Anyone disappointed by their holiday?

[Panic71]

Here now and really trying to throw myself into despite being really gutted by the hotel which is absolutely not worth the money we paid. Trying to just enjoy it but all the extras have come as a shock for what we expected and read to be all inclusive.
Turns out all inclusive doesn’t get you a sun bed either!

As @SilkenPilken says it's stretching annual leave out over 15/16 weeks of the year instead of 14 (13 weeks hols plus 5 Inset days). I imagine it could work well for families who have a SAHP or lots of help from grandparents, but it's never been an option for us. In those primary school years, even in the holidays we were tag teaming mostly to eke out the leave. A whole week off for both of us in term time would mean the kids doing an extra 2 full weeks of holiday clubs that year.

Yes, but because my eldest teen behaved atrociously. Various reasons. Including she has SN, unfortunately the holiday was immediately after seeing their dad. I had booked the holiday and then a month later he decided to take them away the week before I had booked. He knew when we were away. And normal teen issues on holiday with parents. Made for an unhappy time for all as she made our lives a misery.

The holiday accommodation and location, were great. So that was something. I was disappointed I came back more exhausted than before I went.

Ok! So I went to bed thinking it’s just me and woken up to realise I’m not alone, so thank you for your honestly!!
We normally do AI long haul but to be fair, we’ve had similar problems with food and large amounts of over crowding but not to this extent so maybe the comment about AI having had its day is right.
We are on the beach so going to try and use that more but not a single non motorist sport is included which is frustrating as normally at least those are. I’m not sure I can justify spending even more money supporting this holiday as the impact when home will annoy me more.
I’m so sorry @BiddyPop :(
@Hedonism can you claim on insurance?
@MmmmSausageRolls what a nightmare

it’s really left me feeling like as the kids are reaching those later teens and time with them on holiday is so precious, we need a plan for future holidays. They want to be busy and we want them happy so this sort of holiday isn’t happening again

I'm not having a disappointing holiday. But I'm on a self catering holiday in a luxury cottage on a Scottish island. Which would be some people's idea of hell. Tan coming on well though.

Grandchildren in a lodge on a site with a swimming pool, three minute walk to the beach. All the restaurants fully booked every day. They're having a ball no-one wants to come home. Only an hour from home. Completely stressless I'm told.

Yes and no. We do city breaks in apartments so we have a separate bedroom for the toddler (no cooking involved, we go out to eat) and I was disappointed with our choice of location this year. Despite researching it to death, Palermo was just not at all what I wanted for a holiday. The first apartment we stayed in was tiny and noisy with a curtain for a bedroom door (not made clear from the images or description) so we moved after 24 hours across the city to a much nicer apartment but it was unfortunately also much further away from everything we wanted to see.

Though it was a very up and down holiday (I think we pushed the toddler too had with some of the walking due to the new apartment location), the high points swung the balance in the end and we had a great time in Cefalu and San Vito lo Capo.

We've decided to avoid Italy for a while now and are looking into Greece or Austria for next September whilst also starting our savings pot for our next visit to Japan once toddler is old enough to do the 11 hour flight 😅

Currently in Cornwall....weather not great, everywhere is heaving..our cottage is shite and overpriced..I am exhausted and cannot wait to leave.

I've never done AI and threads like this remind me why. We rent a self-catering apartment / airbnb and book flights. We've just had a fantastic week in Galicia in Northern Spain at an Airbnb with a pool. Ate out a bit, dh barbecued a bit. Lovely local priduce for lunches. No sharing facilities or fighting over sunbeds, no below-par food, no noisy other people's kids.

Reading the small print is so important! When ai first became a thing it included nearly everything, now it seems to mean 3 buffet meals a day and unlimited cheap plonk, watered down lager or spirits so rough that they are only palatable with large amounts of soft drink in them.

That said it isn't everywhere, we had a choice of restaurants at the last resort we booked and this years holiday (not until November) has 6 restaurants included, and we paid the £50 surcharge for premium spirits, cocktails and fizz

We had this. The whole pool lounger thing is a nightmare.

Not going to do AI again (unless the USA or Mexico)

@inky1991.. Don't get anxious just book it all yourself!.. You don't have to pay 4. 5 for dodgy ai....

I’ve only been on one AI holiday and gated it, the queuing, people shuffling around in flip flops, trays of food being stacked up, people looking at food and putting it back. It just seemed so impersonal and it was a 5 star hotel, hotel was lovely but it wasn’t the same as looking at a menu. It had five restaurants but also found timings restricted and meant the day was planned around meal times.

Usually we go to Scotland but for the first time in a few years booked a studio in Greece this year, under a grand, breakfast included, flights inc top trip advisor reviews. Quiet island, not commercialised at all, can’t wait.

We also just did first holiday abroad ever with the kids. Booked flights and Airbnb. Ate out some nights, cooked easy meals others. It was wonderful. Super chilled although I am now really tired. We went to France so it was easy to get public transport and felt a bit more adventurous

@RoseBucket what is the studio? Sounds brilliant!

The only time I did AI was at a kinderhotel in Zell am See in Austria and it was incredible. Not cheap but the most beautiful food, lovely rooms, no arguments over sun loungers because people were mostly off doing one of the many amazing things to do in the area - visiting a glacier, cycling around the lake, walking Alpine meadows etc. Typical day there: beautiful breakfast, then the children usually went to the kids club and we had a cycle or hike or massage or dip in the adult only pool. Then fabulous lunch together and either went off to do one of the aforementioned activities or hung around the pool and had coffee and cake in the afternoon. Dinner was table service for adults and delicious. AI is not my kind of thing but this was really wonderful and pretty luxurious, the children even got mini fluffy robes. If you think outside the beach/pool box there are other options. The clintele was mostly German and Austrian and let me tell you, they wouldn't settle for the low standards some of you are describing.

Going on holiday on a credit card/borrowed money is bonkers.

We do AI because we have picky eaters and a limited budget. I'd cry if we went out for lunch / dinner every day paying €10 + for meals they'll not eat. I hate the idea of watching the pennies every time they ask for a juice or an ice cream. I also don't fancy cooking on holiday! We don't think of the AI restaurant as a restaurant - it's a canteen. The food is fine, but if you don't consider it a restaurant it's far more palatable.

Re flights, at the moment we're only going places with good flight times. Out 6-8am, back around 11.

Prices are undeniably staggering though. It's already £1000 more for a very similar place on the equivalent week next year than this year.

Only time i have done AI is on cruises, on them you have a great selection of restaurants aswell as a good buffet breakfast. Love them. Every other time is B+B only. We will find nice restaurants to eat when we there . I normally book everything myself however this year was a bit last minute. So i book through an online agency. I paid a deposit to secure my booking then paid it all in full a few weeks before we flew out. Italy, 4 star hotel with Breakfast for one week plus flights. We had to arrange our transport to the hotel, that's all. I was very impressed, i couldn't fault the hotel, it was in a superb location. Breakfast was good. It was right by the lake so good views, we have a nice room to with a balcony. There was a pool but always beds free when you went up. Hotel was a good location with many restaurants and bars within 5 min walk from hotel. I will definitely use them again for future hols

We did self catering in the canaries earlier in the year. Airbnb in a massive (ugly) apartment complex with it's own pool in a central part of the resort.

5 people (2 adults, 3 children) for approximately £3.5k including car hire (I think?). Plus eating out and food shopping on top of that.

Yes we had to shop, cook and clean a bit. But I would have to clean a bit on holiday anyway.

Gave us flexibility and an opportunity to see the island without being sent to a random place in between (AI tours seem to include a weird stop in a factory in addition to the main attraction).

It was a shame there weren't children to play with though but maybe later in the year there would have been.

For my final non-school holiday holiday we decided to cruise in May....We did a Costa cruise and it was awful. I felt so guilty as my parents and aunts came with us because we'd got a good deal. We like cruising and have been on several but will never go with Costa again.

Food mediocre and cold, the buffet is served to you so once you queue the food, that was tepid before, it is now really cold. In the main dinning room there are too many tables per waiters so it takes hours and you can't get a glass of wine! English speakers are very low in numbers and seem openly resented by some staff members and we got eye rolled and laughed at several times a day, perhaps our Scottish accents made it trickier but that is very much giving them the benefit of the doubt. The tours we book were cancelled because there weren't enough English speakers on board and so we had to take them in French and Dutch, which was slightly challenging. All the ports are in the middle of nowhere and require additional charges to transport you to the main area you think you're going to. It also rained every day.

Thankfully we did 4 days in Palma before picking up the cruise and even though the hotel was a cheap 3*, it was half board and the food was lovely. The pool was nice, 5 minutes to the beach and some evening entertainment...that was the highlight and was just meant to be an add on!

Next cruise is the Caribbean at Easter and really hoping for a better experience, if nothing else the weather should be an improvement (if there are no hurricanes!)

Never been disappointed. I don’t do all inclusive though. Never found them appealing.

Op we always just book flights and accomodation separately ourselves and haven't ever had a bad holiday.Always get a villa/apartment with a private pool or a hotel with a pool.Have done this with the kids for France numerous times(drive and book a gite with pool), Portugal (villa with shared pool near beach) Spain (Seville air bnb with pool) Greece (villa with pool short walk from beach) and currently in Thailand having been to 2 island hotels, 1 beach resort hotel, a hotel in a national park for trekking and ending in a Bangkok hotel.It has ALWAYS worked out cheaper than what I hear my friends pay and is either self catered/a mixture of both or we get to choose from many resturants so food is always great and as cheap or expensive as we choose.It's not been hard to arrange at all and we don't come away feeling ripped off.

@awmum2b we love Palma- we go to majorca most years and always have 3 days in Palma as part of it. We stay at the Protur Naisa which is easy to walk everywhere and very modern in design with a gorgeous rooftop area and pool. The Nakar also really nice.

@gawditswindy I understand your logic but when we had villas we had a fully stocked fridge and freezer with juices and ice cream etc- so if our son wanted that he had it at the villa- or we took cans out with us.

I guess it depends on what you get most out of a holiday- my H in particular loves picking different restaurants as part of it- so the idea of going to what often feels like a works canteen didn't appeal - I realise others very much see meals as not central to a holiday

I'm self catering in south Sardinia. I love my holiday except for the bloody hard mattress which means I can't sleep and that my diamond shoes are too tight.

I'm very fussy and research everything before I book but this has ticked every box bar the comfortable sleep box.