What can you tell me about all inclusive holidays?

[freeforall]

I haven't been on a package holiday (or a plane) in more than a decade.

This year I would like to see some sun. I think I like the idea of somewhere where the DC (9 & 11) can meet up with other children and where we know the total cost of the holiday before we start

but,

I don't like the idea of somewhere rowdy or of getting up a dawn to get a spot by the pool.

We usually holiday in the Lake District in a sweet private cottage.....

ooer where did you stay in Crete? I'd really fancy going if there's a good child friendly place to stay. And did the hotel have kids clubs?

When you take a constantly hungry teenage boy on holiday then all inclusive is a godsend
he was fed and watered to the point he could eat no more one night - a first for my ds with seemingly hollow legs.
This was a 5* hotel in the dominican republic and it was a wonderful holiday, great food, gorgeous beach, fab kids club and even a coffee shop and bowling alley. Dd went to kids club and also swam with dolphins, ds did scuba diving and both spent the rest of the holiday either in the pool or in the restaurants.
When I was a child we went full board to pontins or butlins for our summer holidays and tbh AI really reminded of those much loved childhood holidays.
We're looking to go AI somewhere again this year.

Apparently All Inclusive are really bad for the local economies. I saw a programme about Mexico where the locals are all living in abject poverty now AI is the norm. People just don't spend locally when they are on AI.

have always done AI holidays - tho stay in 4*+ ones

to me its not the free booze during the daytime but the fact you can have any cold drinks,i generally drink water or diet coke daytime by pool or dehydrate - and doesnt cost tons

never go with kids as dont have any,but friends who do say its fab as dont feel guilty when kids say can i have an ice cream/coke/sandwich etc

yes food can be basic but most hotels have special nights and nice to try the local dishes out and if you dont like it then have something else

if you want to go out for a day then tell the hotel the night before by 9pm and they do you as packed lunch - again basic but normally sandwich/fruit/crackers/cheese and water

We have been with crystal. I agree was very easy.Unfortunately we were sat with the couple from hell for.dinner.every night.,apart from that it was fine, but I agree not luxury

Great value, we have done AI in Greece twice, and Turkey 3 times. AS long as the kids are young I wouldn't consider any other type of holiday- and we always go 3 star, the food has always been great.
AI is a complete rest for us Mums.

Would not have been seen dead in AI pre DC but with 2 DSs (7 & 2) AI is brilliant but the food does need to be good.

We've been to Turkey mainly and the food quality is amazing. Elder DS loved the kids club/activities and waterparks.

I feel like I have had a holiday

I got more than I bargained for on an AI holiday last year [bugrin]

Have only done them as a couple in less family orientated hotels but can see how they would be ideal for famlies in terms of constant availability of snacks and drinks, activities etc and would defintely consider them for future when we are travelling as a family.

I wouldn't go AI in Greece simply because I love Greek food so much and part of the pleasure of my holiday is finding great little Tavernas to eat in and sample all their particular specialities.

Cruises are wonderful too. And I speak as someone who was highly skeptical about cruising. The ships are like floating towns and with various ports to visit, you can't get 'cabin fever' as someone above suggested.

I guess it depends what you are looking for ! pre DC it was luxury resort with great food and lots of activities sports wise. Post DC it is somewhere that we can relax and not worry that the ice cream bill is going to blow the credit card.
They ones we have been to , most recently a 4 * in Tenerife was fab. Great food, fab kids club, great staff, lovely rooms.
I find that when we are with my DS9 he just wants to be with his friends, this way it was so easy as he could bring them to lunch with them and we could alternate with other parents.
The right AI is a win- win for families.

Has anyone been to a really good AI in Greece? We've been to club med's in other locations and really like them (after allowing for the theme nights, which the kids love). We really like the AI aspect as you know what you've spent and as long as you go to a good resort the inclusions are all good quality so no need to spend more.

Anyway looking to find somewhere in Greece this year so would love to hear any recommendations :)

thx

Went AI to the Bahamas 12 years ago when DSS was 10, he drank enough coke during the day to make the cost worthwhile! In fact, the hotel kept a tally which was interesting to see at the end of the holiday, if a little . Lets just say we got our money's worth

I've also done lower grade AI in Lanzarote, not an experience I would be in a hurry to repeat. The food was disgusting, I actually lost weight on that holiday. Oh well, every cloud..

Landrover, we're cruising with Royal Carribbean in the Med. I've read good reviews about their kids clubs. People recommended Cunard for children's activities but we're not made of money!!!

In my opinion they are rarely good value and I hate being confined to one place. However Club Med is a good active holiday option but its very expensive for what it is

Smiles there's a Club Med in Dassia, Corfu. We stayed right beside it years ago. I assume it's still there.

A few years ago I would have said "not never, not no way" to AI - but our DC are now 9 and 5, and it works really well. They want a pool and a beach and a kids club, DH wants a good dive school, and I want a nice shady tree, a stack of books or a kindle, hopefully, this year, and a break from logistics - by which I mean having to source and lug around water, snacks, towels, etc, etc - so a (good) AI with everything on tap is great - and as others have said, it represents a holiday from saying "no" to the DC - they can have whatever snacks/drinks they want whenever they want and I am not left apoplectic at the waste if they don't finish them. You do have to read the smallprint, though, to ensure that the package you are choosing meets what you want, and I have no illusions that it works out much cheaper - just more predictable because you have paid the vast majority apart from DH's huge diving bill up front.

We went to Cuba (Guardalavaca, Playa Pesquero) AI a few years ago. It was a massive site with 8 restaurants (I think) and several bars, a nightclub etc. There was a main buffet restaurant where you could eat breakfast, lunch & dinner at set times (but flexible times, think each meal lasted 2-3 hours) - food there was fine, decent but not luxurious service - you got table service for drinks (wine by the glass only) but had to help yourself to everything else. There was also a 24 hour restaurant that did basic stuff like burgers, toasties and chips (possibly pizza too??) We went there for breakfast when we were off to Havana as we had an early flight and it was the only restaurant open at 5am - they made us scrambled eggs and toast I think. There was a really gross place called 'the grill' that was poolside and the food in there was - just awful. So we avoided it. Then there were dinner-only a la carte restaurants that you had to book - we went and booked for 10 nights out of the 14 on arrival and had no problems getting reservations. The food at those places was pretty good (not Le Gavroche standard, but very nice and decent quality - and wine served by the bottle, proper table service and wine coolers, same as being in any restaurant).

The only criticism I have of the restaurant set up is that all but one of the restaurants are open at the side so during the day birds are flying around and I am totally phobic about birds - so I didn't eat much during the day! In the evening they're all gone to bed so it's fine .

The hotel is on the beach and all beaches are public in Cuba, so there are locals and holidaymakers from other hotels (it's next door to the Paradisus Rio de Oro, which I believe is very lovely - we met a couple who were there on honeymoon and they said it was fantastic - also I think their restaurants are all a la carte, no buffets, think it was about 25% more expensive to go there). It's also very safe to go off the resort so we had some days out and also we went on an organised 2-day trip to Havana.

We got great service (no need to go to the bar, you will be served at your seat by the bar staff - and there's a guy with a mobile bar trolley around the pool so you don't need to even get up if you don't want to) and some great food (also some not so great, but by and large there was a ton of choice and it was fresh).

I think 5 star AI is great - but not sure I would fancy an AI with one buffet restaurant tbh. The variety is much nicer and I would personally choose local restaurants over a single buffet every meal. That is the main thing that would put me off a lot of the resorts in the Maldives - I couldn't stand 3 meals a day for a week all in the same restaurant!

I agree with thenightsky. There will be nowhere authentic left to holiday soon as the local bars and restaurants aren't able to compete on price or have no customers to begin with. I've holidayed in Menorca for the last 10 years and some resorts are just dying, purely because of the AI hotels there, it's sad and awful to see.

I appreciate that it is only luck that means I don't have to take the AI option, but please, if you can afford to go S/C or B&B, please do.

All family type hotels in the school holidays will be mobbed. Usually they are not rowdy as its mostly school aged kids and boring middle aged parenst. Anyone who wants to party will avoid such places like the plague

Anywhere with buffet style meals will never be teh same quality as a top restaurant.

If there are childrens clubs and activities you wont see your children from dawn to dusk. There will probably be many activities for adults too eg tennis, watersports,cycling, classes

Only you can decide if the advatnages outweigh the disadvanatges

Our kids like to meet other kids, make new friends,Play on the beach /pool,do watersports, eat " kids" food and never see us. I like to do sports and Dh likes to read in the shade. So big resort AI hols work for us. We can put up with the less than cordon bleu food becaise we all get to do what we like all day,we can have romantic aftrenooons and dinner/drinks sans kids at night

If you dont like people/strangers/busyness/queueing/activities,you wont like it. If you want to spend " quality time" as a family and eat haute cuisine , dont go. If you want to sit by the kids pool but hate children screaming and splashing, dont even think about it. If you want an authentic experince of the local food and culture, forget it. Its not a pretty cottage in the countryside. But we love it

Don't go less than 4 star. 5 star all inclusive in shark el sheik egypt would suit you. Hotels large and spacious, 7 plus restaurants per hotel so not busy and watersports/ diving etc included at many. I don't understand people saying its restrictive as to when to eat, every resort I've ever been to has food min 7am-12 midnight, some 24hr, and you can ask for lunch to be provided to travel with if you like

If you don't want to leave hotel look at cape verde, tis the new place to be but literally hotel and desert as only opened a year or so ago to tourists. Although watersports fabulous

I've done half a dozen AI holidays, some pre-DC & others post-DC. The best was a 5* one in Mexico where there were 6 different restaurants (Italian/Japanese/steak etc) as well as the buffet and you had free choice as to where you wanted to eat each night. Essentially it was the same as being in a hotel within walking distance of a large village as you had the same amount of choice food wise but the ease of knowing that your meals were free and you could obviously have as many snacks, ice creams, drinks etc during the day as you wanted.
At the other end of the scale are the Mark Warner/Thomson/Club Med ones where you have to have the buffet every night other than the one night when you're allowed to go "a la carte". The first day of the buffet you think the food is great as there is so much choice... by day three, you realise that they put out pretty much the same thing every day and you've got bored of the things you like from that selection but don't really fancy the others. The a la carte isn't any different from the buffet except for the fact that you're served rather than having to go & get it yourself. On none of these holidays have we ended up doing the whole week AI as we found some lovely local restaurants with much nicer choice so the AI was wasted on us ... not that we had a choice as the resorts we went to only offered AI.
However, if you have fussy eaters, its a great way to feed them as, if they don't like something, you can go & get something else. Fishfingers, chicken nuggets, chips etc will be offered every night & I've seen families battle to try & persuade their children to eat anything else when those temptations are in front of them. We tend to take the attitude that its only for a week so it can't do too much harm. Its so relaxing to be able to say yes to requests for ice cream/drinks/snacks etc & not worry about the cost or whether they're going to be wasted. You may want to check the mealtimes as, in one place we went to, the restaurant wasn't open until 7.30 in the evening which was too late for our pre-schooler - but that shouldn't be a problem for you.
My experience with both MW & CM is that you get allocated to a table - as in go & sit with that family over there to fill up that table rather than there's a table for 3 by that window. We've met some really nice people but also had some excruciating evenings... one evening being next to a couple who just wanted to boast about how wonderful their children were; another next to a family where the parents were in the middle of a blazing row with loads of swearing, crying etc.

I would never go AI, the thought of being stuck in the hotel all the times horrifies me!

If you normally have a cottage why not go for a villa with a pool?

I would steer clear of AI as you never get to see a country if you never stray far from your hotel. It's also not good for local economies.

They don't actually lock you in the hotel, you know

What convinced us that AI was the right option for a few years, actually, was a holiday in Cyprus where the hotel was lovely but food/drinks/ice cream were eye-wateringly expensive, and the DC did not want to get out of the pool and get dressed and dry to go out every mealtime, plus we soon established that all the options within walking distance were overpriced mediocre (at best) tourist feeding holes. We did eventually find where the locals eat, and it was indeed a lot cheaper and very nice, but was a drive away (see earlier issue with extracting DC from pool and hotel) and DH and I spent the first few days in utter despair at how much we were spending just feeding ourselves.

I wouldn't go AI in somewhere where there are lots of places to go within easy reach (most of Europe), but with under-10's tolerance of long car trips / walks in hot climates, and their nonexistant limited interest in "culture" combined with relatively isolated resorts, AI has served us well recently.

We go AI every year, have been to (Pre DC) Kenya, Dom Rep, Cuba, Mexico, (Post DC) Majorca, Fuertaventura, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Morocco, Tunisia and this year Egypt.

We've never been 'tied' to the hotel. Every hotel we've stayed at we have been able to pre-book packed lunches so we could have days out. We usually spend day in / day out and maybe throw in a couple of pre-booked excursions. We also take care to choose places with 3 or more restaurants on site, so there is always a choice (however we almost always prefer the buffet option - I like to taste a lot of different 'foreign' foods and an AI buffet gives me the chance to do so without worrying about the cost or the waste if I hate it)

The only bad hols we have had was the first with DC in Majorca - we learnt our lesson and don't go less than 4* now and the food at the one in Morocco was dire - but that was more to do with the fact that we went during Ramadan and the main catering staff were off. Outside of the food Morocco was one of our favourites and we would happily go again - just to a Riu this time.

I think a lot of the preceived problems with AI are just a result of snobbery and come from people who have never done it - but can't wait to say "I'd never do that " as if we were talking about sucking on a crack-pipe!

OP - The place we are going to in Egypt has 26 swimming pools...I reckon it won't be that hard to find a sunbed! or you could try a First Choice Holiday Village and pay a supplement for a swim up room...plus they have more entertainment for kids than you can shake a stick at (excellent one in Sharm and another V good one in Rhodes)

We always do them but are getting a bit bored now,I do like not taking money out by the pool and eating and drinking what i like and dd loves being able to graze form the snack bar. I actually love the tea and cake time where people queue in herds as if they have never had ahot drink and a slice of dry cake