Restaurants don't open till 7 - kids tea?

[NewtothisFBK4921]

We plan to go to Rixos Abu Dhabi in January but I see the restaurants don't open until 7pm, loads of all inclusive seems to be the same. What do you all do about kids tea when on similar holidays? Ours are 1 & 4 and they're passed out asleep by 7pm...

If I were going to an all-inclusive resort with small children, I'd be doing it for the nice weather, pool, and convenience of not having to cook or think. I'd be happy enough to spend the evening reading a book on my balcony with a nice glass of wine and some snacks to be honest! So I don't really agree with PPs saying it wouldn't be much of a holiday - it just depends what OP is looking for.

You can’t live your British life somewhere so un-British! Everything will be totally different, and so will your daily routine have to be. Just go with the flow, and if you don’t know how to do that just look around you and do what other people are doing with their young kids.

If you just can’t cope with a change of routine, I’d suggest Abu Dhabi with a 1yo and a 4yo probably isn’t the best choice . Why bother going if you’re just going to replicate your home life?!

Go to bed later! Breakfast will be later too. Never had an issue on holidays, use the time difference to adjust their schedule.

Be grateful it's not Spain, they often open at 9pm there, far too late for me!

And don't forget to take a double buggy so you aren't stuck in your hotel room from 8pm every night, mine loved a bit of a dance at that age

It would be the same in many European holiday destinations. What a weird choice of destination with kids.

And ps eat as a family, it's so much better for children. Managed to get mine to adulthood without feeding them separately at home or on holiday

I have a 1 and 5 year old, and we just push bedtime later. Mine don't go t bed until 8pm at home though, so it's not too difficult.

We just came back from an all-inclusive, and we just gave them a small snack to tide them over if they got hungry before dinner time.

Not a brilliant choice with kids I would say as it's not really a keep them up let them run around kind of place - but you will find plenty of places to feed them at 6 unless it's middle of nowhere.

In January?!

A four year old? Napping?

I remember taking a then 5yo dd on holiday and we were in a restaurant the first night eating at 10pm. The place was packed with other families with young children. We managed to eat earlier on subsequent nights, but with travel delays, that is just what happened and we were so happy for a nice meal to still be available.

I found it so odd to have her up and out that late, but it did happen again on the trip. Not with meals, but just with activities. It’s a holiday. Schedules go out the window. You let your child miss bedtime in favor of fireworks.

This. We stopped doing anything involving a plane until DD was 5, it's no fun for anyone involved at that age.

Mind just go to bed later, wake up later, later nap, no issues (18 months & 7)

I went through this OP.

That’s why I took giant rolls of enlarged photos of the kids’ bedrooms and the views out of the bedroom windows with me, plus recordings of CBeebies. All you have to do is paste the rolls up in the hotel room - don’t forget the windows! - stick the recordings on and…Bob’s your uncle, the kids could be at home! They’ll never know!

Much easier than getting the Arab world to change its climate and way of life!

Sorted.

and all the litter and sewage and radioactive water and tacky overpriced souvenirs and rubbish food and rain. lovely.

This!! We're going for winter sun, no need to cook, time to relax. Not the culture. We'll travel without kids, not to a resort, if we wanted that.

It's a family resort, kids club, kids pools etc. We usually get babysitters for the evenings so we can go enjoy drinks, dinner etc.

Anyone who gets this and has done similar, would love to hear how you do it. Also, flight tips?! It's 7 hrs, overnight way out.

Thanks everyone with the useful suggestions about not fully adapting to the time difference.

Everyone who doesn't get it, maybe don't post? Everyone else, thank you!!

That's the one! How is it? Looks heaven

Routine goes out the window on holiday. They will he up a bit later, nap a bit longer, possibly eat a bit less. Mine are more little and often for eating in the sunshine.

Also likely there will be lunchtime restaurant or pool bar with snack foods they could eat earlier.

Fair enough, but then it's odd that the restaurants don't open until 7pm.

Just change when they eat/sleep.

We just came back from Spain (not a resort type place). Only 1hr time difference and we kept them on uk time. Nothing opened for dinner before 7pm so we ate around 7.30. Loads of kids in restaurants at that time. Kept them up later and all slept later. It suited us all better to be honest!

Because the time difference is relatively small I’d eat late and keep them on UK time (this is what we do)

We all nap on holiday.

Most AI resorts we have been to (Greece, Spain, Caribbean) never opened before 7pm.

You had some snackbar from 4-5.30 but that was hardly proper dinner.

Honestly, go with the flow, let them stay up a bit later.

Nap and wake up just in time to bathe and go to dinner. Watch shows etc after if that’s what the have.

We normally adjust bedtimes to fit with the holiday, tends to work out okay with the time zone changes as well and we haven't had a problem coming back to the UK