All inclusive - so bad for the host country

[nothingoldcanstay]

Did you not see that series on TV high lighting just how bad for the economy AI is? Aside from that it seems a bit odd to go to a different country and then eat hotel food. Most wine and beer is cheaper abroad so shouldn't we all try at least to help the country you holiday in rather than just one corporation?

All Inclusive

I would never consider it, it destroys independent restaurants and bars :(

We went AI to Cuba last year and loved it.

The hotel was in the arse end of nowhere and seemed to be a major employer for the local community. Food was locally provided and didn't seem to be imported.

For us, holidaying with 3 young children, it was perfect and easy. No worrying about running out of money if the children wanted another drink or an ice cream, and it was good value.

Maybe it depends on the hotel you choose but we didn't see any of the behaviour Pagwatch describes.

I imagine the impact is very different if the AI hotel is in the middle of Magalufor somewhere where the local restaurants rely on passing trade.

enjoyresposibility hmm, maybe it's just Sandals that's been banned from Barbados then? Or can't get a foothold. Often these things are political - possibly Butch Stewart just doesn't have enough friends in the Bajan government!

strandednomore

It was the Jungle Aqua Park in Hurghada. There were loads of divers there. I would recommend it to anyone. Absolutely fantastic. All of the rooms are bungalows around pools. There are 35 pools I think in all!

...and I didn't see anyone off their face from alcohol at all.

We didn't go out in the evening as we have a 6 year old but nothing like what we saw from AI customers when we got stuck in a hotel in Tenerife due to the volcanic ash.

It all depends and when you go, where you go and how much you pay for it surely? You know if you go on an all inclusive in Benidorm what its going to be like so, dont go. It suits some people because thats what they want so, good for them. Ive never done it and, I take 3/4 holidays a year. When I have stayed in big hotels say, in India, then I see plenty of the locals been employed infact, last time the hotel actually had a catering and hospitality college right accross the road. I dont really get what some people are saying. In Turkey where there is plenty of traffic I can see why some local places are put out of business but, really, are they any good to begin with? In more exotic places like the Maldives, surely you could be in the only hotel for miles?

People go for the AI option because they really dont want to be spending money on countless icecreams all day. If I had three children I know the option I would take. Especially if it was between AI and not going on holiday.

Bah. We're going on our first ai holiday in a few weeks. We have always traveled independently and usually long haul.

This holiday was chosen as we didn't want long haul and with a free child place for our son who is 3 it was actually only £109 more expensive than self catering.

And Im sure you will have a great time. I imagine you will do abit of both when you get there. Thats what most people do I expect.

I can understand why people choose AI holidays from a financial point of view, but they don't appeal to me at all (shudder). I have heard far too many tales of bad food, pissed guests, no sunbeds, lack of local character and a negative effect on the local economy. When we go abroad we like to soak up the local culture and eat the local cuisine and generally go self catering so we can eat out at different restaurants in the evening. We also prefer to go to less popular places that don't have kids clubs, all day English breakfasts, karaoke bars etc.

A friend of mine works for a travel agent and she says it is so depressing that at least 60% of all holidays she sells are AI.

We had a fantastic holiday travelling round Cuba a few years ago and decided to go for the day to one of the AI resorts on the North Coast. It was very odd, as we had to show our passports to get into the area (the resort is on an offshore island, linked to the mainland by a manmade causeway). No Cubans, appart from workers, are allowed through. It felt odd to be in a place that was so cut off from the country it was in.

I don't think Barbados has banned AI as such, has it? But it won't have resorts that shut off parts of the beach for public use. There are some Caribbean islands where the locals can barely get to the seafront, but in Barbados beaches are public and anyone can use them (yes, even in front of the Sandy Lane hotel, though IME lots of people believe they can't).

Good for them. It is bad enough that barely any locals even own property on the West coast. it would be beyond tragic if the Barbados coastline was totally lost in gated AI resorts, with Barbadians only able to gain access in order to serve Brit and American tourists.

Depends where you go. There are some all inclusive hotels in france where free wine is supplied but not drunk in excess (the majority of the guests are french who seem to be less greedy). The food quality appears decent and there is a good family atmosphere in the hotel, plus discounts on local excursions. Even if most of the meals are taken at the hotel you can still support the local economy by buying things in the shops, having the odd drink in a cafe/ice creams, staying in a B and B en route etc. These hotels need a lot of staff so are generating employment.

I would rather have no holiday than go on AI.
My Aunty lives in a small village in Greece and we are slowley watching the local economy disappearing. Very sad.

I don't agree that wine and beer is cheaper abroad any more, not since the introduction if the Euro.

The last time I went to Majorca we had a half board hotel and I still spent £270 in 7 days on literally nothing, or so it seemed.

It is definitely cheaper for the individual to go AI in my personal experience. Yes it is a shame if it hurts the holiday resort but everybody is feeling the pinch and they would prefer to go AI than have a holiday of uncertain costs I suppose.

Also some AI holidays are at lovely hotels and no evidence of vultures. I think it depends on the hotel.

We never did AI until last year when me and dh went away, and it was lovely, in a very quiet resort where you couldnt possibly eat out every night because there wasnt anywhere, the food was varied, some nights i couldnt choose. No evidence of excess drinking at all in the hotel, it was a very refined affair.

So for the first time this year we are doing AI for our family holiday. Last year we spent an extra £1500 on food and drink, it was far too expensive eating out costing the same or sometimes more than it would for us to eat out at home.

I think peoples idea of AI is of the 3* properties in places like benidorm which probably is full of beer swigging parents whos feral children run wild all day and night, but theyre certainly not all like that

"I would rather have no holiday than go on AI."

Same here. We are pretty unsociable and don't like being on holiday with crowds of people. In fact, we usually go self catering so that we can eat at all the local restaurants. Last year we stayed at a hotel half board in Italy, but it was a family run hotel employing local staff. As it turned out we would have had to take out a second mortgage if we were eating out at local restaurants every night, but we did frequent the local bars and eateries for lunch.

DH and I went on an AI holiday to Cuba as well about 7 years ago before we had DC.

It's the only one I've ever been on and we did it because it was cheap - about £500 for the fortnight.

It was weird, tbh. The food looked so lovely - fresh salads and lovely dishes. When we arrived on the first night I said to DH I couldn't believe that all anybody wanted to eat was chips. Then I actually tried the salad and all the other dishes. They were PACKED with salt. Now I love salt, put loads of it on my bood but I couldn't eat anything there. I was eating chips by day 2 as well.

The alcohol was also horrible, we ended up paying a fortune for things like Jack Daniels and Gordon's Gin because the free booze was so nasty.

The resort was miles from anywhere, there was nowehere to go to and it was so humid (obv can't blame that on AI) that we couldn't find the energy to go on day trips any distance away.

All that said, it was a nice enough holiday. One week would have been ok. Two weeks was far too long and for the last three days we stayed in the hotel room playing monopoly and watching films to get away from the humidity, and the general ambience

Not my first choice of holiday and for 20 years before DCs and 14 years with DCs I avoided them.
But, feeding two hungry teenage boys who are constantly after snacks and drinks was becoming tedious and so we tried it for the convenience rather than the cost. The DS's were in seventh heaven. DH liked it because we "didn't have to traipse around looking for restaurants every night".
I like choosing a different restaurant every day.
This year we are doing one week at Easter AI and a week in summer S/C.
There is a big difference between 3 star and 4 star AI.

We went AI to The Maldives in Oct. The food was fantastic at every course. The non AI option was £260 for dinner - we ate there once. I think it depends where you are. We've never done AI in Europe because there are usually so many options in the local area.

I have done AI and I think it depends on what you pay, as with all things. I stayed at one resort that only had prebooking at 6 types of restaurant, where it was a menu option not a buffet for dinner and the meals were really delicious. Lunch was a beach bbq buffet or menu. I think it depends on the intelligence of the customer at the resort tbh. More expensive resorts that are AI just offer flexibility with a nice atmostphere. It was nice to know that we could just get small plates of food for young children, and watered down juice without paying out constantly for adult priced portions...and if children slept through lunch you could grab a snack or high tea for them later that afternoon. Otherwise you are paying £10 every day for a plate of pasta or whatever and the kids only eat a timy amount due to the heat of the day, etc.

I have been on an incredibly cheap one to the Domincan Republic when they first became the thing, about 14 years ago, and it was awful....tons of Brits and Yanks determined to drink the value of their holiday back, then complaining to the hotel that they have food poisoning after consuming 4 types of meat with every meal and 8 or so different types of dessert..then sitting in the baking sun drinking spirits and not really connecting the two!

We look at it like a safety net...breakfast is always good to have, lunch we usually do without after a late breakfast at 9.30am, then if we are too relaxed or tired to go out, it's nice to have the option of that at the hotel. It certainly doesn't tie me to the hotel, but I know it does for a lot of people.

I agree though for a lot of people this year it may be AI or stay home, so it's not really taking away customers from the competition, it's probably guaranteeing some visits to the country.

We had our first AI last year in Crete, before that it was always SC, AI is so much easier, the kids could have as much ice-cream and soft drinks as they liked during the day, and they tried so many different things that they normally wouldn't, given a choice I would choose AI.

I have had very mixed experiences with AI. In general I find that the better the hotel and the more expensive the holiday, the better AI is. In mediocre places it can be dismal, and much better to go out and eat locally.

Even in good places we end up going out every fourth night or so, otherwise we start to get International Buffet Fatigue.

Hilly that will be a classified syndrome in 10 years of AI..." International Buffet Fatigue" also known as IBF!

Wouldn't do AI, but for me, holidays are all about eating out.
Oh I tell a lie, we did AI on our honeymoon in the Maldives. But there was only 1 restaurant on the island anyway.