To share my self catering experience in Spain

[TooHotAndHumid]

Just finished a brilliant two week self catering holiday in mainland Spain with dh and out two dc 15 & 18. Due to budget constraints and a teen with disabilities we ate in the apartment. We had a car and did a big shop in Lidl when we arrived and just topped up with bits and bobs as we needed.
We spent 350 Euro in total.

For breakfast we had a mix of toast / Cereal / croissants / fruit.

Lunches were pasta salads/ sandwiches/ hot dogs/ frittata / hummus / leftovers from the day before!

Main meals were
Spag bol x 2
Chilli x 2
Burger and chips x 2
Pizza & salad x 2
Stir fried pork with rice
Tandoori chicken, rice & salad
BBQ pork with wedges and salad x 2
Chicken kebabs with flatbreads and coleslaw x 2

Pizza and burgers from Lidl were excellent. I took some seasoning mixes and herbs from home, the ones that come with a bag to cook in the oven are great, cuts down the washing up! Chilli con carne and bolognese I made once and froze half to have again the next week.

We had lots of ice cream in the freezer, loads of soft drinks, beer, wine and gin! The fresh fruit was lovely too.

Hope this helps anyone planning on doing their own cooking on holiday.

I've got two little kids and we much prefer self-catering too.
So glad you had a great holiday

I did a self catering a little while ago and I wouldn't do it again for a long time. With kids, I am just going to stick to AI. We have young dc, one a baby so that meant carting a whole lot of stuff, then doing a big shop and then doing basically everything else you do at home. Dh and I just felt it's not worth it. I don't want to be cleaning and cooking.

That sounds lovely op!!! You know what, this is what it’s all about. Having fun and not wasting money. I love batch cooking but what a great idea on holiday to do this with the chilli.

@Notmineagain Each to their own, hotels don't work for us.
I stick to simple meals and keep it as easy as possible, everyone pitches in to help.

When we went to centre parcs (cheaper week) I brought my own food (some of it nicer than you would have mid week at home eg steak)

i took it frozen so when we arrived at 11 am we headed straight for the pool and just got milk in the mini market. The only evening we are out in the Italian it was nearly 80 quid to listen to crying babies

Too much meat!!

For what?

Too much judgement!!

Did you not want to try any Spanish food at all?

Yes we like self catering too. Our meals go like:

Breakfast: Yoghurt, fruit and granola, or a bagel/Danish pastry (depending on where we are).

Lunch: Pack-up sandwiches and boiled eggs to be eaten in as scenic a location as possible. Or if in USA, an occasional American Diner breakfast that does as lunch because of the jet lag

Teas:
Supermarket rotisserie chicken with salad, corn and baked potato
Pizza with salad, humous and carrots
Pasta bake with supermarket jar of pasta sauce and remains of the chicken
Veggie burger and chips
Barbecue, if we have one
Leftovers from all above with baked sweet potato and roasted veg
Repeat

I guess it wouldn’t suit everyone but it works for us. (As long as the dishwasher works, which frequently requires intervention, but that’s another thread…)

I do like a half board arrangement too though. Different type of holiday.

God sometimes the most innocuous threads attract such twatty comments, I despair.

It sounds nice. Not everyone hates cooking, even on holiday. Lots don’t have the money to eat out all the time. Some people like to eat meat at mealtimes. Is it so hard to comprehend?

Sounds lovely OP. Glad you all had a fab time.
But be prepared for the arseholes to pick it apart on here … some already have! 🙄

I'm the cook in the family (dh does all the cleaning and kids too small) so we have just come back from an all inclusive holiday. I could see self catering would be great in the future but for the moment it's a holiday for me from the other 350 days of meal planning and chopping!

We prefer self catering ad well, I enjoy cooking, plus we are a nightmare allergy wise we can’t have dairy, nuts, kiwi or strawberries, so eating out safely can be a challenge.

If you mean eating out in restaurants then no as due to disabilities that it's an option that suits us as a family.
If you mean enjoying lovely fresh fruit, salads, olive oil, salami, cheese, ham etc thats exactly what we did.

Glad you had a nice time OP! Different holidays suit different people!

Personally I like a mix of cooking and eating out on holiday. I cook every day at home, so it’s a treat to not have to do it constantly. But then with little kids it’s so much easier and cheaper to self cater.

Sounds similar to what we do when SC abroad, although do 50/50 eat out / eat at the Villa.

Keep it simple, don’t cook anything with too many processes and top up with local wine! Yours meals sound lovely to me!

Me and Dh are going on a weeks all inclusive holiday later in the year when our dc has respite for a week.
That will be a very different sort of holiday!

I've never not self catered. Supermarkets abroad are my favourite part of the holiday!

What’s the AIBU?

AIBU to go self catering? … not if it suits you, I wouldn’t do it, when I go on holiday I want someone else to do the cooking and cleaning

AIBU to go to Spain, and not cook anything Spanish ? … not if that’s what you want to do, but for me, if I were going I would probably give a Paella or Patatas Bravas a go

AIBU to think people need tips on how to cook abroad? maybe, most of us cook at home everyday anyway

AIBU to want to tell people I has a great holiday? Not at all, AIBU may not be the best place …we all know it’s a bit of a nest of vipers.

We always go self catering but also eat out quite a lot as our DCs are luckily very easy to feed.

I love foreign supermarkets, I find it part of the fun of the holiday trying new snacks and bread products, and the seafood in Spain is amazing.

When we stayed in Valencia we'd buy an enormous amount of cooked prawns from the supermarket fish stall and then we'd all happily eat them on the balcony with some nice bread.

Watching my 5 year old peel massive prawns and suck out the brain juice was delightful!

I'm really glad you enjoyed your holiday and that you did what works for your family. I don't think AI would work for us either.

Sorry op didn't mean to make you think there's anything wrong with it. I'm glad you had a holiday that suited your family. For me maybe having younger kids, one a baby I would prefer all the work being done for me. Also food wise, I find kids just want to eat something picky/ small and filling and want to run off so faffing about cooking everyday for just dh and I. I also prefer getting up and being out without having to clean and tidy or do dishes etc. dh is very hands on but it usually means one of us is cleaning or cooking while the other is bathing kids, feeding them or some other chore. I find AI soo much easier for this reason.

We love self-catering but with 4 young children we just end up eating the same as we do at home and it's difficult to try local foods/dishes when they want something different. We stick to AI or go out for every meal so we can get variety and don't have to wash up...

Glad you enjoyed Spain though!

I always go for villa or apartment depending on size of party
We sort breakfast and lunches ourselves and it’s good to have drinks ice cream and snacks handy
However we do eat out some evenings as that’s a big part of my holiday enjoyment - other nights might be barbecue, takeaway or something simple like a paella with local seafood