People drinking alcohol all day long on all-inclusive

[CeRaVie]

I am watching people in our adults only hotel drinking cocktails all day long. By 10 am, the pool bar is pool. There is never any trouble, they sleep it off and get back on beers, sparky wine and cocktails. Then they have drinks before dinner, wine with dinner and cocktails at the main bars.

I am a little jealous as they seem to have a great time, laughing and socialising while more than one drink will keep me awake and sweating all night and tired all day, so I save myself for one beverage before dinner.

No big point to this post, other than marvel at our differences in alcohol tolerance. All mixed ages, people my age mid forties drink as much as anyone else.

Did anyone say it had to?

<looks around>

But there’s probably a reason pretty much everyone civilisation discovered and used alcohol at some point.

I couldn’t care less how much or how little other people are drinking, not my place to judge, as long as these people aren’t falling about drunk or causing a commotion then everything is fine. What others do on holiday is none of my business unless they are out of control causing a problem for me

personally I wouldn’t have a drink in the morning and would usually wait until 4/5pm before having a drink but everyone is different.

We are seasoned AI holidayers, mainly for ease, but also because of the type of holidays we like to take and the places we like to go.

This year we have gone outside our comfort zone and had a couple of B&B holidays in mainland Spain. Well, bloody hell, the cost of meals, DH's beers and my few cocktails has meant that we have gone back to AI for our summer break! We were easily spending £150 a day, and that's just ridiculous.

We found a place that offered B&B, half board and AI as options. To upgrade from B&B to AI for 7 nights cost less than £500 for the both of us. No brainer really. We'll still go out in the evenings, and wander the town during the day, but the majority of our eating and drinking will take place in the hotel.

DH is a big drinker, and on holiday will start at 10am. I'm more of an evening drinker (although wont say no to a mojito or two in the afternoon!) He's not loud and lairy and the biggest annoyance will be his monumental snoring, which bothers no-one but me!

More and more places serve low- and no-alcohol beers, wines and cocktails/mocktails. (It’s the only way I survive bottomless brunch!) Do you know for sure that their drinks are alcoholic?

Not everyone who drinks on holiday is an alcoholic. In fact most will be far from, you can’t just people on your own actions.

Five drinks a day is knocking them back all day.

I used to worry I was drinking too much when I used to be able to put away half a bottle of wine in an evening. Needn’t have worried as then perimenopause hit, and now just one alcoholic drink brings me out in reflux, hives, hot flushes, insomnia and a migraine. God I wish I could sit by the pool boozing all day.

Never was able to day drink though even in my twenties - hated the sick woozy feeling afterwards and don’t know how people manage it!

I was recently at my first AI in Ikos.
I don’t drink cocktails, and during the day would maybe have a glass of wine with lunch, and a couple of glasses in the evening.
No one seemed to be taking too much advantage of the free alcohol, but for sure other people got their moneys worth more than me!

Fucking hell, the Temperance Movement is alive and well and posting on Mumsnet 😂

I just can’t imagine drinking in the morning or knocking back several cocktails a day but we are all different. I think people who go for A1 aren’t much interested in seeing the sights or the culture they’re in , it’s more about just the hotel. I have never been A1 but for those who are in the hotels we have been in seem not to leave the hotel really. Why go to another country just to lie around in a hotel drinking all day?

I think people who go for A1 aren’t much interested in seeing the sights or the culture they’re in , it’s more about just the hotel. I have never been A1

So you've never been, but have a lot of opinions about the people who do? Sounds fair.

I’ve been in a hotel that offers A1but we weren’t there on that basis. I was surprised at so many people who didn’t go anywhere . Just stayed in the hotel drinking.

I might be able to answer this one :-)
So when H retires we have said x3 holidays a year, he has said I can have two of the holidays to have a "full itinerary" and the small, one week holiday he wants to go somewhere and relax, do nothing, well nothing that involves an itinerary.

So perhaps some of the people doing nothing but staying in the hotel, by the pool, reading and seemingly doing nothing to engage with the culture are on the one week out of 3 holiday that H & I will be on in the not too distant future.
(Obviously I am secretly thinking he will be bored after a couple of days and might fancy a close walk to at least find a new restaurant) well shall see. But the deal is one week, by a pool, doing nothing, the other two (longer) holidays I can march him around and make him learn new languages and oh all sorts.
Seems like a fair deal to me.

For people in very busy stressful jobs, or with very busy stressful home lives, a 'fly and flop' holiday may be exactly what they need. AI is perfect for this. Better weather than UK, food and drinks (alcoholic and otherwise) on tap and no cooking, cleaning, or decision making to worry about. And if you have children who need to be kept busy - places with water parks, kids clubs, sports and entertainment are a godsend! For many years these are exactly the type of holidays that I needed - working 12-14 hour days, shifts and duty periods (and war!) meant that for 2 weeks a year all I wanted to do was...nothing!

AI doesn't mean you are tied to the hotel. It just means that when you are in the hotel, everything is covered. We still go out, still take day trips, boat trips, sightseeing etc, but we also spend days doing nothing but reading by the pool.

Indeed, there is nothing wrong with a "fly and flop" holiday. We had one of those for a week in Fuerteventura in autumn. We did very little. It was not our only break of the year.

People who are judgey of those who go AI - not A1 - are coming at the situation with their confirmation bias. They have the opinion that people who opt to pay all inclusive are there to get pissed or just eat all day, and never leave the hotel. So they see people drinking and eating at odd hours and that is all they notice. They don't know that there are other AI guests who are off walking along the coastal path, or at the local museum, visiting markets, snorkelling etc etc etc.

Not everyone who goes AI never leaves the hotel, many just want the convenience of being able to have what they want when they want it, without having to carry euros in cash, or being hit with a big bill at the end of the stay for all the extra Fanta limon and agua con gas.

There is a very weird, very snobbish attitude about the people who choose to "fly and flop".

I agree! That’s a massive amount to drink everyday

I prefer to socialise by having only one or two drinks. The rest of the evening I ask for low alcohol or no alcohol alternatives
No one even notices I'm not drinking alcohol.

How do you do it without falling asleep?
I'd love to be able to drink cocktails but I'd be hammered after one. I stick to beer on the grounds that you get full before you fall over. I once had a Pina colada in an AI hotel, I wouldn't know if they used branded spirits or watered it down but it was delicious. I could barely see straight by the time I finished it.

I don’t really get drunk from cocktails. I do drink lots of water too.

I don’t touch wine though, half a glass and I can feel it!

Me too. Im not a huge drinker but I’m definitely a cocktail in the departure lounge / start as you mean to go on kind of gal on holiday. Somehow I rarely end up feeling “drunk” on holiday though? If I drank like that at home I’m sure I’d be shitfaced. I’ve always assumed AI alcohol is somehow diluted!

Thank you. I didn't go to Ayia Napa in the mid 90s and am not about to start that sort of nonsense now, especially with my 16 yo son!

We never go AI as I don't drink and DH doesn't drink much so its not worth it. I don't know how ppl do it! One cocktail and that would be me done for the day!

I’m going for the no food prep, pools, someone cleaning our room, all travel organised. Never been before and it wasn’t the free flowing alcohol that was a deciding factor. It’s just me and my 16 yo son who’s finishing his GCSEs. There’s a gym. He’s too young to drink and I don’t drink much.

It sounds hideous. I did AI once years ago, and it was a godsend with kids. I preferred it to the elegant villa with pool I’d had the previous holiday, with plenty of work for me. I didn’t notice excessive drinking, but maybe it was because children were allowed? I don’t know.

It amazes me that people can drink during the day, especially in the heat. A couple of glasses of wine in the evening, or as a nightcap, maybe, but at one or two in the afternoon in blazing hot sunshine! God, I’d feel sick. I’d get a headache and my mood would drop through the floor.

I would nominate alcohol as the single most overrated thing in the world. As drugs go, it’s rubbish. I have never understood the obsession. It’s a depressant for god sake.