Cheapest? Half board, self catering (ie often eating out!) or All inclusive?

[indianwoman]

As the title says. I'm wondering is it cheaper to pay more initially for breakfast and evening meal and buy a snacky lunch than more bed and breakfast? Surely AI isn't better value? Just more convenient?
Just trying to keep costs down but without being a miserable holiday for me and watching costs on ice creams etc!
Probably Spain, Greece, Turkey beach type hols.

Has anyone costed this out or have educated guesses? Please?

We like half board but it’s worth checking the various options/prices when you book. (Usually near the end of the process when you are selecting rooms etc)
lots of places have breakfast as an option that’s hardly any extra cost
we found that AI kept us near to the hotel as less likely to want to go out and pay for food, drinks etc
half board suits us

I think it’s best to do a rough estimate of how much you’d spend on a snacks lunch, ice creams, water, soft drinks, alcohol, teas and coffee etc. For bed and breakfast all that plus dinner and go from there.
What I normally do is pick a not too expensive all inclusive and still do lots of trips and a couple of dinners and lunches out. I know some people take all inclusive literally and don’t go out and about that much and pay for additional food or drink.
It also depends if you like alcohol.

When you say 'self catering' do you mean a room only basis in a hotel or do you mean an apartment or villa ? As it's not quite like for like as in the one you get more space but in the other you may have more facilities / entertainment .

If you are just comparing different options in a hotel it probably depends on how much your own family eats/ drinks - and also what you enjoy doing (ie do you like trying different places?) rather than just the cost element .

work out the price differential between the cost of your AI and the cost of self catering.

so if, plucking a figure out of the air, the flights and self catering total £3000 and an AI is £4000 for a week you just work out whether you are likely to spend £142 a day on all food, drink abd snacks. You also need to consider whether you are likely to want to leave the resort, what time you depart and arrive. eg are you actually arriving at 0100 in the morning of day two of your holiday (which happens a lot with Tui's Turkey range) and leaving at 10 which means fir two days you won't use the AI.
what does the AI on offer actually include, is it free unlimited a la carte or 1 use per 7 nights/extra charge, free room service, decent drinks, wine etc. is there a filled minibar in the room, ice cream, afternoon snacks.
you've got to weigh it up. Some AI packages are really not worth it abd some are great.
just come back from Mexico where the Ai packages are great value - got 24 hr room service, 7 unlimited a la cartes, 3 buffets, 6 bars (one premium drinks included on our package), snacks all day, waffle and ice cream bar, a hydrotherapy circuit included in the spa and minibar with soft drinks and beers. Red, white, rose abd cava always available at meals.

I tried to save money last year by going self catering. What a false economy that was. Penny pinching the whole time and still managed to spend £5k on a crap (compared to our usual) holiday. Also the kids (10, 12 & 15) hated it.

Depends if you drink alcohol.
On a typical day of AI we had:

breakfast
Mid morning coffees/soft drinks
Ice creams
Late lunch
Cocktail or sangria mid afternoon/more soft drinks for the kids
Dinner with wine
Coffees/soft drinks/alcoholic drinks on the terrace after dinner

Probably worth £70-100 per person per day
It also depends where you're staying and how expensive it is to eat out. We had a very basic lunch of pizza in a beach bar one day and it cost us £80!

It's worth it for us as it means we don't have to budget or say no to the kids once we're there. Saves hassle. If we were travelling as a couple I'd prefer to explore the local cuisine a bit more.

We tried not AI one year and decided as a family we would go back to it! We found the hunt for lunch/tea for places to eat was hard work and very costly. We found for four of us (2 teens) the cheapest restaurant for tea was about 80 euros. Then we had drinks in a bar after that. Lunch was usually 30euros for sandwiches etc then drinks and ice cream at the pool. We hated money watching the whole time.

Have found that the cost of eating out abroad is now very similar to the UK so if eating out for every meal it can quickly mount up. I think all inclusive is probably cheaper, particularly if you drink alcohol.

I don't like beig restricted to hotel food and eating at a buffet all the time is unappetising. Cheap AI is not my thing. Food on holiday is important. Selections of A la carte restaurants are better but never usually the best places you could be eating.

I don't want to guzzle drinks and snacks and a big lunch just because it's there. A hotel breakfast needs only a snack lunch and then you're on to a big dinner. Ai cocktails are usually sugary and weak.

The costs of villa and SC accommodation has rocketed. I want the space but I don't want to pay hotel prices as I'm still cleaning up after myself and preparing my own food.

AI and HB are good when you won't be leaving the resort.

It depends whether the difference between the B&B rate and AI / HB rate I'd more than I'd spend on the meals out then I don't bother with AI / HB

I think if you are not drinking or drinking rarely and don’t eat big lunch - you better go half board : breakfast and dinner. However I never stay in remote places with no shops so I could easily buy things I want.
id love to go AI it’s just too expensive to justify for me.

It massively depends on what you like to do / eat and how your family composition is, how much you like other people, and of course, the budget. With 4 kids I preferred on balance to be self-catering. We used to go out to eat every other night and cooked something simple on the nights we were in - we'd often be out til late in the day on that night and everyone was tired and glad of something familiar to eat in their PJs, especially my two younger children who would often be fractious later on and basically just needed a bit of routine back - we parents would sometimes then have a (supermarket) drink after they'd gone to bed on the terrace or balcony. 2 older kids would watch netflix etc. Breakfast was also easier as ours did not get up the same time. Of course this does mean that someone has to go out and do some shopping and also some light cooking / cleaning, didn't mind this, but if it is not for you, then I would understand why AI works. Also, this sort of holiday has the potential to be quite lonely - AI has the entertainment, other people, and so on. People have different tolerances for this (mine is quite low) but there's no doubt the kids can have a better time. We found doing a mixed economy worked quite well, so we used to do the outer disneyland hotels (inc breakfast) or a eurocamp, Duinrell etc. so the kids had chance to make friends in the evening, but we did our own thing in the day and ate much like we do at home with a few nice meals out and nice snacky things in the fridge. I am not a fussy mum at all, but AI drives the wrong behaviour in our family.

I will add that my kids have now grown up, and me and OH go AI on cruises - premium drinks package etc. and I am still not convinced.....

i would never NOT do AI to be honest, it’s worth it for all of the soft drinks/ice creams alone.
nothing worse than having to budget or watch your money on holiday and this takes all of the pressure off.

we’ve stayed at a fantastic 5 star AI water park resort in Turkey 3 times now and the value for money is tremendous.
I don’t think I would even enjoy a self catering holiday now. Mine are 13 and 21 and the eldest doesn’t drink alcohol but still gets his moneys worth with the soft drinks.

Well I don't drink and I don't eat lunch....

But even when I did, being tied to lunch at the resort "because we paid for it " became a bind.

I do AI with the kids purely because they like to snack A LOT, one DC is quite fussy and I refuse to pay £40 for a meal out and then not eat it. I also like a glass of wine on an evening. The children don't really want to explore the surroundings much as their age so AI with a good pool and kids entertainment is what I'm after and AI is great for that.

I don’t drink either and whether or not you eat lunch isn’t a problem when there is literally food available 24/7. In holiday there are no rules as such and mine are both fussy and have asd and they don’t feel pressured to eat something if they try it and dont like it, they can try something else.

reminds me of a family holiday to Fuengirola when i was a teen and my brother was a year younger and vegetarian. we were self catering and every
single night for 2 weeks he ate mushroom soup and mushroom pizza, regardless of where we ate.
he was sick of mushrooms after that holiday!

I think what is best depends on what you value most, if there are any fussy eaters and whether everyone in the party will share the load, or laze around expecting you to run round after them and moan if everything isn't to their liking.

We've found the best balance for us, which won't necessarily be the same for you. But, we're child free and DP pulls his weight with cooking, washing up/dishwasher and certainly when it comes to carrying beer back from the shop

We tend to go self catering but might choose an apart hotel with breakfast included. We will always choose somewhere walking distance from food shops, restaurants etc and a kitchen. We usually go to Spain/Canaries/Balearics in quieter places, for example our next holiday is Santa Eulalia in Ibiza.

Having tried it once, because HB was only about £20 each more than B&B in the same hotel, I realised that I don't like buffets for dinner and if the food wasn't to my taste - I like fresh local food not processed meat, beige and chips it would ruin the holiday for me. I also like to eat outside and be served a meal at a table, same for lunch, but I don't mind (and quite like) a buffet breakfast.

I don't want to pay for the kind of AI that has a la carte restaurants and don't want to have to book in advance, rather go with the flow on the day. We also go the beach, waterpark, boat trips and take trips out to wander round other towns/cities, so wouldn't be at the hotel for lunch anyway.

So we'll stock up with drinks, snacks, maybe ice creams, breakfast supplies and some easy food eg for a BBQ from the shop and then eat out at least once a day, usually one full meal and the other maybe drinks and tapas, or a slice of pizza, or maybe just an ice cream for lunch if we've had a decent breakfast. Works for us and cheaper than a la carte AI but a nicer experience than a mid range buffet style HB/AI.

I think half board is the worst of all. We either go AI to a 4/5 star resort where we know the food and drink quality is excellent, as well as the resort and activities available. Or we go somewhere more basic self catering where we can explore the area and go somewhere new for dinner each evening. HB means you don't have lunch provided but you have to come back for dinner.

You don't have to do that, we certainly don't. We had 3 dinners out on our recent 10 night holiday and we wouldn't let being AI stop us going out.
my Rule of thumb is generally AI for a chilled, flopping on a lounger with a book type beach holiday and SC with brekkie in apartment and lunches/ dinners out for anything else.

we love eating out but sometimes I need a total break from thinking about food even if it's just "where shall we go for lunch" because it's always down to me to decide. Plus I like spending the morning in the pool with a sugary blended drink in my hand !
breakfast mimosas
morning pina colada x several
lunch wine
afternoon sample more cocktails
dinner G&T then wine
after dinner chill in beach bar with kahlua/amaretto/some sort of liqueur

if the drinks were full strength I'd be on the floor ! Normally I'd never touch the sort of drinks I have on holiday but I embrace my inner Barbie on the beach abd she likes sugary cocktails ;)

It depends if your going to spend most of your time at the hotel. So if you've got young kids who will be entertained at the hotel mostly, A.I can work out best but if you'll be out of the hotel a fair amount of the time, it's not worth it.

My kids enjoyed A.I cause they can get all their own drinks and snacks. Without children though, I'd prefer to go out and try different places for food and drink, rather than just hotel buffet food. So probably wouldn't do it. Work out the price difference per day, per person and use your own judgement, if you think it'd be worth it. As how much we all eat/drink varies so much.

Turkey isn't cheap for a holiday. What month are you looking at? What's your budget for AL? More info needed.

@MissAtomicBomb1

It's worth it for us as it means we don't have to budget or say no to the kids once we're there. Saves hassle. If we were travelling as a couple I'd prefer to explore the local cuisine a bit more.

Really good point about our different holiday styles between a family holiday and travelling as a couple .

It depends very much on how much the hotel charges for AI and what exclusions there are.

So for example 2 years ago in Lanzarote it cost 35 euros per person per night to increase from HB to AI but that included all drinks and cocktails were premium quality. If you went AI you would literally not need to pay a penny more.

However in the Tenerife holiday last year, the increase was more like 50 euros per person per day, and there were lots of extras on top of that, so if you wanted a pepperoni pizza rather than a margarita it was an extra 4 euros, same for many of the cocktails. Drinks were pre made and of poor quality ( we went HB so paid as we went) , so it's important to do your homework and weigh up the pros and cons.

We've done AI, half board and self catering over the years. When the kids were young, self catering was easiest for us, and probably cheapest. Also easier for us, as we would hire a villa or apartment with separate bedrooms, which gives much more flexibility than a hotel room, especially in the evenings. But once they were teenagers, then AI was probably better value (although we all ate and drank far more that we would if self-catering, so it's a bit hard to judge). The downside though is that we tended to see much less of the country than we would self-catering, as it was very tempting just to stay in the resort when on AI.

Half board can be good if you are likely to be out in the day but want to come back to the hotel in the evening.

would think there are so many variables for us given some of the prices I've seen quoted it has always been cheaper to self-plan regardless of whether you're doing Self-catering of half board its far more about the destination. if you're looking at the standard brits abroad destination then maybe AI is the way to go - but personally they're the last places we'd go on holiday