AIBU to think there should be some all inclusive city breaks out there?

[NinjaInFluffyPJs]

We are not beach resort people but we REALLY enjoy city breaks.
But we always end up overspending on dinners and drinks because we have no proper self control on holidays🙈

Do any of you know of any all inclusive city breaks? Like the ones in beach resorts, but in or VERY near to big and interesting cities? I can't seem to find any and it's kicking my googling abilty self esteem down.

I dream of holidays when days are spent exploring nice cities and evening is in a nice hotel bar and restaurant which is included in the price. So does my bank account...

A big part of city breaks for us is the joy of trying new restaurants or sitting outside in marketplace eateries watching the world go by. All inclusive hotels would mean people would only eat in the hotel. Seems to defeat the object.

Not really an all-inclusive model though, where people spend most of their time in the resorts and only go out for quick excursions. City breaks are a different thing where 99% of travellers want B&B at the hotel only. I suppose you could book in half board if you wanted to.

This is one of the oddest concepts I have ever heard. You seriously want to eat all your meals and spend all your evenings in a resort eating dodgy buffet food and probably watching some shit ‘entertainment ‘ whilst Paris, London or Rome are out there?

Sorry but YABU. Just budget a bit better.

Maybe re-think the way you eat? When we do citybreaks we hardly do a large lunch. We find a supermarket for picnic food and find a bench somewhere.

Or get something small from a street vendor/bakery/deli.

I was with DD in Amsterdam in May and we hardly spent more than €15-20/lunch for both of us incl. drinks. Especially as we had a lovely breakfast buffet.

Eating out in the evening, strolling around the city late is one of the best things in a city break.

I'm sorry, but I agree with the others. Book a hotel on dinner and board of you must, but it hardly seems like a good use of your break.

I travel a lot for work, and use Trip Advisor to find places to eat. I wander around and when hungry look at the app for places near me, pick one, and give it a go. I am more often than not happy. You can filter by cost.

Enjoy your next trip!!!!

I can understand this. It's often very expensive to eat out in Europe particularly with the poor exchange rate at the moment. Cans of drink at 3 euros and meals at 12-15 euros each (and which my fussy but endlessly hungry ds often turns his nose up at!). Plus snacks. Plus who wants to either self cater or find supermarkets on holiday (unless it's those wonderful french hyper markets of course).

Unfortunately I don't know of any places like this either - maybe the Mark Warner resorts but they are £££.

terrible concept

Just get an airbnb or I don’t know...budget properly?

Plenty of city hotels offer full board, or dinner, bed and breakfast. YABU.

I get you OP!

I actually would like a hotel that included breakfast, and a lunchbox every day. Not full board, but allowing you to just get out and go without faffing over food.

We love exploring food on holiday, but as a result, we overdo it in annoying ways, usually either by:

• finding breakfast somewhere, but then lingering a bit too long to go see the things we want.
• wanting a quick lunch but then disagreeing over what and ending up having a sit down meal - again, losing sightseeing time!

Breakfast and a packed lunch would leave us free to sit at whatever bar we chose without having to agree about food, and leave dining for the evening.

By the way - Generator hostels are quite funky, have private rooms, and do supply breakfasts and packed lunches! Then the early evening drinks are on the cheaper side.

@thecatsthecats

"I actually would like a hotel that included breakfast, and a lunchbox every day. Not full board, but allowing you to just get out and go without faffing over food."

Loadd offer this, you just have to ask

I know it sounds wierd🙈
We really enjoy lunches out, something nice and local and spend all days exploring.
But then in the evening when we are shattered we end up having dinner and few drinks and that seems to tip it over the budget.
It's bit infuriating how easily we slip because we are normally good budget people and in my case actually bit stingy😂

I would forego lunches so we can go explore and taste local food (love streetfood types). Then in the evening when we are shattered from the exploring, just move to hotel and chill in nice bar. Having 1 or 2 days just chilling by the pool with a coctail in hand wouldn't go amiss either. Kind of a mix of best of both but with my wallet firmly locked in a room in the evening IYKWIM.

Half board but with drinks included? Does that exist? If we both have 3 local beers in town in the evening it straight away easily adds 30-40 quid when out🙄 And we like to have few when we put our feet up in the end of the day.

It's often very expensive to eat out in Europe particularly with the poor exchange rate at the moment. Cans of drink at 3 euros and meals at 12-15 euros each (and which my fussy but endlessly hungry ds often turns his nose up at!). Plus snacks.

Exactly that. I still can't get over how much average stuff in Paris costs🙄

@NinjaInFluffyPJs
we go to Amsterdam a lot due to my partners job. The suppermarkets do such amazing deli food...chocolate hummus anyone?

My suggestion would be to get an air bnb with a kitchen. do breakfast 'at home', snack in the afternoon and eat out for dinner.

Personally we tend to eat out a lot when abroad, food is a major part of the experience. I tend to have a big brunch and a nice dinner. Keeps costs down only eating twice and I'm not sacrificing the experience.
I do find it's all the 'snacking' people do that empties your purse. bottles of water here, ice creams there. Take a refillable bottle with you. most places in Europe you can drink the tap water...or buy the gallon bottles and just refill

I'd hate any type of board on a city break; I can't imagine they'd be easy to find. Most people like to explore and spend time away from the hotel - even breakfast sales are going down overall on city breaks (I get weird reports for work!)

Are you budgeting enough for the break? Could you go to cheaper cities, or drop down a level in restaurants so everything is a bit cheaper? Or maybe just take cash out with you?

I love city breaks with DP, we explore all day and then have a few drinks and dinner somewhere, but we generally don't have too much of an issue with budgets. DP plans it better than me, but we make sure we've got £X amount for lunches, and £X amount for dinners, and then general spends which cover alcohol and gifts etc.

You could always start organising your holidays so that you spend a night or two in the hotel, but I think you'll struggle to find a city hotel that includes alcohol in the price, that's usually more of a resort thing.

There aren't many hotels I've stayed in that I'd want to eat every meal in. Much of the experience is trying different foods and meeting the locals. But we do set a generous budget for food and drink, so it's not an issue. Best breakfast we ever had was sat in a NYC hotel overlooking the Hudson river. Cost over $100 but was worth every single cent for the experience.

I Iove eating out on holiday.

I spend ages looking at Trip Advisor reviews of restaurants before we go.

you could try Vegas, not sure if its the type of city your looking for , my MIL went on a break few years back with her sisters all pensioners so limited spending money, where they had a hotel package that included buffet am, that went onto 12 so they usually had a brunch, and an evening meal from one of 4 restaurants with 2 drinks included, and then other drinks were free if you were in the casino or shows.

or how about a mini med cruise where you do food drink on board and day trips to various cities?

You don't have to spend ££££ for dinner in a major city though. We're off to Madrid shortly, we're not staying in a really touristy area, more a residential area a few metro stops out. There are loads of local restuarants round about, and a supermarket across the road from the apartment.

We'll be eating out most nights, either tapas or a meal somewhere local. If you stick to the main tourist drags of course it's going to be expensive!

Yes, get an apartment so you can prepare food, eat out probably once a day and keep some snacks in. If you get one centrally located, it's likely to have lots of bars and restaurants virtually on the doorstep, so almost the 'hotel bar' experience, but probably less expensive.

Most cities are over-run with nice restaurants, cheap restaurants and other places to eat (street food stalls, sandwich shops, small supermarkets, takeaways, McDonalds, etc etc) that you'd never want to eat in the same place all the time.

AI in a city would either be so expensive it wouldn't be worth doing, or low quality buffet food and unbranded drinks so they don't get bankrupted by the waste and people going overboard because 'they've paid for it'.

Find a hotel that does a terrific breakfast. Eat a terrific breakfast. Skip lunch. Enjoy dinner in the city of your choice.
If you’re worried about spending too much on booze, buy a bottle of your favourites to enjoy back at the hotel.

Yes, some hotels do offer packed lunches, but I have actually never been to one that listed it in the hotel room guide of a standard hotel. Perhaps I'm assuming it's not there, but it would be a fairly obvious thing to list under services, no?

In fact, I've only ever seen it offered in AI hotels!

Ideally, it would be part of the booking process, like breakfast, then you could pick it up on your way out each day.

Re cooking at the apartment...
"I am on holidays so not going to cook and clean dishes. I could do that at home for free"
My DH every holidays
😂

I absolutely get what you are all saying. The experience is great.
Even when you get ripped off😂 Like buying local cheese at the market and then seeing EXACTLY the same one in Spar for half the price (looking at you Pisa...) . Life lessons.
We really enjoyed it all so far.
It's just a shame that it's either all inclusive holiday resort or city, essentially. I would love a week of combination of both.

I think a cruise would work well for you - not cheap though! You get to see a few lovely places, can relax at night, food is sorted... I’ve only been on one and it was awesome

Mind me, it's more for the expensive countries. Never went over budget in places like Prague.