Is a self catering holiday still a holiday?

[bagpuss90]

Very light hearted thread. I’m just curious as to opinions on this. So I was chatting to a friend last nite and I mentioned I was off on holiday next week to a self catering cottage . She said she would rather not go on holiday than go self catering because it’s not a holiday . Personally I think that’s nuts . I love the flexibility it gives. We will eat out a good bit . I’m not at work , I’m in a beautiful place away with my family . How is that not a holiday ?

Me and DH almost always self cater. Don't really like hotels. Don't like being told what time we can eat breakfast (we are early risers and most hotels don't start breakfast early enough).

Really don't like only have the one room to relax in. Most hotels don't have comfy chairs let alone a nice comfy sofa. I absolutely hate having to sit in or on the bed to watch tv.

Almost every time we have stayed in a hotel whether a Travelodge or nice fairly expensive one there have been noisy guests coming back at 1pm or later talking at the tops of their voices, slamming doors etc. Plus we seem to nearly always get the couple having noisy sex in the room next to us. I always have to wear earplugs which I hate doing as I find them uncomfortable.

Self catering means we can choose if we want to eat meals at the accommodation or go out. We quite like eating breakfast out and usually lunch but not so keen on evening meals. Hate paying good money for food we can make better ourselves.

We both love cooking so don't see it as a chore at all. We both share the cooking and find it fun.

We used to go SC when I was a kid…my mum is / was a massive martyr who wouldn’t allow anyone to help. Ever. Nor would she allow her standards to slip in any way. ie 3 proper meals a day, dinner must be a proper meat and 2 veg meal. Then would have a massive meltdown from the stress of catering in an unfamiliar location.

She absolutely wouldn’t eat out OR order takeaway either.( not ‘proper‘ food, apparently) So for her SC would have been bloody awful, and not remotely a holiday, I have no idea why on earth we did it, we weren’t skint. And as kids we used to spend the first half of any holiday on edge. Begging her to let us help, or at least just let us eat bread and jam instead of cooking for us….waiting for the inevitable meltdown and not being able to do anything to avert it.

i learned from this.

so if we selfcater, I ensure that at least 4/7 nights we either go out or order in. And the remainder we split cooking between us and have very low expectations about what we will be eating 🤣. DH has learned never to attempt a cooking stand—off, I’ve been doing 5;2 and can go aaaages without eating.

God no, it's just living life in a less well equipped kitchen. Yes you can go out but you still are likely to eat some meals in and have to clean up afterwards.

For me a holiday is not having to worry about any 'real life' stuff like deciding on food, shopping etc so at the very least b&b in a hotel

Love a foreign supermarket too - especially the big French ones! Although I have to resist buying the whole bakery, cheese, and stationery sections

Aren't they the best. Even their jarred and tinned items seem so exciting.

We always self cater, as one DC has ARFID and allergies and can’t get what he needs eating out all the time.

even if that wasn’t the case, I would 1000% choose a cottage over a hotel - so much more space, you get a proper sitting room for when the kids are in bed, space to spread out, control over the temperature, so many reasons.

I usually go self catering. You dont have to cook like you do at home if you dont want to. I certainly dont when I am away.

For me it is about a change of scene, no work, different places to visit and no set times to be back for food etc.

At home, DH gets breakfast (something cooked), we get our own lunches and I cook dinner.

When we go self catering, he gets the breakfast and after that, he makes the sandwiches while I make the beds and sort out the washing. We eat out for dinner every other day and I cook the rest. It doesn’t seem like hard work!

We stay in a hotel in a Greek island most years. It’s bed and breakfast. All the food is produced organically within 500 metres of the hotel. We buy a pie from the village bakery for our lunch. In the evening, we eat at one the 6 tavernas - most of the food is fresh and local, or depending on what the fishermen caught that day. It’s great for a few weeks; but we miss the choice of Indian or Chinese there is in the UK. Swings and roundabouts!

When we go self catering, he gets the breakfast and after that, he makes the sandwiches while I make the beds and sort out the washing. We eat out for dinner every other day and I cook the rest. It doesn’t seem like hard work!

This is precisely what puts me off SC!

Getting breakfast, doing sandwiches, making beds, sorting washing, planning what to have for dinner...

Those are the dreary things I do every day of the week, when I'm on holiday I want a break from all that!

personally prefer eating out in different places each night rather than being restricted to what the hotel offers.

Prefer the space in an apartment to being squashed into a hotel bedroom.

None of these make any sense to me.

Staying in a hotel does not mean you can only eat in the hotel.

Staying in a hotel does not mean you all have to share a room. It's pricey to get more than one bedroom / suite. It's about the cost, not the hotel

There are hotels which provide services apartment, etc. you pays your money and takes your choice.

Of course it's a holiday. I far prefer self-catering! Eating out a couple of times is nice, but I wouldn't want to do it for the whole holiday. Mostly I like having a place that's just for us, with plenty of space to hang out once the dc have gone to bed (though they are old enough to stay up now). In a hotel, what do you do once the children are in bed?!

For me the holiday is about exploring the area, doing fun stuff and enjoying evenings with family. It helps that dh does most of the cooking on holiday!

@OfficerPastiche and @DasAlteLeid you’re very kind 😀

But it's less effort to pull a duvet cover up, or even leave it as is, than it is to undo the work of a hotel chambermaid so you can actually use the bed after she's made it to hotel standards.

If you're self catering you don't have to get dressed for breakfast like you would in a hotel either.

Sounds lovely, I hate cooking so I'd probably not do much but it's nice to have the option 😊

Definitely a holiday in my book! I’d be eating out or at most getting frozen meals anyway, since I don’t cook.

I've not been to a hotel holiday since I was a young child.

I can only imagine being stuck in 1 room with kids, having to be silent from 8pm so they can sleep, not being able to move around, watch tv, chat etc.
Then having to be out of the room all day so it can be cleaned.
Only eating at designated meat times, not being able to grab a snack whenever I want because there is no food in the room.

And now dc are teenagers I'd hate to share a room with them, and couldn't afford 3 rooms. (And ds has sen so can't be left alone in a hotel room anyway )

But perhaps my impresson of hotels is wrong.

With self catering I just make toast for breakfast, eat out for lunch and dinner is either eating out, take away or something extra easy like pasta and pesto.
Now dc are older they cook some nights too.

The luxury of having our own rooms, and a living room too is great, we are not in each others pockets all the time.

*@CocoPrivileges

DH enjoys cooking! It’s the only creative thing he does, after working on a computer all week. I don’t care who does it, so long as it’s not me!

Anyway, we have our 2 week hotel holiday in Greece; and we take disabled adult DD on a self catering holiday in the UK, because going abroad with her is too stressful. Its better to have an automatic washing machine for her; than have do it by hand in a hotel!

It’s not a holiday, it’s a business trip

I prefer self catering as it gives us flexibility — we don’t waste lots of time looking for places to eat and waiting for food (especially breakfast, snacks). We sometimes order in for lunch/ dinner or eat out. In short, we do whatever we want to. Recently we went to a resort (for a wedding) where we had to eat out every meal and was a bit of nightmare. My child loves certain fruits at this time of the year (usually sold in every store) and I couldn’t find them anywhere at the resort (there was only one store) and the restaurants didn’t have them. And other little annoying things like this.

I couldn’t think of anything worse than staying in a hotel, eating at specified times from the same restaurant most of the week - it seems utterly bizarre that people are so limited that they find organising their own food options to be a chore.

We normally camp or s/c. I know camping isn't everyone's cup of tea - and as a teen DD didn't want to go - but I felt like (for me) it was just as much of a holiday. Usually in a nice location. When DC were little they always slept better than at home. DH did most of the cooking or we ate out. There is limited cleaning to be done in a tent! 😀

But I completely get that other people prefer hotels. There is no right or wrong answer

It's nice to do a mixture.

I know when we did all self catering when DS was younger, I craved having someone to make my breakfast, but then recently in October we were HB in the hotel and at teen DS insistence we changed to AI for the last few days. I found the amount of food overwhelming and felt an internal pressure to drink more than normal to get my money's worth - not an experience I particularly want to recreate.

Do you think that once you enter a hotel they hold you hostage until it's time to leave? You aren't forced to eat in the hotel, just go out!

I hate self catering because if I'm going to do cooking and chores I'd rather it be at home where I have everything I need. The only thing I think would be worse is camping (shudder) so it's good that there is choice for everyone

We only ever go self catering, it’s still very much a holiday. We eat the main meal out most days anyway so it’s only breakfast eaten there and we make picnics to take out.

When we did the HB with DS16 and his pal it was so much easier eating at the hotel.
No having to make sure they were ready for a certain time, no worrying about how much they were going to eat and how much that would cost and also if they didn't like something , they could just get another dish.
I do enjoy eating out but am finding that for a week long holiday it does become a bit of a chore.