Or is behaviour at all inclusive hotels hilarious?

[inaminute23]

So in the last 2 months, I've been to Dubai, Cyprus and Jamaica, and now I'm in Greece, and 3/4 of those have been all inclusive hotels.

I've got to admit, and I'm as guilty as any, but it's so weird just observing behaviour at all inclusive hotels!

Getting up and starting to drink cheap and sugary cocktails straight away!

Piling 3 plates full at the buffets.

Getting up for 6.30am to nab a subbed before they all run out.

There are probably so many more but I'm just sat at breakfast, after going to get a second full breakfast (though I've had a gastric bypass so it is all relative) and it's made me chuckle.

I'd love to read any other weird behaviours typical of all inclusive holidays!

This is LIGHT HEARTED for those who soon enough will tell me I'm judgemental haha.

You can stay in an AI hotel and still see the 'real sites' surely? We usually go B&B only as prefer to eat out in the evening but even if AI you can still leave the hotel!

In 5 star hotels you don't get the sunbed bullshit I find. They employ pool staff to find people beds and sort it all out for you, and they maybe don't cram people in so much so even when the hotel is full there should technicaly be a bed for everyone.

This!!!

Oh my, you're one of those travel "influencers" aren't you....

Eek...

I get it. I’d have paid handsomely for a McDonalds instead of the food on offer at my AI buffet. I posted above about getting disproportionately excited when there was a pizza one night that, although indistinguishable from a very basic supermarket pizza, was the most appealing thing on offer. McDonalds might be boring, but it’s got flavour. One out of two is better than zero out of two.

But yes I see the granny food behaviour in every hotel I've ever been to.

Grabby.

When of the best holidays I’ve ever had was an “all inclusive” (ie 3 meals a day) on an beach on a small island called Redang in Malaysia. The entire couple KM stretch of beach only had about 3 hotels and about a dozen tourists in total from what we could see (it was slightly out of seasons). This was in about 2005, I think it’s more popular now.

The “hotel” consisted of a friendly, smallish open sided restaurant/bar (owned by a local) on the beach with about a dozen comfortable (air con etc) but fairly basic beach hut type accommodations next to it. Each meal was completely different and freshly prepared and brought to your table - no menu/choosing involved.

We spent all day snorkelling 100 metres from our hut (amazing snorkelling), reading, eating and drinking. Then repeat the next day. The weather was amazing. The beach was powdery white. It was the most relaxing holiday imaginable. We traveled there from China, and booked it at random from a travel agent in Kuala Lumpur. No internet involved on our part!

The best thing is it only cost us about £100 for the two of us per night, including food (it can’t have cost much more than that as we were fairly skint back then). I’m sure we could spend 10x that today, and nine times out of ten would not have as enjoyable or relaxing a holiday.

I love how an abundance of British people (who are hated worldwide for how they behave on holiday)

How do you know that British people are hated worldwide for how they behave on holiday?

I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite widely over the years and have never experienced this hate you speak of.

I was imagining people standing there telling each other to eat their up greens and clear their plate or they wouldn't get any rice pudding.😁

Those people who get huge separate plates of fruit, breads, pastries etc for their family’s table for every meal… all left untouched. Vulgar

Sounds hellish!

buffets alone.

Lordy - reading some of these makes me grateful never to have been willing to shell out for AI! Not snobbish about it, just cheap 😂

You could have just said I travel a lot for work and stay in AI for convenience/avoiding homophobia.

Nothing as boring as hearing about other people’s holidays.

Unless you’re the Mexican thief or Sistine Chapel screamer.

😁

In my case with my mother she'd be the one grabbing everything!

I think humans at buffet is a particular type of human behaviour, not specific to any nationality and brings out an unfortunate grab everything mentality, probably related to ancient hunter gathered mentality where you had to stock up for the winter etc.

You can train yourself out of it. I suffer with IBS if I eat too much in one sitting so that has helped me just have so gle portions at buffets now.

Love your confession... a bit of daily honesty 😂

Sounds like they're not great AIs.
The only one we've been to was a 5* in Mexico, there were plenty of pools, sunbeds and beach to go around, we only went to the buffet for breakfast and people weren't eating three plates at a time, eggs, omelettes etc were cooked to order, we ate in the a la carte included restaurants in the evenings. I had the odd alcoholic drink in the afternoon if we'd been out during the day and came back to relax a bit before getting dressed for dinner. Definitely no sweet premixed cocktails available. Wherever we stay we tend to hire a car and get out and about rather than just stay on a complex drinking.

Just come back from an all inclusive in Mexico and dont recognise any of those behaviours. Didn’t see a single person who seemed overly drunk over the whole two weeks and as I walked through the buffet I was actually impressed to see how much fruit or yogurt was being consumed - especially by the children.

perhaps it’s the hotels you’re staying in and not the fact that they are all inclusive.

It's horses for courses though isn't it. Some people like an AI holiday experience where they don't have to think about food or cooking or which restaurant to go to. Others like self-catering, others like (shudder) camping.

Now my idea of absolute hell is being in a tent for a week. Particularly in the UK, but also overseas. Communal showers. Cramped space. Having to make a coffee on one of those little burner things. Just not for me in any way shape or form and yes, I'd rather stay at home than go camping.

But there are other people out there who DO enjoy that sort of thing. Also the idea that it's forbidden to leave an AI hotel and that the staff discourage you from leaving isn't something i've ever experienced. Except perhaps in Mexico where independent travel in the hours of darkness is not recommended - but that's the advice for all visitors not just the ones in AI resorts.

@etulosba , same here. We have travelled extensively and have never come across it. But many MNers like to think that Brits are loathed everywhere.

Possibly the most cringe-making behaviour I ever saw was at a hotel in Kenya where an Italian bloke evidently thought that clapping his hands very loudly and imperiously and yelling, ‘Boy!’ was the way to summon a waiter.

A family of 4 have 4 sunbeds that they put towels on - they don’t rock up until 2pm and the only one of them uses the sunbed but they keep the towels on the other 3 - entitled fuckers

I love the competitive faux non-snobbery on these threads, especially describing the whole of Greece as “grim”

That said, having to mix cheap rose and white wine together with lemonade just to get something vaguely palatable is gross

@xsxsxsxs this exactly. I typed something like this many times before deleting it as I felt cross

Talking of Greece, @ShirleyPhallus , not long before the Brexit vote we stayed with dd, Sil and baby Gd1 at a very family friendly hotel in Crete. The lovely owner was very worried in case the vote was pro Brexit, in case his many Brit guests stopped coming. He added that they typically gave no trouble at all.

We assured him that whatever the result* we were quite sure that Brits would continue to come.

*Never thought it’d be pro Brexit, though!

@ouch321 haha I wish. I'm not but I'm not going to lie, if I could be I probably would enjoy it!

However I love my life with my partner and dogs in the countryside too much!

Once we went to an all you can eat sushi bar while on holiday, you know I guess not only we love sushi but we also wanted to get our money worth since it was very pricey, and I still remember my sis's ex bitching that we dared to go for more helpings as it looked 'uncultured'. If you have money to spare or have it paid by someone else it may seem like it's ridiculous, but for some people it's a big expense and at least they enjoy the food, so why is it any of your business?