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?

@AngelsWithSilverWings - it’s not your style of catering I’m questioning - it’s the multiple posters who said they don’t cook on holiday or eat out every lunch and dinner, post after post claiming they just buy bread cheese and ham and then I said my kids don’t like ham and cheese sandwiches, they got upset at the idea ham cheese and bread on a plate is basically a ham and cheese sandwich meal. 🤷‍♀️

when we do self catering we have to cater, because my kids don’t really like sandwiches. So it’s less of a holiday if I’ve actually got to meal plan and cook or expensive if we eat out lunch and dinner daily.

(crap knives are my pet hate for self catering holidays. There should be a filter on AirBnB for “has regularly sharpened knives”.)

I like that AI buffets are boring and repetitive but eating bread, cheese, and ham every day for lunch is amazing!

@Bjorkdidit why does coffee taste sooo good in these situations?!? 😅

We'll return this summer to the same accommodation as last year, on a riverboat with a large sun deck. Every morning I made coffee with the Bialetti pot and just sat enjoying the river view in peace, waiting for DS to wake up... Absolute bliss!

I can almost taste my morning coffee now. I'm so excited about the small things. 🤤 😁

We did half board last year so buffet breakfast and buffet dinner. I didn't find it repetitive...I loved the variety and the fact I could have a little bit of everything. I don't understand the snobbery to be honest

😆. I can't imagine anything more boring than eating ham, cheese, and bread for lunch each day, unless I was completely penniless. It would take all the pleasure out of a holiday for me if we didn't go to a nice restaurant or bar for lunch each day.

TBF I eat far more bread and cheese for lunch in an AI holiday than I ever have in SC.

These are typical of the lunches we had on our recent holiday - we ate out for lunch and dinner.

Yes, but the way you're talking about ham, bread and cheese makes it sound like plastic ham, kraft cheese slices and sliced white, when it's far more likely to be comte, roquefort, reblochon, with terrine, rillettes, saucisson, a boule or a ficelle. Olives, pissaladiere, tapenade, tomato salad, endive, peaches, grapes, figs. Bread and cheese it may be - boring, it ain't.

But at the buffet, there's various breads, cheeses, cold meats, hams, olives etc amongst all the other stuff too.

We tend to self cater as one of my DC has a lot of food allergies so it just makes life easier. We do eat out sometimes as well, but it's nice not to have to quiz the staff about every meal. I rather enjoy shopping in other countries and trying new stuff but in hot countries we eat a lot of salads, fresh fruit and so on anyway so it's not exactly arduous. I don't spend hours slaving away over a hot stove. That said, one of my absolute non negotiables about self catering accommodation is that the kitchen must be at least as well equipped as mine at home, including a dishwasher. I don't mind cooking at least one meal a day on holiday but I'm not doing it in some piddly little kitchenette with 2 rings and a mini fridge.
I quite like a hotel holiday once in a while but find that I tend to overeat massively if I've already paid for a meal so it's not good to do too often.

Whereas AI resorts only serve Mother's Pride and cheddar.

Of course they don't but previous posts keep wittering on about 'ham, bread and cheese' as if it's mediocre, boring etc., when, in France and Italy particularly, they are the food of the gods. Different strokes.

I'd fucking love my AI holiday in August to have mothers pride bread! I'd come back a stone heavier and I've just got it off!

@FancyBiscuitsLevel Sorry, sandwiches are done with plasticy bread which doesn't taste of anything.

We never put a slice of bread on top of a slice of artisan, lovely french/spanish/german/whatever country bread I top with cured ham, salami or cheese.

Or I just put butter on a slice of proper bread and eat cubes of cheese (not a cheddar in sight) separately.

Also, just for the record, I prefer salami to cooked ham and eat cheese only if it is soft french one. I am happy with Parma or Iberico or Serrano ham though.

Unless I am back home in Germany, then the cold cut meat counter is open for business.

Definitely self catering for me. I’m particular about food quality. I don’t mind cooking, but I want it to be really good. A buffet just wouldn’t cut it for me, or even a limited choice of restaurants. That’s just not a holiday for me. I also don’t drink.

We always do self catering, with a few meals out. Dc6 and I are off to Spain next week. We’ll have pastries for breakfast. Whatever simple thing we find out and about for lunch (sandwich, fruit from the market, fresh juice) and then dinner at a restaurant or we have a picnic on the beach of shop bought meats, cheeses, olives, bread, etc and flan or something else sweet. Ultimately, it’s probably the same or cheaper than AI and I get to eat what I like.

We’ll have pastries for breakfast. Whatever simple thing we find out and about for lunch (sandwich, fruit from the market, fresh juice) and then dinner at a restaurant or we have a picnic on the beach of shop bought meats, cheeses, olives, bread, etc and flan or something else sweet

We went to Spain last year. Everything you've described here was available at our hotel buffet. There was a huge selection of pastries at breakfast time. Huge platters of fresh fruit. Every type of bread you can imagine. Cold cuts, cheeses...olives, every type of salad ingredient you could wish for. Amongst all the cooked food and desserts as well.

Nothing on this earth could persuade me to go on an AI package holiday.

But then I enjoy the challenge of a foreign country food shop and we always book a villa with dishwasher, washing machine and close to a village or town with restaurants. And my family don't leave it all up to me to do the catering part of self catering.

I love to buy food products on holiday. I brought back olives, tapenade and oregano from my holiday. If I had had more room in my case I would have bought olive oil. Oh, and a small bottle of ouzo.

Never seen the word "crusty" used on a thread so much. Just say bread 😂

PP: ohhh, we're total foodies and grimace at a ham and cheese sandwich...how provincial and common 😬
Also PP: we buy bread, cured meats and cheese and eat them in the same meal... Well, yes, they are the same three component parts of the ham and cheese sandwich of the plebs, yes.... But absolutely and completely different naturally!!!

Hilarious that people claim horror at cheese and ham sandwich and then go to great lengths to explain that they indeed but ham, cheese and bread for lunches, but it's very ever so muchly different to YOUR cheese and ham sandwich

😄 🤣🤣

Oh
.. so basically the food you'd find in an AI then ?

😂😂😂

"We don't eat common foods like ham and cheese sandwiches, goodness, we're not savages... we eat a completely different meal, consisting of bread, ham and cheese ... And it's much superior than the aforementioned... because instead of them being vertically adjacent, they're horizontally adjacent ... therefore completely different and much better... "

ITS STILL HAM CHEESE AND BREAD!

Stop being a foodie wanker.

😂 at the lengths posters are going to explain the posh bread and cheese they eat, has anyone mentioned a large salad yet