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.

It's true that you do need to pay for a good ai.

I also agree with the mitsis Greek hotels! I stayed in the mitsis grand and the food was sublime.

I find turkey is fantastic for ai, always go 5* and check reviews and what options are available, Majorca was disappointing after turkey.

I've only ever gone alone or with adult family.

I'm taking the kids for the first time this year!

You need to research well - I’d only book an AI with multiple a la carte options and hopefully be able to look at menus/food pics before booking. I like a buffet breakfast/lunch but can’t stand buffet dinners as the atmosphere is poor. Also would only book somewhere with outside dining as it’s nice to eat al fresco when you’re somewhere hot. unfortunately this sort of thing now costs £6-8k for a family of 4 in school holidays so we’re priced out of the sort of holiday we’d like to do (just not worth it) so we self cater instead and go abroad rarely.

There's usually tons of fresh salads, meats, local dishes. It sounds like you didn't choose well.

Most AI I’ve been to are like this. Sone places food is better sometimes it’s pretty standard.

As others have said some places have a number of different restaurants but some don’t have this.

Drinks do tend to be watered down and either not brand name spirits or sometimes brands.

For me when I’ve done AI it’s always with partners or friends who want that and we all understand what you get. I wasn’t overly impressed in one hotel in Gran Canaria there was an extra daily charge to use their spa! It’s good if you’re with family or friends with kids as you know what you get and the kids are happy. If you’re choosing a different type of classy holiday generally I don’t class AI as thus, maybe the super expensive ones though.

Agreed with researching your options as others have said, we always checked them and reviews before booking.

It depends how well it gels with the country's cuisine.

Turkish and north African food very much suits the format, Spanish not so much. Tunisia - tonnes of fresh fish dishes every day. Turkey - lots of salads, bread, stews. Morocco - tagines etc.

If I go AI then I honestly just use it for breakfast and a few beers and a snack by the pool. The buffet dinners are usually pretty rank, unless you’re paying big bucks for a premium hotel.

I use trip advisor religiously before booking. I have been on several AI and always had a great experience. I'm very fussy with food and drinks.

-I ignore the 'official' hotel rating, only book places with an average of 4.5 rating or above on tripadvisor.
-Also I use the search function through the reviews with the keyword "food" (I also do this for drinks), and see if there are consistencomplaints, and I want to see lots of positives.
-I look for places with multiple a la carte restaurants and try to book those as often as possible.
-Finally, when on holiday at the buffet the trick is to have a "meal" each night (pasta one night, burger and salad the next, fish and chips the next) - if you just pick the whole time you will end up feeling like you're eating the same thing over and over.

Good luck if you try again!

I have to say we have not done AI before but we have done HB at a hotel which does AI as we went with my sister and her husband who did AI all the time. I think if you do not drink a lot of alcohol it is probably not worth doing it and I tend to steer clear of resorts which offer buffet style restaurants. We will be doing a villa holiday with family in next few years hopefully with our autistic GD as well and I think anywhere which is very big and busy is unlikely to be popular with someone who is autistic. Sorry you did not enjoy it.

The ones I’ve been to the dinner has ended at 9pm so they tend to stop putting fresh food out from 8.30pm ish - so unless we wanted the scraps what was left we had
to get there early. But these were not 5* resorts come to think of it.

@Littlefidget2 this was the hotel that im going to in 10 days time and had some really bad reviews tell me more pls

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied. I expected to get roasted on here for having a moan but it’s been really enlightening reading other’s recommendations and experiences!

I think perhaps it just completely depends what kind of person you are and what you want… I really don’t like the whole thing of having to battle through swarms of people with a plate and then putting it down and leaving it to get a drink and then searching for cutlery etc etc. It all feels like an ordeal 😳😆 I don’t mind buffet food if it’s good but it all just feels really meh, and there’s no “treat” / relaxed feel to it. I guess if you have little kids who enjoy grabbing all sorts of stuff and you’re happy to just pick at different things maybe that’s okay? (In this place anyway, at least I know from reading the comments it isn’t like this everywhere).

Even things like the Slushies for the kids here are really poor - such a small thing but Ds was really looking forward to the odd one round the pool and they come in the smallest cups ever (just slightly bigger than shot glasses) and a lot of the time they’ve been just liquid and no ice at all! I feel like they purposefully serve all the drinks - even soft ones- in tiny glasses as you either drink less or spend half your life queuing up to get more of them. (They do have drink dispensers all round the resort for juices etc though so that’s good).

It’s all been very eye opening!

Have been to several AI. Some were lovely with plenty of fresh food and others were a repeat of things. I think it's luck of the draw as all we're serving the same clientele and claimed to be 4/5 star

I’ve only done all-inclusive that used seated restaurants with menus instead of buffets. At those the food has never been spectacular, but it has always been good.

Totally agree with this !!

You need top quality, 5 star AI. Ikos is fabulous as mentioned above .

So much generalisation about AI. You would have to assume many people have only experienced less nice AI hotels.

In Ikos we never eat buffet . A la carte for every meal, even breakfast ! Super.

Exactly like this here. Dinner ends at 9pm but they’re cleaning up and emptying everyone out by 8.50pm really. You have to get there 6.30/7ish to get fresh everything. They have a couple of chef stations cooking fresh stuff but it’s mainly meat heavy - lots of joints / roast dinner stuff. Very British if you like that sort of thing - and many do. I am more of a chicken / fish / veg type person and there isn’t a lot of that, which surprised me as I thought being where we are there would be a lot of fish. The seafood stuff they do have seems to just sit there for ages and isn’t refreshed as much so it doesn’t fill me with excitement!

OP when you say 4/5 star - what do you mean ? What was it classified as ?

I'd be the same, OP. I'm not a fan of pub food or buffets and have struggled with catered holidays in the past. Getting to eat the food of the country you're going to is exciting so being given pizzas and chips every day would really get me down.

It's really rubbish if the provisions haven't been as they're advertised.

Probably better to self cater next time and eat out at good restaurants. Or maybe look at review sites and see what people are saying about the food?

@catskittens it is out of town, so quite a long walk into Costa teguise, but there are buses. You can hire bikes at the hotel and the swimming pools are good. One of our children and my husband are keen swimmers, so the 50m pool is a huge bonus. The poolside food is mostly brown but their healthy biscuits and yoghurt options are nice. We love the food for lunch and dinner there. I would highly recommend going. The only slight sticking point is- we usually go in February, so it is very quiet. I'm not sure how busy it is in the summer, which may make it less pleasant. There is an old cat who often hangs out in the bar at the southern part of the hotel. Very cute and amused our children a lot. Oh, and definitely sign up for the paddle board yoga class one day- that's brilliant! 🤣

@catskittens we've been twice and have already booked for next year.

Literally that. 4.5 star. It has a very good review rating right across the boards - google, trip advisor etc etc. I mean yes, we could have spent double and no doubt had a better all round experience but equally it wasn’t at the budget end either and the food to me seems really budget.

We have been to several AI hotels in the same chain in Spain. What we have found is that choosing a hotel in an area that has fewer British tourists and more French/German/Spanish means that the food is usually better. The hotel with the best food, for us, was quite close to the French border. Still buffet, still all a bit of a scrum, but more interesting and less of an attempt to provide typical British food.

TON TON MACOUTE.....That is very good advice, thank you.

many thanks for that was starting to dread it but your review brings faith im sure some people just like to moan

once again thank you

This is good advice - I actually did your first tip and went straight to trip advisor reading everything religiously but I’m definitely going to use your other tips!