!) wondered what people’s opinions were on villas vs all inclusive hotels?

We have two children who will be 1.5 and 5.5. I like the idea of a private villa so that we can chill once they’re in bed and would hire a car, but AI seems so easy?

Any advise would be really appreciated! Thank you

At that age I’d do a villa; my DD2 goes to bed at 7.30 and is a grump if she’s kept up plus I wouldn’t want to ruin her routine. Money allowing I’d probably aim to go out for lunch each day as a main meal or an early dinner so I didn’t have to cook much

Yes, eating out at lunchtime while you are out and about is a good way to do it. Often cheaper too, especially if you are in Spain with menu del dias.

If you have a big, late lunch, then simple food like bread, cheese, ham, olives, crisps, or ready made salad, prepared fruit, barbecue, or pizzas, or rotisserie chicken, with plenty of wine of course on the terrace in the evening is no effort at all. Just need to pop into the shop a couple of times on the way back to the villa. Treat foreign supermarkets as an adventure, not a chore.

We tend to do a biggish shop with all the above sort of food and lots of drinks on the first day, and then only tend to need to get more drinks and bread later in the week.

Only 'housework' required is keeping the kitchen usable and everyone old enough needs to do their share. If you're cleaning bathrooms, tidying or making beds, there's no need, really. Just spend all your time on the terrace and ignore any mess inside.

Most villas will have a dishwasher and often a mid week maid visit

You still have to load it and unload it, and clean up, and hotels have someone who does it for you after every meal and a maid service daily,,,often twice.

Villa holidays are simply the same shit in a different location.

Villa all the time. I love my privacy. A pool to myself.

Villa and takeaways each night.

Well if there’s a family in a villa there’s more than one person to load and unload a dishwasher, and a maid to clean kitchen, bathrooms and make beds. You don’t really need to do much at all

Whoever said a villa holiday is all shopping cooking and washing up is doing it wrong!

This ^. The kitchen is just somewhere to chill the wine. Zero cooking done by me on my holidays.

Ordinarily I'd say AI at those ages. My dd (now 3) loved the kids club and kids entertainment last year, she still regularly talks about it. She's not the fussiest of eaters but she's fickle and impatient so buffets work well for us (it annoys me paying for a meal that she refuses to eat plus the continental timings for meals and long waits for food is stressful with our dd) plus she can have food pretty much any time of the day which is also useful(!).

It is possible to get 1 bed apartments at AI hotels (sometimes listed as suites on tour operators websites) so it's not necessary to hide in the bathroom for bedtime then be banished to the balcony (although I quite enjoy sitting on the balcony once dd was in bed, one of us could pop down to the bar and bring up drinks). We also bring the laptop and watch films in the 'living room' when dd is asleep.

However, if you absolutely have to stick to a 7pm bedtime AI probably won't work for you as most dinner services won't start until 6.30pm at the earliest (and breakfast is often 8.30/9am) so you'd need to be eating dinner from the snack bar which is often burger and chip type meals which would be even more boring than a buffet.

Ultimately we go AI as I'm a sahm and it feels more like a holiday for me. Further, there's loads to entertain dd so we don't have to bring a load of toys with us and she will barely watch TV whilst on holiday. I think we'd be a bit more reliant on TV if we had a villa, but a villa seems more suitable for your family.

I think it's fine if you can maintain a discipline of the kitchen is just for wine, but for most, especially with kids that's not the reality, it's basically a self catering holiday, and it involves supermarket shops, providing at least one meal a day, even just breakfast, tidying up, loading and unloading dishwasher etc, tidying away laundry, hanging dirty towels up etc and many simply don't want that kind of busmans holiday.

Because it's always oh we will just have lunch in today, or dinner, and some fucker has to step up and do it.

All inclusive it's simply which restaurant will I eat in tonight and oh look clean towels twice a day and someone washed the dirty wine glasses and made the beds for me.

Each to their own, but as said, the reality is in a villa holiday few people manage to go out for three meals a day,

You may not go out for 3 meals a day, but you don’t cook cordon bleu either. Fresh bread, cheese, fruit, ham, yogurt, croissants for breakfast - the hardest part is getting the lid off the yogurt

We did villa holidays for about 20 years before we moved to the algarve permanently. For me, there’s nothing to compare to having your own space, a living room and however many bedrooms you need, no squashing on a sofa bed with nowhere to hang your clothes. Your own pool, with no fights over sun beds, or loud music or ‘bombing’ into the pool - and definitely no drudgery

Fresh bread, cheese, fruit, ham, yogurt, croissants for breakfast - the hardest part is getting the lid off the yogurt

Well no, for me, it's trudging round a supermarket, dragging rhe shopping back, laying it all out, washing and tidying up after. Unless it's a villa with a private chef and made who does that for you...

And you can easily get a family room at an all inclusive, that has a living area as well as bedrooms, and pick a resort that doesn't have loud music booming out,

For us it was a short walk to a local market, all part of the holiday experience and there were plenty of volunteers every morning, then stacking the dishwasher.

Horses for courses, but personally I’d rather support local businesses and restaurants rather than big hotel chains.

Villa in my opinion, can buy food you know your kids like, eat at times that suit you.

Private pool is a HUGE bonus, you won't get splashed by other peoples kids, it's easier keeping your own safe with less around! Won't have to move seats/loungers if someone sits down & starts smoking

We went self catering in an apartment last year & loved the apartment but are booking a villa next year for the private pool.

We bought pizzas, pasta, chips, rice, peas, sweetcorn, eggs, cheese etc from the local supermarket & really enjoyed it.

We also ate out a fair bit which was lovely.

The AI where we went didn't serve evening meals until 6.30pm & my youngest (6ys) would have really struggled with that. He was often asleep by 7.30pm as we were full on swimming/walking/exploring & all slept well.

Villa every time. Space, privacy, private pool. We've never cooked, not once. We eat out in the evening, pastries and fruit for breakfast and cheese, salad and cold meat for lunch. Perfection.

Oh and Italian supermarkets are amazing. A whole experience all on its own.

We've never cooked, not once. We eat out in the evening, pastries and fruit for breakfast and cheese, salad and cold meat for lunch

But you still have to shop for that.
You still have to get out plates and cutlery
... which still have to be washed and put away

For me, it depends on how long I'm going away and how much I need that holiday!

If it's only a week, and it's for total relaxation, give me a hotel any day. Preferably one where someone brings me a drink by the pool and I don't even have to get off my arse to go to the bar!

I'm with you Biwi, having been round Italian or any other supermarkets, I've no desire to do it on holiday with kids in tow then carry my shopping back to the villa, along with heavy bottles of water and wine etc, unpack it all and then have to serve it up and clean up after it, twice a day for however long, for three or four people.

I don't even like supermarket shopping in the uk, I use ocado, I'm damned if I'm doing it on holiday.

Give me a sun lounger, a beautiful blue lagoon, and a bloke in chino shorts offering to clean my sunglasses and bringing me a cocktail any day of the week.😁

Just to add we all really enjoyed shopping in a spanish supermarket - treated it like a little adventure!

Kids got to see all sorts of different produce & the fresh fruit & veg was beautiful - had to stop myself taking photos of it

Kids chose treats - biscuits, ice cream, crisps etc & it was surprisingly cheap.

Thanks everyone! Although everytime I think my minds made up I see a post for the other option and think ‘ah yes good point’ so I might just have to flip a coin, haha!

This is a daft question but how do you all book a villa?
Is it at the travel agent the same as AI or do you use a company that does villa holidays then flights separate?
We’ve done our 1st AI holiday last year and would love to try a villa one but want to get a good deal

There are lots of villa companies - villa plus, james villas, affinity villas - you can book as a package or villa only - or go to the listing sites like HomeAway, trip advisor, simply owners and book flights separately

We usually use Home Away for villas.

I don't have any issues with schlepping to the supermarket, if it's just us, we go as a family, we've got a car, we're not buying that much anyway. When we go with friends, all the blokes go and do the big shops, they live with I forward to it.

But it's completely horses for courses - I don't want to sit on a sun lounger for long, and I definitely don't want to be surrounded by strangers. I want to have my own bedroom (and often the kids each have their own room too), as well as a separate living area. And none of us are massive eaters, AI just isn't on my radar.

@Bluntness, seductive as your holiday sounds, it's a million miles away from most people's AI experience.

I've never done any trudging or lugging apart from at the airport.

Last place we stayed had restaurants, a shop, a shop, a take away, an ice cream parlour and a bakery minutes walking distance.
Water wine and beer as well as some pastries, bread, milk, butter, crisps etc were pre-ordered and there in the fridge on arrival.
We've always been lucky with nearby restaurants that are happy to bring food to the villa and take away the dishes.
Shops are usually happy to deliver for a couple of quid.
Last holiday the sum of my effort was walking over the road to the bakery after an early morning swim buying pastries and their delicious iced coffee to bring back to the villa to eat around the pool.
There might have been a plate or two to clear but if that's the pay off for not sharing my space with anyone else I'll clear the plate.

Last summer I convinced DH to do an AI with our 2 & 4 year olds. He wasn't keen as doesn't like being with lots of other people. I found quite a small resort - no high rise apartments! - just one pool and a short walk to the beach.

It was great, and DH conceded we'd done the right thing. It was so nice to not have to cook or clean or shop. The buffet had something for the kids every day and they loved being able to pick, and have pudding every day!

They both stayed up late ish. We started dinner when the buffet opened at 7pm, finished dinner by 8pm and then they played in a small playground whilst DH and I had a drink until 9pm. We then went back to the apartment where I happily went to bed and read and DH watched football on the telly. As the kids went to bed late and had been swimming all day they slept till 9am.

Not saying you have to have that routine, but I never thought the kids would be able to either stay up that late or sleep in that late! All bets are off on holiday it would seem. 😁

It was definitely a bit 'Brits abroad' holiday, but it was also more relaxing than a villa would have been.