All inclusive holiday irritations....

[CupoTeap]

On holiday and in the restaurant......there is a huge block of butter put out each session with a knife to help yourself with.

I am getting more and more irritated by the people who insist on scraping a bit of butter off with this knife and then back to the butter to repeat before putting the knife down.

JUST PUT SOME ON YOUR PLATE.

Anything else I should be looking out for to annoy me

(I'm actually having a fab time and am very relaxed 😎)

I am not sure the "entertainment" is in any way related to an AI resort.

I don't think posters are having the same thing in mind! AI covers such a variety of resorts, and various budgets!

I used to love ai. However after going self catering the last few times I wouldn't do ai again because I realise now that I prefer being on my own timetable. I used to hate having to return from the beach earlier than I would have liked to get ready for dinner and then after dinner at around 9pm I would be wondering what to do. I don't want to drink every night and some of the entertainment is crap. Now I love having a sun downer on the beach watching the sunset and then strolling down to a local restaurant later for dinner at around 9pm. Eating in different places is what I love the most about being on holiday now

We've been to very cheap AI as students (abandoned the food there and paid to eat out instead. The whole holiday was only £200 each though). Recently, 4 star AI as a family. It was busy but the food was really nice. 5k for family of 4 for 2 weeks in August. The spirits were all premium, Smirnoff etc. Lots of nice ice creams. Themed restaurants included. Good variety of food. But very busy.

This year we've booked bed and breakfast as we love a good breakfast in a hotel, but the freedom to eat out for the rest of the day. DH is teetotal now and I have the odd glass of wine but not much. So AI isn't really worth it from a drinking point of view.

Self catering cottages are great but I'd rather have a break from washing up etc so a hotel is a nice treat.

The British summers are getting hotter each year ( I hate the heat but they seem warmer than when I was a kid) but it's a shame we don't have the same kind of hotels and camps they have abroad as they are great and better than Haven or Butlins are here.
If hotels in the UK did AI i think they would be popular. It's all about costs I suppose.

@TheChineseChicken it was me who said about the boiled rice, and I have a lot of other involuntary dietary restrictions in addition to coeliac disease.
Most of the places we holiday there isn't a choice of hotel as they are very remote places, and so have to be AI as there isn't anywhere nearby to have lunch/drinks/whatever, and no sefl catering accommodation.

Needless to say when there is a choice I avail myself of it, and as I said, I've only been to an AI with a buffet once, all the other times its been table service

It was in every one i stayed in from 2006 - 2011.

I'm waiting for all the posters to be snooty and superior as per usual on what's meant to be a light hearted thread. This is a thread about AI resorts, nothing to do with how big your wallet is.

@zoflorabore which was was it if you don't mind me asking?
We did something similar in May in Turkey we would definitely go back but always interested to here about others.

Also many ai places are miles from the nearest town so it's harder to explore the local area

www.atlanticahotels.com/hotels-in-corfu/atlantica-grand-mediterraneo-resort-and-spa

Lovely food, plenty of choice for vegetarians (plus daily vegan dishes, though not a lot of choice still). No queuing for food while I was there.

Adults only, though!

The key to AI is to spend a bit more to price out the rude people.

Also they tend to have staff serving portions so you don't get the situation where someone picks out the king prawns from the paella. Also have chefs making fresh stuff to order as well.

I've done cheap AI where the food is slop. So false economy as you then end up going elsewhere for dinner.

It is true that the AI places are miles from the towns usually , although some do courtesy buses a few times a day. It's strange how this is the case on most resorts!

@EatenByDinosaurs it just seems such a shame as one of the best things about holiday is eating the food! (Well in my opinion)

The morning pool aerobics where there is inevitably one woman who looks just like Ursula Andres emerging from the sea in her white bikini whilst the rest of us just look depressing.

I generally go on SC holidays and eat out in restaurants for at least one meal a day. However, we have done one week AI for the past couple of years. It has to be 5* to ensure the food quality is reasonable.

The kids love the buffet but I agree with others that it is a nightmare trying to actually get everyone to stay at the table together for five minutes. The best hotels have a la carte restaurants too so you can avoid the buffet at least some meals.

I enjoy a breakfast buffet. It’s fun watching the random combination of foods people put together. Also the different nationalities eat so differently- half the world tuck in to salad/fish/olives etc while our kids are shovelling in as many muffins and bowls of choco hoops they can get away with.

There always a beautiful body that's gym fit in the pool and the whole complex comes to a standstill ( mostly noisy moving of heavy loungers to shady areas) to gaze enviously at said person. I am not one of these : the more I can cover up the better really ( i tend to sneak about trying not be noticed.)
Holidays can be stressful.

Club Med is amazing. Wonderful food, a la carte or buffet or speciality restaurant. 'Late breakfast' and lunch restaurants available.

Mainly French and everyone very well behaved.

Quite expensive but worth it. You can do sports all day. Lovely wine and cocktails/smoothies made for you. Very good quality.

We went on our first AI holiday this year. We arrived late at night, the restaurant was open with a simple buffet of burgers/ hotdogs/ chips etc. We watched a family at the next table pouring hot chocolate on to their plates of leftover food, just for fun- children aged between 10 and 14 at a guess, but actually it was the adults that started it. I wondered what on earth we had got ourselves in to!

But aside from that, I was quite impressed. There was always lots of choice, and almost everything we tried was tasty and seemed to be good quality. It did get repetitive- not so much the food because there was a different theme each day- but the whole experience. The noise in the restaurant became irritating, and having to get up and down so many times every meal time became annoying. Especially if we had been seated far away from the buffet. Luckily we didn't have to queue much. And apart from a few children putting serving spoons back in to the wrong dish or picking things up with their fingers, people were generally well behaved.

HAVE ALL THE WINE YOU WANT! *

• in a teeny tiny teeny weeny cup

Paying for the drinks of people who start knocking it back straight after breakfast and continue steadily all day. We will never do an AI holiday. Ever.

My annoyance. The waste, god how much waste in the restaurant.

People piling their plates then rejecting them because they don’t like the food.

I hate buffets.

The drinks thing is a worry as some people just drink alcohol all day and that must cause these types of hotels a headache even if it is watered down or served in tiny cups! Some people do get nasty after a drink.

@TheChineseChicken it is absolutely a shame, I love food, but I'm happy to work around it if we're seeing bucket list places . DH always jokes I'm the only person he knows who goes on holiday to an AI and looses weight

It's probably a good thing I have food restrictions, they're remarkably good at helping my restraint with food

Currently at an all inclusive and the food is definitely of a higher standard than a lot of restaurants in the uk so obviously you’ve been choosing the wrong hotels!

We did 5 star AI a few times in Mexico and it was amazing. Good food, variety of a la Carte restaurants, decent booze, options all day and night, could go between five different hotels each of which had 2-4 restaurants. Loved it.

Tried the same in Turkey, totally different experience: Brits abroad type feel with loads of restrictions, cheap booze, etc. Never again.

For those who have been to Mexico, did you feel safe there? Did you stay in your resort or go outside?