Coming to the end of our first all inclusive and wondering if they’re all a bit like this…? Or if it’s our family that doesn’t fit them?

[Xrays]

We’re staying at a 4/5 star resort in Ibiza. It’s got very good reviews on trip advisor, good reviews online elsewhere etc and I know - before someone pounces on me - that we are incredibly lucky to have a holiday at all, yet alone this one, considering how much people are struggling financially right now. This holiday was booked and paid for with some inheritance money from my Mums passing just before covid and has been rebooked and cancelled many times. It’s our first time abroad as a family, Ds aged 11 who has autism and dd aged 20 (normally at university). We’re a close family, and dd really wanted to come, no issues with all being together etc (I know lots of people here are often horrified at older teens etc going on holiday with them)!

But it’s all been a bit underwhelming. Mainly the food aspect. Most of the food is buffet style with kids running riot, it feels like a school canteen with lots of kids screaming, everything feels sort of cheaply done - pizzas that are freshly cooked only have a small amount of topping in the very middle and edges bare etc, the pasta dishes are basically like pasta bakes you could make yourself from a jar from Tesco, lots and lots of chips and everything at breakfast feels like it’s sat out there for ages - except for omelettes which they cook in front of you. I’m kind of sick of omelettes now…! Feels a bit like if Haven did an all inclusive- and just to be clear, I love Haven and we go there every year but I wouldn’t consider Haven 4/5 star and pay to eat there all inclusive!

I guess what I’m wondering is if we were / are just a bit unlucky and other places are better / have more fresh food cooked to order or if they’re all a bit like this? Or maybe we’re just really fussy? (Perhaps we are). I’m thinking ahead to our next holiday and just not sure whether to look at another all inclusive or whether to go for self catering - and use that as a base and eat out (and that’s basically what we’ve ended up doing this time, we’ve given up trying to eat here, which is a shame as we’ve paid ££££ already for food…)! I don’t feel I’ve had a holiday if I have to cook as I do that all the time at home.

Looking to see what other’s experiences are and if you have any ideas of better AIs or elsewhere throw them at me….! Or just tell me they’re all like this and I’m being too fussy and I’ll look for self catering apartments etc.

Ones we have been to have a la carte restaurants and buffet restaurants with some excellent sometimes local dishes cooked in front of you along with some food to cater for kids and adults who will only eat same as before which is often lower quality. We've had meals which have been excellent. In the buffet ones there can be kids running wild and cheaper places can feel like school canteen but you can look up before you go what food offer is and reviews. I would not say that food was typical at all of a mid range AI which is the price bracket you are in. But equally if you first priority is top quality food of an upmarket restaurant standard then you either need to pay for an upmarket AI or self cater and go to upmarket restaurants. The AI we've had has been similar to an average local restaurant.

As per pp to go somewhere AI with nice food you have to go properly high end: somewhere like IKOS. We tend to go half board (not incl alcohol) and it’s about £8k for a week for four in Europe : every meal is an exquisite restaurant meal. If there are buffets it will be a seafood buffet with oysters and a sushi chef. That kind of thing. But unfortunately nowadays for £4k, AI food and alcohol, you’re not going to get beautiful fresh food and fine dining (at least in my dedicated 20 years of sampling many different European resorts!)

You get good and bad but I like it. The food in some of the hotels I've visited was better than many of the local restaurants which were mediocre.

I like it for the grilled meats and seafood plus I like trying different foods. One that I went to had a lot of options and the food was hot plus the specials changed every day and it was always something interesting including roast quail. They always have the best calamari too(Not the kind in batter though I love that too.)

It's horses for courses.

MN loves to hate on AI. But we went this year - it was me and two small boys, first holiday as a single parent and after a serious illness. There was no point planning to be able to visit lots of restaurants as I couldn't walk far myself, let alone with two under tens in heat. Food was okay - some cooked fresh, my kids went nuts for fresh pancakes. Right now it's perfect. We might change when they're older.

Depends where in Ibiza. You can spend £20k -30 on a family of 4 for a week easily in Ibiza.

I always check for hotels with a choice of restaurants when booking AI, you often get several speciality restaurants serving cooked to order food. That said, we also usually go adults only, so maybe it’s not as common in family hotels.

We went to one in Cancun and was was bloody awful. One night there'd be chicken breasts on the buffet, then the next night there'd be chicken curry. Obviously made with all the left over chicken from the night before. Never again.

I've done All Inclusive in Tunisa and Turkey, both 5* and it was really good, several restaurants to choose from, very good food and my abiding memory was just how fresh the fruit and veg were, they tasted so good that I actually ate really healthily! We went late September both times, less crowded, less expensive and less hot. Appreciate that this is not really an option if you have school age kids. We never had lunch in the hotel as like to get out and explore other places and the history and culture of where we were staying. Would do it again.

That certainly wasn't our experience at Seaside Los Jameos.
There was a huge selection of salads and vegetables at every meal time. It was easy to make healthy choices.

I do agree though that I mentally groaned when I saw lunch being set up, AI makes food too much of a focus for me, but it is good with bottomless teen DS and friend.

Lots of freshly prepared food with minimal UPF, fresh salads/veg, and not much alcohol? You may be disappointed with AI.

I don't drink alcohol and I love veg and I've never struggled to find veg and fruit in an AI.

We went to an AI last year (our first time to one). The resort was lovely and overall I enjoyed the holiday but was a bit underwhelmed by the food! The breakfasts were great actually- lots of hot options as well as pastries, cereals, a great variety of yoghurts, fruit, nuts etc and freshly cooked pancakes. But the lunches and dinners were underwhelming to me personally. The food was fine but I just wasn’t really wowed by any of it. I came home realising I’ve become a bit of a food snob as I’ve got older.

Would never ever do an AI resort.

There's so much variation in the quality of all inclusive. Some of the cheaper ones can really feel like canteens. I always spend ages looking at the food photos on trip advisor to see if it looks good. You really need somewhere with A la carte restaurants or go out for some meals to break it up. It was great when we had much younger kids who would get tired and hungry because you could just rock up and feed them but I think now mine are teens bed and breakfast is probably preferable.

We do AI in the Caribbean, Egypt and turkey. We do it for the entertainment and facilities in the hotel. 5* normally gets you al cart meals but the buffet is always decent food if like a canteen.

Tbf it sounds like a fairly standard AI, we do tend to still go to them as even though we don’t really drink alcohol, the soft drinks, ice creams, snacks etc all add up plus they usually have more activities onsite for the kids / teens. We will only book somewhere with 2-3 Al Cartes to try to break up the week and eat out once or twice.
We are currently on holiday which is B&B for the first time in a long time. We’ve loved been able to go out and try different restaurants every night but have spent an absolute fortune.

There's only 1 AI I've been to where I thought the food was superb and that's one of the TUI Blue hotels in Turkey. There are 4 good a la carte restaurants but not many people bother with them because the main restaurant is so good. The choice changes daily and whilst you certainly can get beige foods for fussy kids, there is plenty more interesting stuff.

I do. Food is the most important factor of my holiday.

Most of the food is buffet style

Buffet style self service would surely have been described in the advert? It means every thing is laid out on show ,being kept hot (or cold) for hours, to help yourself. Which means every diner milling about on foot filling and fetching their plates.

I prefer table service by waiters. I look for venues that provide it. So at every meal, at a stated time the diners are seated throughout; no kids running about. You choose from a menu, give the waiter your order, wait while the chefs finish cooking and plating it, its brought by a waiter and served to you at the table.

Venues offering table/waiter service and a more refined menu than chips, pasta and pizza, make a point of advertising them.

You need to improve the research skills.

I disagree, mine are similar ages and we’ve just got back from an AI. We do eat out a few evenings but love the convenience of just being able to go to the buffet. We don’t really drink alcohol so don’t use it for that.

We would be bored stiff in an apartment. We chosenAI resorts for the pools, the entertainment ect. An apartment with its own pool and nothing going on would not appeal to us at all.

It varies! The ai I stayed in recently in Ibiza was underwhelming food wise whereas the hotel I stayed in in fuerterentura was far better, both under the TUI umbrella (one was holidays villages, one was magic life, later was better because there were 5 places to eat included in the ai)

I have found from my experience of all inclusive best to read tripadvisor reviews to check on food first. Plus I think its actually often linked to countries whether culturally they are into feasts etc as I noticed its country determined. We expect good AI in Mexico, Arab states and Greece. I have previously looked into going to Ibiza and would not have choosen an all inclusive there.

A certain type of person goes on an all inclusive

Make of that what you will

You don’t have to think about food, kids can eat plain pasta, margarita pizza and nuggets all week with unlimited coke & ice cream.

I would just book flights and accommodation and then eat out.

Another one for Mitsis in Greece, I have been to the Mitsis Rodos Maris a couple of times, as well as the buffet there are themed restaurants that you book: Pan Asian, American, Greek, Mexican etc, and the pizza on the beach is fantastic.