All inclusive holidays vs self catering

[musingonhol]

Which would be your choice?

Love the convenience of AI but can see why some hate it… especially at buffet time! I often think self catering must be peaceful but paying all that money to come away and have to do a food shop and wash up?!

Is there a compromise?

Depends
If Europe we go SC and if long haul we usually go AI (although we had a great sc holiday in Barbados pre kids)

Self catering. I've tried AI when the kids were young but I didn't like it at all. Self catering doesn't mean eating in. We have breakfast of cereal and toast or bakery at the holiday home, and then we eat out for lunch and dinner.

Resorts can be because they bring lots of tourists to the area to spend money locally. AI doesn't do that. Several people in this thread claim they go AI then eat at local restaurants every night but the stats show most people going AI spend very little outside the hotel. In some locations tourists are told it isn't safe to leave the resort at all.

They do offer employment, though often seasonal (leaving most locals with no income for several months of the year) and poorly paid. It's also typically very hard work.

AI is also terrible from an environmental perspective, which affects local people.

Self catering every time for us unless there is a Parador or speciality hotel we want to try. We often do road trips, staying in different places every few nights then often a long stay at the end. We like the freedom S/C gives us, multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, lounge, often outside space and a private pool. We can choose to dine out as little or as often as we wish. Dishwasher and w/machine are musts for stays more than a couple of nights.
Did AI in the Caribbean with DC which was fine but wouldn't do it again. Years ago would stay in one resort hotel on half board and spend most time around the pool, that's not for us anymore.

I’d stay at home rather than do self catering! I’ve done AI, bed and breakfast and full board. On the couple of occasions when no food has been included, we’ve always stayed in hotels and just eaten out for every meal. We want to relax, not be worrying about cooking and cleaning. It’s part of the cost of the holiday!

Self catering doesn't necessarily mean cooking and cleaning though. When we "self cater" we just eat out. The best of both worlds is an aparthotel where breakfast is included.

Just because you stay in an apartment doesn't mean you have to cook and clean 🤔 We book them for the extra space and eat out for every meal bar breakfast instead.

We have done both and tend to alternate. There and pros and cons to both all inclusive and self catering.

If we just want a completely relaxing break, we tend to book an all inclusive. It is very easy with children and often when we've priced it up, it more than pays for itself even if we also eat out a few times for variety which we tend to do as I get bored continually eating in the same place.

Self catering is more flexible but can be a faff. We do that option often but will make sure we price in meals out, takeaways etc and then eat very simply in the accommodation e.g. cereal, cheese on toast etc. After one self catering holiday with extended family where we spent the entire time it seemed cooking and washing up for multiple people I vowed never again!

I've found even the most expensive AI resorts to be a bit too full on and noisy for me. I find buffets stressful and it's often tricky to get reservations at the a la carte restaurants.

Last year I went half board and found that was great. We would grab snacks at the beach or pool bar for lunch or even just from the supermarket and have a nice dinner from a special half board menu each evening. It was handy as it was just me and DD15 but if going with the whole family I'd rather go out and try different restaurants each evening.

My favourite is self catering though. We buy pastries and stuff for a continental breakfast on the terrace or balcony of our accommodation . We then either go out for lunch or dinner depending on what we are doing and keep salad , cheeses and tapas style food to have with fresh bread in the fridge for when we eat meals in the apartment or villa.

I find self catering to be the most relaxing type of holiday.

What I’m getting from this thread is that self catering works best if your family is happy with ham and/or cheese sandwiches every day for lunch.

I think this is why I hate self catering, mine don’t really like sandwiches. It’s not just “pick up a bit of bread and some local cheeses and cooked meats”. I’ve actually got to cater, or spend a fortune and get them dressed from the pool back out to a restaurant for lunch.

I have a fav AI that we have stayed in 18 times! we have stayed AI on this island over 40 times total , and I can say that , as a busy mom/wife/restaurant owner (retired last year) I LOVE AI. The one that we love has a choice of 5 alacarte restaurants with no children allowed, or you can venture to the other sections and there is 12 more restaurants to choose from. We are actually booking for 3 nights in Feb as our daughter is coming with a group for her husband's 40th birthday, kid free to our fav resort! So excited that I get a couple nights off cooking and cleaning whoo hooo. Have not been on a night away since we moved here (except for Canada trips, but that is all cooking and cleaning at our kids houses lol)

You see I don't even want to pop to a shop for breakfast bits...that's a chore for me. I want to go down to a breakfast buffet and be presented with every type of food imaginable which I don't have to cook or clear up after.

We do self catering. We eat out either lunch or dinner every day. The other meal is simple stuff from the local shop or a barbeque if one is provided.

I don't like all inclusive much as it feels a bit like school dinners. It's also not great for the local economy in most cases.

I quite like SC and having the option to make something simple or eat something nice like bread ham and cheese on a balcony and also to be able to have something basic in for breakfast without having to get dressed and traipse off to a buffet or restaurant.

DH prefers a hotel....

Did AI but we don't drink . The buffet was awful ..always a bun fight.. and very unhygienic.
People touching food with their hands.
Eating as they were going round.
Putting things on their plate.. sering something different so putting it back.
Kids grabbing chips with dirty hands .
We get a villa or apartment I'm quiet complex.
I hate listening to self indulgent music round the pool.
We always hire a car to explore.. so nipping into a supermarket is easy.
We do eat out.
Always make sure there is a dishwasher/ washing machine.
We are not restricted to when we want to eat.

We always have a SC villa as a family and with additional families too.
Mostly eat out but will get stuff in for breakfasts if anyone wants it. No one tends to bother though, we will have a lazy start to the day and then head out for lunch somewhere. Same for dinner.
When dh and I have had a week away together we go for the most luxury AI we can afford and even then will go out for dinners and lunches elsewhere and treat the hotel as a base.
We keep the SC villas tidy in the same way we would a hotel room, it’s hardly an arduous task to pick up as you go along.
Just prefer the flexibility of SC with a family and more importantly the peace, our own pool, no sunbed wars, no dealing with other people! Just pleasing ourselves.

I have never booked or been on an AI holiday in my life. I don’t see the appeal… why fly across the world just to sit in a resort when you could be eating out in local restaurants, exploring, and enjoying/learning about the place you’re visiting… for a lot less money! We self cater a lot and love it. We just go out to eat whenever we don’t feel like cooking and washing up. I second aparthotels, they are the best of both worlds on this front for nights when you don’t want to cook but also don’t want to go anywhere.

If you really don’t want to self cater, why not book a nice hotel with breakfast included and try to get a room with access to a good club lounge (for drinks and snacks or a light lunch during the day). Then you can eat out for the big meal of the day and not have to think about food for the other meals.

Self catering, breakfast and lunch easy to get loads of picky bits and fun to explore local shops and markets for food and eat out for evening meals or have the odd bbq. Have never done AI but don’t like the idea of having to eat in the same place all the time or buffets with loads of different people helping themselves/touching the food.

I prefer AI as I hate shopping for food,
cooking and cleaning up after cooking
on holiday. I want someone else to
cook for me. We tend to do to
the bigger AI resorts where there is lots of choice and also snack bars near the pools.
We do have the odd meals out here and there but usually find the hotel food better, weirdly!

Interesting thread. Summary of comments:

Self Catering = more ethical, sustainable tourism, flexible, more private, more expensive

All Inclusive = mass/over-tourism, bad for local economy, more rigid, communal, cheaper

It'd be interesting to ask the locals what they'd prefer to offer tourists: AI or SC - I imagine they'd overwhelmingly ask for the latter esp as most big resorts are rarely locally or even nationally owned, so the profits don't go back into the local community.

https://www.muchbetteradventures.com/magazine/tourism-equity-crisis-leakage/

We're going AI this year, I haven't done it in about 14 years, but I am really looking forward to it because life has been crazy the past few years, and I am simplicity. Normally I am an explorer and I'm a proper foodie but this year my head can't take it, I just need to relax and not worry about where we are eating, who is eating what, can we afford it. It's sorted. I've chosen carefully, read a lot of reviews on various sites and am happy with my choice - they also pride themselves on local food and cuisine and the hotel manager is a local.

When taking the kids (3 and 6) always AI for convenience. When just me and DH self catering always - I love having the option of numerous restaurants to eat out as opposed to limited to a resort.

It'd be interesting to ask the locals what they'd prefer to offer tourists: AI or SC - I imagine they'd overwhelmingly ask for the latter esp as most big resorts are rarely locally or even nationally owned, so the profits don't go back into the local community.

A lot of AI's are literally bang in the middle of nowhere, they are often out of resort and not always in walking distance of shops/restaurants which I guess is why they work so well.

We don’t do cheap AI though, food needs to be good. Have done half board with breakfast and lunch provided, that was a good compromise of eating out in the evenings but not having to cater during the day.

We do a mixture. I’d hate AI during school holidays and have only ever done them at times with very few kids around, but they are nice for an easy break.

I like s/c but eat out once a day at least if there are only a few of us. The rest are just simple breakfasts and another simple meal including, bread, cheese, ham, olives, oils and balsamic vinegar, perhaps boiled eggs or tuna for a change.

If there is a big group of us, then we’ll eat in the villa all the time. It’s more sociable than sitting at big tables in restaurants not being able to shout across to people at the far side of the table. We have a variety of simple or one pot meals for our main meal in our repertoire and serve with pasta/rice, bread and salad. These are stuff like spaghetti Bol, sausage or chicken casserole. Taking it in turns cooking makes it less onerous.