I haven't been an on beach/pool holiday for decades and never AI..

[Lambswools]

When I was young, that's what a holiday was. It wasn't a "proper" holiday unless it involved laying in the sun and eating a drinking too much.

Over that last couple of decades my holidays have been based around "doing" or seeing stuff, and they've been great. If I had to choose one or the other forever, I'd pick the activity holiday.

However DP and I do fancy a lazy few days of warmer weather in the Autumn and we're thinking of maybe Turkey in October.

A friend has offered us mates rates on an apartment he owns, but looking at some of the package deals available, we could do AI much cheaper than his reduced rates plus flights and transfers.

But, I've never stayed in an AI complex and suspect it wouldn't be my thing. One of the best bits of a holiday is eating in local restaurants, for a start.

So, what do I need to know? Is AI out of season different to peak season? Could we use the AI for breakfast and lunch and eat out in the evenings of have the AI complexes killed all the locally run restaurants in an area? Is a bottom end AI holiday going to be awful, even if we just use it as a base?

BTW....posh very expensive AI is lovely but cheap and cheerful budget AI is horrendous.

We did one to Turkey one year before we had kids when we really needed an "oh fuck it" quiet week. The hotel was a good standard, nice pool, food was very nice at breakfast (I love fresh warm Turkish bread 😋) and slightly hit and miss for lunch and dinner- also there was some queuing. And the hotel was absolutely full of German pensioners. They were mostly very nice and amiable enough apart from absolutely being on point about reserving the best sunbeds at 7am with towels. And there was some alarming budgie smuggling going on with Speedos. Plus the entertainment in the evening was very much tailored for them. Think John Shuttleworth but serious and singing in German. 🤣 And every day you were loudly persuaded to do aqua aerobics at 11am, if at the pool at that time. We had a nice week and a lot of laughs though.

This was 20 years ago and things change. But I'd still look at things like numbers of sunbeds, queuing, food quality, what drinks can you get for free etc.

My husband and I do an AI holiday every February or March. It’s an extra treat we’ve been doing for 5 years or so. We go 5 star and to the Caribbean. I thought it wouldn’t be the sort of holiday I’d like, but I bloody love it.

My brother in law went to one in Turkey. It was extremely expensive and purportedly 5 star. It was not what he expected. A bit ‘Benidorm’ was his verdict.

Try Morocco in October - I've been to a place in Agadir a couple of times and it was lovely.

Dh and I went to Turkey in October last year, stayed in a Tui blue 5 star hotel. It was great but we still go out and eat elsewhere a lot, lunches and dinners. It doesn’t mean you’re tied to the hotel, we would feel very hemmed in to stay in the resort the whole time although some people go to do exactly that - absolutely fine, you have a choice!!
weather was great and as it was out of school holiday time it was pretty quiet and relaxing. The hotel had a lot to offer but we aren’t joiners, we are either swimming, reading or out!

Oh, not sure it was actually a Tui Blue, it was the the sensatori Akra in Fethiye. I’d recommend it tbh, ticked all our boxes.

My rule of thumb is if it’s less than £1k pp for a week all inclusive the food will be extremely basic.

@SweetFancyMoses I have a suspicion AI in the Caribbean isn’t my 5 star Caribbean! Stars are thrown around but quality is another matter! AI is rarely the best you can buy!