If you self cater on holidays - what sort of meals do you make?

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Just curious about this.

When dc were small we always stayed in apartments on city breaks / holidays so we had more space in the evenings when they'd gone to bed. Plus we could use the fridge for milk / juice / water / wine / beer

We'd stock up on cereal & bread for toast for them & fruit & snacks etc but I never really did much actual cooking

We'd eat out or if dc had eaten enough one of us would go to pick up a lovely takeout when they were asleep.

As they got older we'd all go out for dinner.

I've found fully self catering hard as whikr it's easy to pick up fish or veg etc in market / supermarket there's none of the other ingredients you need to season/ make a dish & if I'm away for a week I'm def not buying olive oils / spices etc

If you self cater, what sort of things do you make?

In the UK, we get a delivery of Cook ready meals before we go.
If abroad, I buy Simply Cook mixes and make accordingly.
We are (I think) unusual as we don't like eating out when on holiday. The thought of getting cleaned up to go back out after a day walking or visiting somewhere does not appeal. I just want my PJs on!

We’ll self cater breakfast and then either lunch or tea most days
Lunch would be just some bits for sandwiches
tea will be very easy eg pizza or other stuff to put in the oven plus perhaps a salad. Would never cook properly

tbh just been on our first properly catered holiday which I’ve been putting off with one very fussy child and two vegetarians and tbh I’m sold. The food was lovely but I think we were lucky. I’d do my research properly but will be keener to book catered hotels in future (probably not in the UK though)

Depends - what we eat on ski trips is very different to what we would eat on a city break in Barcelona!

Ski trips we tend to eat out at lunch and get an early night in the evening, so filling meals like pasta, stir fries, chilli, curries. We cook “properly”, but never anything too complicated.

Anywhere hot, we tend to have mezze, or bread, cheese, olives etc, or maybe a salad. Very little cooking, just food prep. Probably get a takeaway pizza one night, or eat out.

In the UK I always make a giant Bolognese and freeze in 2 portions, we have spag bol one night and I make a lasagne another (v quick with Parmalat bechamel in a carton)

Then we will BBQ a couple of nights if the weather is good, otherwise roast chicken or leg of lamb with salad/veg etc. Everyone pitches in.

We will also go out one night usually and get fish and chips one night.

Only a small bottle in the hold all the way to America 😂

Eat out once a day and then cold stuff and fresh bread.

If in UK and it's due to be bad weather I might cook. Sometimes the oven is shit though so it's a gamble.

And I don't do self catering to save money. I like it!
Eating out doesn't come cheap these days so we don't do every day in the UK anymore.

We're not self-catering to save money.

We go self-catering because with 3 teenage kids it's a lot more convenient having a three bedroom apartment than it is trying to book three hotel rooms. It gives us the freedom to do what we want, nobody's knocking on the door trying to clean, and we're not limited by hotel eating times. It's a lot more home from home vibe than a hotel which we like sometimes.

Freezer Food, things that are quick and easy after a day out;

Family Size Lasagna (ready meal) and a Garlic Baguette
Fish & Oven Chips, Peas (from freezer isle)
Pizza & Wedges (from the freezer isle), tinned sweetcorn
Indian or Chinese Takeway on one night
Curry, Rice & Naan (using boil in the bag rice and a jar sauce)

Dessert would be strawberries & cream, Cornetto Cones, Ice Lollies, Fresh Cream Cake

It’s not a holiday for me if I have to cook and clean up every night.

I make Bolognese meat sauce and freeze it, so all I have to do is boil the pasta there and defrost the sauce.
We do jacket potatoes too,
I also marinate chicken breasts and chicken drumsticks and freeze them beforehand and have it with chips or make chicken wraps/burgers.
Not much effort at all and it's much cheaper than take outs as we are family of 5 and get through a lot. So I take plenty of snacks and drinks. We only do this in the UK staycations, if we have a nearby supermarket then we only take our homemade frozen items with us and we buy the rest of the items from there to go with our meals ..

We've only self catered in UK.
Evening meals:
Typically we make a Bolognese/ chicken curry / chilli in advance and take with us to have first it second night. If it's just the 4 of us usually we cook double portions of that kind of thing anyway to last 2 meals, so we'd save the second half and freeze it in the couple of weeks before the holiday and defrost in way there. We'd usually do a BBQ one night (or burgers / sausages in oven if no BBQ / bad weather.) Usually a pasta and ready made sauce with side salad (or broccoli for the kids as they don't do salad). Have also done fajitas from a kit before, or oven pizzas. I think one year I got those frozen jacket potatoes and we had with tuna or beans for a quick meal
I'll always insist on some eating out or takeaways though, so don't have to think of a full week's worth of meals.

I think last time we went over the week we had BBQ, Bolognese pre made, takeaway curry, fish and chips on beach, oven pizzas, one pub meal out and then pesto pasta with any leftover salad, veg, lunch meat etc on the last night.

Lunches will usually be sandwiches / rolls /wraps for a picnic out and about. Beans on toast for a change if back in the accomodation. Maybe a pasty or similar at some point.

Breakfast - mix of cereal toast, eggs and some treats like pastries, bacon rolls. Kids like a variety pack of cereal as a holiday tradition but that doesn't keep us going long!
. occasionally treat ourselves to breakfast out once in the week.

Boil a bag of jersey (or similar) potatoes on the first day. Then serve some with a salad and something (quiche, pork pie, etc) through the week.

Batch cook anything you cook on holiday so you don't have to cook as many meals. In the UK, you can get a supermarket shop delivered to where you're staying. In Europe, tend to do a Lidl shop where spices etc really aren't that expensive. Have been known to get stopped by airport security when a little jar of cinnamon or oregano shows up on the scanner but they're usually amused by it.

Same as this for us. We often s/c in France and got to the bakery every morning and get croissants and pains au chocolate for breakfast and baguette for lunch. Then we'll have cheese and salad with the baguette for lunch (minus the salad for DD). In the evenings, we make pasta and tomato sauce or pasta and pesto for DD, DH and I will have salad/ a takeaway/ grilled fish/ sometimes eat out but rarely as it is difficult with DD.

We recently had a week in Italy which was a bit better as most restaurants would make her pasta with just tomato sauce (solo pomodoro!) if we asked so we got a few meals out.

Self catered last month, hob only. Pasta/tortellini and nice premade sauces, steak/schnitzel and new pots, burgers and chips (pots fried in frying pan), all with lots of salad and nice dressing.

Pretty much the same stuff we eat at home.

chilli , spaghetti Bol, curry - just in a different kitchen!!

I’m with you OP. I enjoy cooking but I have no desire to do it on holiday. Otherwise it’s basically the same chores in a different location. And importantly, food is a big part of travelling to me. I want to eat the local food. So on the rare occasions we have been self catering abroad, breakfast tends to be cereals/yoghurt/toast (or pastries if there is a nearby cafe) and then we eat out for most meals. Though sometimes buy local cheese, salad and fruit if we want a light lunch. I would never stay somewhere that didn’t have several eateries nearby.

Edited to add - we know we are lucky to be able to do this, not just financially but because we only have one DD and she is a good eater and will try new things.

Easy stuff and I book a Tesco delivery for the first afternoon/evening for UK holidays. I check the kitchen set up beforehand, eg some places don’t have a freezer or just have a tiny freezer box, so I know not to order frozen stuff.

We often take a cottage on the west coast of Scotland miles from anywhere. when I cook I usually make extra so the meals are in the freezer...eg chilli or a casserole so I take all these meals in a big freezer box along with all my other food and having made sure there's a freezer at the property I fill it up and we eat it all over the week. Works really well. There are just 2 of us though!

We normally do hotels
If we go self catering we eat out

No way we are cooking on holiday

Not when they are chatting Hello Fresh boxes, Waitrose/M&S, fancy chickens. As well as the places they are staying in.

I don't self cater for financial reasons, it's because I like it. I enjoy the flexibility, can eat in if I want or eat out if I prefer. There's no rush to breakfast in the morning. I can shop in local supermarkets and markets which I love. I don't really like hotels, the rooms are too small and confined, and it's too restrictive.

Per PP posh ready meals are our go to if not eating out. If somewhere hot might do a lot of salad and cheese/meats (esp in a villa with a pool - this just sort of fits). Then we’d buy a small bottle of good olive oil and wine or balsamic vinegar for the dressing. And meat to BBQ if one is available. But also we do love to cook so sometimes, if not abroad, will plan a special meal that we bring the extra ingredients for like spices.

simply cook!

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