Spill the beans... on how to max all-inclusive holidays

richardw

SailorSam wrote: »

I wonder why all inclusive has taken off over recent years and appears to be more and more popular.

It is one of those things that appear to be a great idea at the time and can be easily sold to people, a bit like cable/satellite television packages with lots of film channels that you never watch and you think you could've just bought the DVDs of films you like and just watched those.

claire16c

WishI'dReadSooner wrote: »

Personally I'd avoid all inclusive holidays like the plague.

There are too many people who think an all inclusive holiday is just to throw as much alcohol down their throats as possible and stuff their faces at every opportunity. They daren't leave the complex as that means they are not getting their full value from the holiday. They could be anywhere in the world but many see nothing but inside the complex.

Apart from that many all inclusives are far away from the nearest resort so it costs an arm and a leg if you want to go elsewhere.

So often if the food is no good people are stuck with it as their budget does not include extra food.

Travel is supposed to broaden your horizons NOT to be stuck in one place for 1-2weeks. Get out there - meet the locals, eat where they eat and see the country.

You can, more often than not, eat better, stay at a better hotel and not have obnoxious drunks keeping you and yours up all night.

iamdsds wrote: »

The best way to get value for money is to leave the hotel and visit the country you are holidaying in. You've paid enough money to go on holiday to an exciting country, the last thing you want to do is stay in the hotel complex, eating hotel food; you may as well stay at home if you're going to be doing that.

In fact, even cheaper is to just book flights and hotel independently and you don't have to pay for the "all inclusive food and drink" that you won't be using.

Get out, leave the hotel, meet the locals, drink with the locals, eat with the locals. Get out of your prison cell and have a good holiday!

I agree.

I cant imagine anything worse than eating the same stuff over and over and not going out to local restarants etc.

And if like a poster on here experienced - if the food is dire - guess what - youve already paid for it!

Seems crazy to me.

jhe

we usually go all inclusive but i always research hotel/location always go 4* or 5* with the exception of last summer we took our grandchild to spain went 3* there were restrictions on snacks, only toasties and crisps included the hotel obviously wasnt the same standard as 4* or 5*, but all in all taking into account soft drinks,icecreams it worked out reasonable price.
we still eat and have the odd drink out on occasions,we go on day trips out(packed lunches supplied) but are quite happy to stay at the hotel on a night and have drinks there.
all inclusive isnt for everyone but with research and reading reviews we are always happy with the hotels we stay in.
we did stay bed and breakfast a few years ago in cyprus,had a great holiday but spent a fortune it would have been a lot cheaper to go all inclusive for us.

kayl

While all the above points are valid, they all concentrate entirely on the negative! I took my 2 daughters to Corfu last year on our first experience of an all inclusive and found it fantastic value.

I think that the key to getting the most out of it is research before you book. I must have trawled through the review of about a dozen possible hotels on Trip Advisor before booking, and it cetainly paid off

juliamarsh

I only went all inclusive once because I was swayed by a really cheap deal and both the food and the alcohol were truly dire so I guess I got what I paid for! I suppose it would be all right if you had a good choice of decent restaurants on site but as others have said it gets really boring eating in the same place every night and for me much of the enjoyment of my holiday stems from going out and finding different and authentic places to eat in the evening. I like to experience the local food and culture, this is the essence of the holiday for me and most of the time this works out to be a cheaper option than all-inclusive anyway, so I don't imagine I will be trying it again.

DUKE

I can only repeat what others have said & say to eat & drink as much as you can & never leave the hotel. Sadly a lot of people do this. My last hol was an AI in Mexico at one of the RIU hotels. The hotel wasn't on the beach so we had a free mini bus running from reception every half hour to take us there, also you could use the other 3 Riu hotels. I couldn't believe that some people NEVER even bothered to try the other AI hotels or go to the beach, let alone go off & adventure. I'd rather not go on holiday if I had to sit by a pool or on the beach all day. I don't think the food is all the same, it's the fact that due to it being a buffet there's probably too much choice so people feel as if they're eating the same stuff every day. As a plus point once you've paid for your AI the rest of your money can go on excursions. I can only stick a hotel for a few hours as it's just too boring for me, God knows how people cope with a fortnight by the pool!

happyinflorida

The best holiday we ever had was at all inclusive. I booked last minute through good old telly text - don't even know if that's still going?! We paid £159 each for me, hubby and 2 kids for 1 weeks stay in Majorca. The only bad thing was being delayed at the start at Gatwick for 17 hours!! Unfortunately we were flying with a Spanish airline, so they were in complete sympathy with the Spanish air traffic control lot who were on strike - it taught me never to fly with a Spanish Airline ever again - other's at Gatwick were delayed a few hours - not like us! It meant we had to stay overnight at a hotel and whilst most taken to the Gatwick Hilton - lucky so and so's - as I needed to get medicines and nappies for the youngest one, out of our luggage, we ended up at an awful hotel! So have everything you need for yourself and kids in your hand luggage - rule number 1 when flying!!
The place we stayed at in Majorca was fantastic - food was out of this world, best we've ever had at any hotel - everywhere was spotlessly clean, entertainment was brilliant and bar was great. Since then Trip Advisor has started up and this hotel complex - it's 3 hotels on the same site - hasn't got the best of reviews. It's far more expensive now too?!
Still we got a great bargain and we were very, very happy with it. Next time we paid £429 each for a 2 week holiday to Turkey all inclusive and that was awful. I wouldn't go to Turkey again - EVER!!
So you can be lucky sometimes - but at least there's things like Trip Advisor to help you with advance information nowadays!

Clueless969

It's not always the case that you get what you pay for.

Three years ago, I booked an A/I in Rhodes for 3 weeks, just before the season started, in a hotel in Faliraki which, as you will all know, is a dead hole out of season and a place to avoid in season!!!

This suited us very well as we knew that, out of season, eating possibilities and the like on the island would be marginal at best and so, it was that cheap a deal, we could eat out when we could and have the hotel to fall back on and we would still have a cheap holiday. We went for the history and the island, not for the hotel, its food or location.

A month before we went came the good news, the hotel would not be open in time and so we were to move to another hotel in the same group.

The substitute was a 5 star in Rhodes Town, in the middle of everything and everything was great. The staff in the hotel were lovely - enough to make us actually want to leave them tips. The food selection was excellent. The only thing that was surprisingly poor for this 5 star hotel was the local drinks - still, you can't have everything!!

In the end we had an even better holiday than we could have possibly expected and at such a cheap price that it almost beggars belief. The actual hotel, which I booked myself, cost us just £231 per person for the 3 weeks plus the cost of the squeezyjet flights which was, proportionately, the most expensive bit at £184.70 for each of us. Car hire for the 3 weeks added €290 total. I know the exact figures because the receipts have been archived.

So, for just a shade over £500 each, we had a 3 week holiday in a seriously 5 star fully inclusive hotel in the centre of Rhodes Town including a hire car and flights.

As I said when I started this post - It's not always the case that you get what you pay for.

lydiajmassey

Hello, I just had to post to defend all inclusive holidays!!

I recently went on my first all inclusive last summer and it was marvellous. Obviously we're preaching to the choir here but my top tips would be:

Make sure you've got a great bargain as then you're not going to feel disappointed if it's not fantastic as you didn't pay over the odds. You can find great deals for smaller hotels with traditional local food which employ local staff and chefs, the idea that all inclusive has to be brash and English is over!

Read every review on tripadvisor - obviously you can rule out the ones that you know are just whining about things that wouldnt bother you but read the reviews and look at the pictures, people are very honest about their AI experience and will tell you exactly what to expect.

Don't go AI somewhere that you want to spend more time outside the hotel than inside (We were very well located but knew that we were planning on spending 4 days on the beach/pool and 3 days venturing outside the resort so we'd get our moneys worth) Why go somewhere all inclusive that you're planning on exploring?? All inclusive is for relaxing and enjoying yourself without worrying about how much it's going to cost.

Be nice to the staff - you're going to see a lot of them if you're all inclusive!!

We took a couple of glasses of wine each up to our room at night to enjoy on our balcony and this saved us buying a bottle to share in the room each night!

stoneman

The best way to make use of them is not stay in one then just visit it for breakfast. The ones in Tenerife never ask to see your room key at breakfast, or even have anyone standing "guard" at the door. It is "alleged" that you can just waltz in and help yourself to whats on, not that I would do that!