self catering vs all inc

[signalred]

What do you all reckon?

Looking for a cheap week away in September...

£1800-£2000k all inc

£1100-£1300 self catering / b&b

We've always done all inc, but I hate the routine and tediousness of it all. Husband thinks I'm mad even considering self catering with 2DC and there everlasting requesting for drinks/ice. But surely I can sort them drinks and food for 6-700? X

Won't the 5yo be starting reception/in September?

I don't know why other people have to be sniffy about people's holiday choices.

We only have one DS and enough funds to afford eating out all the time, but there's clearly a market for AI.

I can imagine if you have a fussy DC ( actually I don't need to imagine that one ) or very young DCs who don't like sitting still for long to linger over a meal, or say teens who like to drink multiple fizzy drinks and have adult sized appetites, then meal times can be quite stressful and expensive.

I see it myself when we go away with SIL and her teen and adult DCs granted there is something in there about ensuring chores are shared more equitably. In the UK it's doable as I've now put my foot down and refuse to cook more than a bolognaise or lift/wash one plate more than my fair share so we tend to live on convenience foods or eat out a lot ( previously SIL and I did pretty much all the cooking and tidying away and shopping).

She now refuses to go abroad with the full family unless it's AI and I can see why. So whilst I don't think an AI would be our cup of tea it seems a bit mean to scoff others who have it as their holiday choice for perfectly valid reasons.

We go AI for reasons other have listed

No cooking/pot washing
Kids able to access what they want when they want it
Probably saves us money on drinks lollies etc

3 DC aged 3-8 this year one week AI 2500

I've always self-catered with the kids, home or abroad.

Breakfast is either cereal (UK), pastries or french bread and jam.
Lunch is soup & bread or bread & pate, ham, cheese or pizza (abroad) or sandwiches or pub lunch (UK)
Evening meal we eat out, or sometimes in the UK will eat in if we ate out at lunchtime.

DP and I have done AI on our own in Antigua the last couple of years. I facetimed ds2 round the breakfast buffet and his little face was "WOW", he wanted to go AI this summer so I looked but it was double the cost of flights + apartment, plus with self-catering we get more room - living area, kitchen - which I prefer with the kids.

Actually we went SC once in the UK and spent a bloody fortune thinking about it! Some days we ate all three meals out because washing up is not for holidays

I found that the best way to control costs s/c abroad is to take cash rather than use cards.

That way we had to stick to a budget each day which helped to focus the mind on which meals we actually wanted out and sticking to one glass of wine out and a bottle at home except when DH who hates working to a budget would sneakily use the card.

This year we are doing s/c as cannot find AI in south france. It will possibly work out more. However, we did get bit fed up with queues, routine and not having freedom to go off site due to meal times. Hard getting kids up and I also got fed up of stuffing/heart burn. So it will be cereals for breakfast but, as a compromise, eating out instead as a I don't want to cook the whole time. Looking forward to less structure this way and more variety, though not saying I won't go back to AI!

France is great for s/c if there is a boulangerie within walking distance - lovely pain au chocolate every day. DCs will love it.

Costa both are perfectly capable of washing a mug but neither has any wish to while we are on holiday!

I think I would be going with the AI if the budget can stretch or HB do agree it can be repetitive and slightly suffocating - like spending more than 3 hours at the Trafford centre lol

But for me Shopping for food, preparing food, cleaning up after preparing food, keeping flat/villa or whatever in decent state - are all a hassle I can do without. Also and perhaps I am in the minority here but I have always found shopping/eating out (in any parts of Europe using the euro anyway) actually pretty expensive to the point it is not far off AI or HB type options. I was in Athens for business not so long ago and I can tell you it was in a level with London prices

Does also depend on size of your family - if I had a larger family say 3 kids or more then a villa may be better suited as with that larger size of family you can kind of entertain yourself and need a lot more space plus the multiples of AI would rack up. I have a smaller family and I prefer to enjoy the entertainment/facilities at a hotel

I live in a Euro country, in a tourist area, we can eat out for 25€ for two, including wine and coffee, and our shopping bill is much less than the equivalent in the uk

Thankfully we don't have AI places in the village, so we still have a lot of very busy bars and restaurants - it's very much a self catering place, which is why we first came here nearly 30 years ago. We looked forward to walking round, checking out the menus each evening, choosing where to eat