Cost of eating out Greece/Turkey/Tunisia

[suddenlysix]

So we're looking at holidays for our large family - 8 of us now my step children have moved in - and we were thinking we'd have to do all inclusive to make it better value. But I'm seeing a lot of self catering holidays coming up last minute which will be about £200+ cheaper. So just wondering if anyone can tell me whether it's worth considering. I do not want to go on holiday and end up cooking dinner every night like I do at home so I'd want to eat out every night (obviously we could have breakfast and lunch in the apartment). Anyone have any experience on whether we'd be better off just going all inclusive or if it's so cheap to eat out abroad we could consider it? We don't have anywhere particular in mind to go but have been thinking about Greece, Turkey and Tunisia. Any others suggestions very welcome though!

Thanks.

" I know kids don't deserve all inclusive foreign holidays but I've saved really hard and I want to treat them all. "

I think AI is the cheapest way to go when you have kids.

My parents live in Northern Cyprus and I wouldn't say it is cheap, probably equivalent prices to a pub meal here, but obviously more restaurant quality and a much nicer setting! We have done AI there and it has been lovely. A little repetitive occasionally but always a good standard. Its not quite the same "getting dressed up in the evening and wandering to find a local restaurant" experience that I used to have when we went abroad as children, and certainly in Northern Cyprus its usually a help yourself buffet (so with 8 of you, you might be up and down like a yo-yo) which isn't quite a relaxing, but I think it would save you a fortune.

Have you considered a villa with paying someone to come in and doing some housekeeping plus cooking/ prepping lunch and dinner for you?

Many villas for rent you can get someone to do this. Give them a food budget for the week/ day to buy food in local markets/ supermarket, then they arrive at say midday with the food and prep lunch, then after will prep dinner for later and leave in fridge ( ie marinate food for BBQ, make salads, or bake a dish), and do a bit of cleaning ie floors, washing up majority etc. So basically paying someone 11am -3pm ish daily. Say 50 euros for those 4 hours. 350 euros a week. Plus food costs say 300 euros a week ( nice food, ice creams, beer etc)

750 ish euros for food and someone to prep.
Villa somewhere cheapish ie lake balaton Hungary, or mainland Greece, Croatia around 2000 euros a week+ for 8 of you

2000 euros for 8 flights approx ( maybe less depending on location)

Less than 5000 euros for 8 people. Less if you bargain good villa ( can be only 800 euros for example, and food bill could be reduced), so potentially 3500 euros for 8. Far cheaper than all inclusive to same standard for 8 ( usually £800-1000 each)

Thanks for the replies everyone. The villa idea sounds nice but well out of our budget. I think I may have found a way around it though and as soon as the passports I'm waiting on get back I'll be trying to put it together.

After searching endlessly for holidays I've discovered that flying from Scotland is less than half the price as their school holidays end before ours here in England. It's a long drive from Essex but I've looked in to b&bs and travelodge style hotels on the route up there (about 2/3 of the way up, somewhere not really touristy therefore cheap!) so we would travel there the day before our flight, get a couple of family rooms and do the last hour or two to the airport the next day. This not only saves a ridiculous amount of money but also adds an extra day onto the holiday for us. The children will love it! Seriously, there are holidays on the main websites like Thomson etc that are £450pp flying from Gatwick and £240 flying from Glasgow or Edinburgh. That means that even if the petrol and b&b cost £300 we'll still save a ton of money per person and as there are so many of us that's a massive saving. I even managed to find a couple of holidays with excellent reviews on icelolly.com although these have gone now Really need those passports back so I can try out my haggling skills. I will get a decent holiday for all 8 of us for less than £2000 if it takes me a thousand internet scouring hours!

Wow, I'm super impressed

Well thank you I just hope this will all come together. I'll definitely post all my total costs once I've finally booked it all. Now I just need to pester the passport people and hope they'll get a move on without actual flight details etc.

Just back from Tunisia all inclusive.we stayed at the
Iberostar Royal El Mansour & Thalasso and it was an amazing hotel but be warned that there wasn't much to do around the hotel.. We were quite happy with this.
All inclusive food options were very good. Eating out was very cheap but I would rather stick to eating at the hotel.

We are.a family of 6
2 adults
Kids age 18,16,15 & 10
So the big ones eat masses.
We frequently go to Turkey or Greece
Costs us around £100-£120 a night for a nice meal with wine & soft drinks. Always have a starter & a main each ( no pudding)
We eat in the villa in the day.
We do a big shop (£200)of everything we need for the 2 weeks.
Drinks, nibbles, frozen things like ice cream etc.
We buy salad & bread when needed
It is not cheap, but we don't like pizza or burgers etc

Ooh christmashope I've got a feeling that is the hotel my neighbour went to, I'm sure she said it was the Thalasso in Sousse. She loved it so much she's going back in September. We're not bothered about there being much to do either, just a beach, a swimming pool and a little town to look around will be enough for us.

Thanks chickydoo, thats sort of what I thought it might cost. I have seen self catering for around £100pp so I am considering that as it would leave us enough for eating out.