Do you actually cater if you go self catering...

[NaomifromMilkshake]

We just use our apartment as somewhere to sleep and hang on the balcony and we use the fridge for wine and beers and snacks... and the makings of light lunch or breakfast...

My DM is horrified at what she considers a waste of money, seemingly you should cater in SC....

In her defence she is 80 and a war child.

Self-catering pre kids - hit cafe for breakfast or a bakery the night before so we could eat in the room, then sandwich lunch out and restaurant for dinner. Though usually went to places that did good breakfast.

Self catering with kids - stock up on pasta, fish fingers and chips, cheese, pizza. And breakfast food. Hit delis and similar so can feed kids then enjoy local delicacies with local wine. Leisurely breakfast as no-one wants to go anywhere fast, then take pack lunches.
If we go as a group, then there will be some cooking. The house with a dozen blancmange moulds was a hit!

I do love a good mooch around a foreign supermarket.

Yes. Else why bother going SC?

We used to do hb in hotels . Now we just go room only or sc. We have tea toast in the the morning . Have something light later. Then eat out in evening ( nothing grand) and tea and something in bed as we both take meds .
We book to suit our nerds which have changed over the years.

We do the same as you

We prefer to spend our money on having a private pool

Absolutely

We love a private pool, children are spoilt rotten

We do SC in the UK several times a year. Always do almost all our cooking though might get a couple of takeaways and more expensive and/or more ready-made supermarket food than we'd get usually.

No. We have stuff for breakfast and nibbles to have with tea, coffee etc but lunch and/or dinner are taken at bar/pub/restaurant. TBH we only go self-catering because there's more room than in a hotel room.

TBH we only go self-catering because there's more room than in a hotel room

Same

Yes, I still do the cooking in the evening. It’s usually pretty simple though - pasta and easy things. We never have a big budget, so it’s a saving for us.

We usually hire a villa with a pool.

Have a brunch made up of salads toast and fruits then eat out in the evening,

Children are teens but if they were small then I can see the attraction of eating in sometimes and then putting children to bed

We self-cater b/c we like our own cooking best.
MNers seem to be quite into recipes, making meals complicated. Our meals aren't like that. We eat quite simply.

Sometimes travelling I have to eat out every meal.... I don't like it, even when it's just me as an adult, but like it even less if with DC. Too salty. Too rich. Overpriced. Not enough veg. Too many calories. Noisy. Limited choice. I hate waste & minimising wasted food is a lot harder when eating out. Limited times. Having to wait. Can't relax. Have to control the kids. Kids moaning (2 DC are quite fussy). There isn't a lot to like when it's every day.

We were away 2 nights recently & ate out both. £20 for F&C (4 people), decent pub meal = £60 for 4 people. So expensive compared to home-cooking and nowhere as nice as home-cooked.

We have a mixture. We have a week SC each summer. We'll have one breakfast, 2 or 3 lunches and 1 or 2 dinners out at cafés/ restaurants. The rest will be sorted from a fairly extravagant ocado order (rest of the year is all tesco & asda so it's a big treat) full of easy things like filo pies and filled pasta - stuff that takes barely 10 minutes of effort to throw together.

We're a family of fairly quirky eaters and it's quite rare to find a restaurant that can provide just one thing we'll each eat. A non-self-catering holiday would see us miserable. Best case scenario we'd find one place that could feed us and would have to put up with the same dinner 7 days in a row.

we go away every 4-6 weeks to different caravan parks and always SC

yes we do buy a order and cook like we do at home as they are all fully equipped as they are 3 bedrooms

1 the boys are disabled and cant cope in a restaurant
2 they eat constantly and dont sleep so 9+ hot home cooked meals a day and always large portions so we cook 24 hours as and when is wanted

this is the uk though i wouldn't do SC abroad

We do easy stuff like oven pizza etc. And sometimes just sandwiches and snacks. Don't really eat real meals on holiday.

When they were little we couldn’t afford meals out all the time so, yes, I catered. Online delivery and more fun meals than usual plus a couple of treats like fish and chips.
Now in U.K. we tend to do breakfast but eat in restaurants otherwise although we like having something simple sometimes.
On our boat in France there are no restaurants nearby so we cook each night.
Abroad we use hotels so no self catering.

I shop, cook and prepare meals all year round. Never will I cook on holiday. I am not fooled my the idea that you casually pick up something delicious from the deli and "throw" a salad together. I'm on holiday and I want to choose from a menu and be waited on.
Self catering to me means more space than a hotel room, that's all.

I cook in self catering. I like cooking, it means you can have a salad or grazing type meal, and makes a change from restaurant stodgy rich foods.

One holiday I remember having spaghetti with fresh chopped tomatoes, good olive oil and olives. It was so nice to have a simple meal.

Christ no, I don't cook on SC holidays. For starters, the rooms always seem to have a 'hob of death', where it is located right next to the draining board. The equipment is generally pants too. We might have 2 or 3 bread/cheese/cold meat lunches on the balcony but for me and DH, trying the local dishes in various restaurants is the best part of the holiday and we budget accordingly. Cooking on holiday just feels like same shit, different country.

We always order an online supermarket delivery for the first evening, and have almost all breakfasts in the accom.
We also hit up the local farm shops and deli etc.
We mostly have drinks snacks and picnics to take for say 5 out of 7 days. Maybe allow for 1 or 2 lunches and evening meals out and then we cook the rest. Sometimes quick deli, cheese and wine, sometimes BBQ and sometimes elaborate things for anniversaries and birthdays.
We couldn't afford to eat out for a week or 11 days, and I can't stand eating mediocre grub when I can pay far less for better quality and better cooked food by eating at "home".

We go self catering as usually get a bit more space and fridge freezer etc
Breakfast usually only myself that’s up n I go out for coffee
Eat out every evening
If out for day somewhere will buy a snack
Days round pool will usually have a break for lunch and self cater (as in bread cheese cold meats etc)
Ice creams always to hand along with lots of cold drinks and a fair amount of alcohol
I don’t go on holiday and expect to do any household chores at all including cooking - although when on holiday a few weeks ago made home made salsa and guacamole just because supermarket didn’t have any
Love a villa with a BBQ though!

Maybe a few breakfast things and some snacks, no more than that

We do some - Well have a lunch out and some evening meals, for others well buy stuff from delis, have fish and chips. I guess the nearest we get to cooking a meal is having a barbecue or two.

Yes, mostly. We have a few meals out but we cook at the accommodation too. It never seems like the drag it does at home for some reason.

We have small kids and usually sort our own breakfast and some others but eat out a fare bit too.

Tbh the reason we usually go SC is usually because you get much more space and separate bedrooms etc. And things like a fridge are super handy with kids. I'm not sure about the argument about it being a waste of money as it's usually cheaper than a hotel!

Personallly it sounds no fun at all having to sleep in the same small room as your kids.