To wonder why people go on holiday to exotic places

[Cockwomble]

When they are the types who go all inclusive and never leave the resort.

Why not just go to whatever cheap place is sunny to eat pizza by the pool for ten days?

You haven't really been to cuba/mexico/egypt if you stayed inside a hotel complex and ate english food by the pool from the buffet have you?

I hate Egypt. Would only go cause the all inclusive's are dirt cheap and I wouldn't have to leave the resort.

And really, after a couple of trips to Cuba you've seen it all, so might as well enjoy the cheap resorts....

I'm quite confused at people chatting about these "cheap" resorts and such. Mexico is more expensive to go to than Spain isn't it? Or am I sadly out of touch? It's been a while since I went anywhere.

Where are these cheap havens, as if they are that cheap I may just have to go!

Depends if you can go last minute tbh, myself & dh have picked up some real bargains in the past-not done this since having kids though.....
We're looking at Egypt for the end of this year & it compares quite well in price to places such as Turkey, we will be looking to book pretty close to departure though to see if we can get it any cheaper.........

Sometimes all you want to do is relax. I am quite happy lying on a sunbed, reading a book, taking a dip in the pool every so often and watching DD play.

I don't always feel the need to take in any culture. Some people might just want a rest from work in the glorious sunshine. Exotic places like Egypt, Cuba, Jamacia etc are often cheaper than the Eurozone, and have a better guarantee of great weather.

We are going to Egypt this year. It's costing us just under £3K (for 3). For the same star rating, same facilities, Greece & Spain would have been £4K, Cyprus £4.5K

It's not the same just going to Spain. Not if you want an amazing hotel with great facilities right on a beautiful beach etc. And people often do wander out of the compound and do trips etc. Also folk often go in the winter time for a sun break, Europe and Spain just doesn't cut in winter.

Some of them say that they choose out of europe places for the currency. Although if it is AI it doesn't make big difference.

If they call it travelling and education for the dcs as opposite to holidays then YANBU.

I have a workmate who only does AI to Spain,Turkey etc and will only eat salad(even for breakfast) and strawberries because she is so afraid of local food. I have tried to point out that salad may be worth avoiding if worried re food poisoning!
She also won't leave the resorts and does not like to get " hassled" by locals.
Interestingly she wont go to Ireland either for fear of being blown up by a bomb!
I have done one AI holiday in Grenada but we were out and about and spent so much on meals etc did not feel it was cost effective.
Backpaker at heart too!

SO last minute is the way forward! Ermmmm 3k? For a holiday? I personally couldn't call that cheap, I am aware that context is everything however and for you that's probably cheap!

Are there no lovely hotels with nice beaches in Spain anymore? I actually have no idea, as I may have mentioned - I haven't been anywhere recently!

I think that's another reason why AI doesn't appeal - I like to be able to get out and try local restaurants etc, I'd feel I couldn't/shouldn't if I'd spent loads on an AI hotel.

For the very cheapest, it's certainly cheaper to stay in Europe (the plane taxes if nothing else are cheaper) but for more expensive facillities then the lower cost base of the "exotic" locations will often make it cheaper, mind you non AI in exotic locations are much cheaper again.

I stayed in a hostel 5minutes up the road from the AI which my sister was getting married in and the cost to go in and be a wedding guest for the day was more expensive than the total I spent every other day, and I wasn't particularly trying to live cheap (just have an aversion to AI's) and my beach was near deserted against theres which struggled for space. I had no pool, or free drinks etc. though, so it depends what you want.

I went on holiday to Kenya about 12 years ago and was unaware ( and naive ) about security etc. I assumed that it would be okay to wander around in Nairobi and see the local sights....no way. The hotel had lots of security and high walls and when we did go out we always had a private security with us in our vehicle ( a couple of years later a family friend was car jacked and shot dead) when we went on overnight trips to safari places or other places ( we were invited to an orphanage and a women's refuge) it was always in private transport. We got to see the sights but it felt really weird being cut off from the real place and travelling like diplomats and it actually made me feel a bit ashamed that such care was being taken to move us around so carefully in a country where there is so much poverty

If you compare something like this with something like this for not a vast difference in money, I know which I would prefer.....

I think as the above poster said, the answer lies in the distinction between holidays and travel.

I used to travel, lonely planet guide, local buses, finding hidden gems (along with every other lonely planet reader), or business trips or work related travel to 'interesting' countries.

Now I go on holiday I don't really want to walk around interesting places with a whining four year old, or get a lovely restaurant and have DD complain that she won't eat anything on the menu, or race around the restaurant. I want to lie down and think of nothing with a crap book. When she is older, we will go back to travelling a bit. But for now ...

Sorry - that didn't work. It was a pretty looking 4 star AI in Dominican republic for £730 each and a 3 star high rise AI in Majorca for £650 each - same week....

run I just got the first choice home page? Can you describe?

xpost

When faced with a choice like that tis a no brainer!

Regarding my comment of hotels on beaches. No generally it isn't he same in Spain. We go to a big hotel in Thailand (don't take the AI option though). Beautiful hotel in massive grounds, fantastic facilities and pools, walk barefoot a few yards from the pool onto a stunning beach, never crowded at all, local cheap restaurants on the beach only a few feet from the sea, so you can eat in your swimsuit and barefoot if you want while the kids swim and play on the beach, as an elephant walks by and stops to have a swim in the sea with the kids. Take a walk along the beach ans stop for a 5 quid an hour massage as the sun goes down. No bizz, no traffic, no drunken loud gobs and english breakfast signs.

I like Spain but it tends to be an OK hotel with OK facilities, to get to the beach you often have to pack up for the day, walk along streets, cross roads, the beaches can be mobbed with little do do on them. The food in many resorts is expensivish and bland. Chicken and chips, steak and chips, pasta etc.

And as said many folk pick the further away places for a winter break in the sun which you can't get in Europe.

Interesting. Do you need injections for thailand? Are there any scary bugs/pointy things?

Wow Hownoon, sounds amazing!!

I haven't been on holiday for what feels like decades. Will be going next year for the honeymoon, but have no idea where to go. Definitely do not want the Benidorm/Tenerife type holiday, more like beautiful scenery, blue seas, white sands etc, relaxing, on the beach type thing but also not too far from things to do once we have had a couple of days relaxing (in our room, of course :o )

Hownoob even. Stupid autocorrect!!

Hownoo - we have taken the children 3 times to Thailand and loooove it! We normally do villas with private pools though. Would certainly not be a place I would go AI as the local food is so good, fresh and varied as well as being cheap, and there are, as you say, so many options of lovely places to eat on the beach, or up in the rainforest/jungle, which you wouldn't get staying in an AI environment.

Cockwomble - no malaria where we went. Need Typhoid, Hep A and Diptheria I think....

I don't have any specific holiday type but like to try different things. At Easter I took my DC to Brazil, PAraguay and Argentina staying in hotels with breakfast and then had the rest of the day to explore. On other holidays we have gone to all inclusive complexes with a few day trips out. My favourite 2 holidays have been sightseeing in Cape Town with the children and on a Disney cruise around the med.
It doesn't bother me how people choose to spend their hard earned cash. I think most peoples holiday choices change at different points in their life.
I do agree with the others who have said for a beach holiday many long haul holidays destinations are hard to beat. I have yet to find the white sand and tropical feel in the med which we visit each summer.

where do you go hownoo?

haven't been to Thailand with kids so have only stayed in A frames before.

Hully - It's one of the Laguna hotels on Bang Tao Beach on Phuket. Been about five times with the kids. Really peaceful and not much going on at night which was fine as they kids were young and we only went for a few days to a week at a time. The kids club is fantastic, own little pool, playground, big clubhouse. They do cinema nights for the kids so the parents get a few hours to themselves. They also organise babysitters. The hotel elephant comes to breakfast for the kids to feed and get rides. It's very laid back and peaceful.