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

fawny

All Inclusive hotel damage resorts as no ones spends out side the hotel & business go under.

wallbash

Another fan of Ai , but the 'tip' is don't try and do it on the cheap .
I see we have some still thinking that Ai is wrong , I wonder if they have actually tried it?

1) bad for the local economy, .................as the hotels are normally in the middle of no where the local economy was dire before the hotel arrived , now giving much needed jobs to the locals.

2) Food gets boring ................. my last holiday had six extra restaurants to choose from , but I preferred the huge varied buffet , I had a more choice as I could afford to experiment , had a failure , dump the plate and try again.

3)Cheap alcohol /limited choice ............... don't go for cut price Ai , mine had bottled water and premium bottled larger , although I liked the local draught.


4)

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.

Done that for over thirty years , now I want to be waited upon and pampered, my money , my choice.
Last year , drinks suddenly appeared besides our sun loungers ??????????? the bar man had sent them over .......'you looked thirsty' ............


5) people just try and get as much alcohol down themselves as possible ............ I have never seen it .


To sum up , I have had some wonderful Ai holidays , NONE have been cheap , but all have been worth every penny.

last_emperor

agree with wallbash on several points.

i am well-travelled and generally make a point of immersing myself with local culture. but if you aren't interested in that, so what? late last year, my wife and i went all-inclusive in egypt (sharm el sheikh) because we wanted some time to just properly relax. one day, we will visit egypt properly, i'm sure, but this time around it was great to be somewhere warm with no need to keep track of a budget or anything.

as for tips, consider the following (not all money-saving):

- the larger a hotel is (number of rooms/guests) the more dishes will be produced by the restaurant, and/or the more frequently they will be replaced. so you maximise the chance of finding nice food and not being poisoned by food that's been left out for hours.

- the larger the hotel, the more people (duh!), so check reviews etc to see if finding sun loungers is difficult. typically, a bigger hotel will have more pools/space, so it shouldn't make a huge difference. check UK school holidays, and local holidays if you don't have school-age kids and don't want to deal with other peoples'.

- drink the local beer. if you ask for a stella, you'll probably get one, but it may not be free. one of my pet peeves is people who differentiate between carling/heineken/fosters/etc. they're all the same! whatever bottled/draught lager they have here will taste the same as whatever you drink back home.

- don't travel long distance if you aren't going to leave the hotel. think about it - if you don't leave the hotel, there's not much difference between egypt and mexico, but the flight is twice as long, and twice as expensive. europe is even cheaper...

- take reviews seriously, but with a pinch of salt. some people will always give a place 1/5 because they found a soggy chip on their plate. look for reviews which rate the staff highly (or low!). even 5* hotels can have issues, the key is whether staff will fix a problem rapidly or not be interested.

Clueless969

wallbash wrote: »

Another fan of Ai , but the 'tip' is don't try and do it on the cheap .
I see we have some still thinking that Ai is wrong , I wonder if they have actually tried it?

1) bad for the local economy, .................as the hotels are normally in the middle of no where the local economy was dire before the hotel arrived , now giving much needed jobs to the locals.

2) Food gets boring ................. my last holiday had six extra restaurants to choose from , but I preferred the huge varied buffet , I had a more choice as I could afford to experiment , had a failure , dump the plate and try again.

3)Cheap alcohol /limited choice ............... don't go for cut price Ai , mine had bottled water and premium bottled larger , although I liked the local draught.


4)


Done that for over thirty years , now I want to be waited upon and pampered, my money , my choice.
Last year , drinks suddenly appeared besides our sun loungers ??????????? the bar man had sent them over .......'you looked thirsty' ............


5) people just try and get as much alcohol down themselves as possible ............ I have never seen it .


To sum up , I have had some wonderful Ai holidays , NONE have been cheap , but all have been worth every penny.

Whilst noting that you're a long time contributor to this Forum and a well-thanked one at that, I hope you won't mind (too much) if I take you a little to task for some of the things that you've written here.

1) Not true at all, many of the all-inclusive places are in and adjacent to large areas of population. Wherever they are located, almost all holiday accommodation (not just A/I) tends to drive up prices for the locals whilst creating a relatively few jobs and so, as in many parts of the world economy, a few benefit and many do not.

5) Maybe at the level you can afford, there are no drunks but they are almost everywhere and, even if your accommodation is 5 star, I'm surprised that you've avoided them completely.

2) 3) 4) and your conclusion, whilst you may be able to afford premium prices, not everyone can and so they will not be able to expect premium food, staff and drinks that you are happy/able to pay for.

The rule - which applies to any and all holidays - should be and must be, research the possibilities to the "N"th degree and make your decision based on what you are happy and comfortable with and take all opinions on your destination with a bit of scepticism. If you're lucky you will be very pleasantly surprised. If you're unlucky, you will be unpleasantly surprised. In most cases, you will not be disappointed by your choices. Anyone who goes somewhere expecting 5 star service when they've paid almost nothing (relative to local prices) for their holiday is living in cloud-cuckoo land and deserves to be disappointed.

As you so rightly say, your money, your choice and that's the "rule" we all have to apply, it's just that not everyone has the same amount of money to guide their choice. I would guess that if you've been travelling for 30 years, you might actually be free of school holidays constraints and that alone would allow you to gain "more bang for your buck". Regrettably, many on here will not have that freedom and flexibility.

mopsy57

Only been doing AI the last few years and for us it's a good way of having chill-out winter sun at a reasonable price. ( Just reurned from 11 days in the Canaries, around £400 each inc flights). Usually we use this break to recharge our batteries, read the books we want, and catch up on sleep. Having said that, we also go out locally, usually walking. Most places will provide packed lunch on request, or you can come back mid afternoon for a poolside snack, so you need not feel you are missing out by leaving the hotel.

In our experience, hotels are staffed by locals in the Canaries so creating jobs, and they are very happy if you make the effort to speak to them in Spanish. They generally work long hours and don't deserve the treatment they get from some guests. Local foods and dishes are included on the menus. We have not found repetition of foods an issue due to the choice available.

Yes, some experiences have been better than others, but Tripadvisor helps enormously with deciding where to go. The hotel's own website is sometimes the cheapest, sometimes not. Recently we have booked our own flights and accommodation separately, and biggest savings are taking hand luggage only and not booking transfers, as Canarian buses are reliable and cheaper. Also you get to practise the language and see the country en route.

As others have said, do research before booking, and it's not the ideal option for all holidays, or for everyone. Up to a point you do get what you pay for and if it looks too good to be true is probably is. Each to his own!

wallbash

Clueless969 Unfortunally we have still got to stick to the School hols , but being a private school try and get away from the beginning ( nearly ) of July , saves a few hundred pounds.

Purpose built Ai , not hotels jumping on the band wagon , are more likely to built in the middle of no where .
e.g look at Lara Beach Turkey , its one Ai followed by another for miles. All built in the last few years , all claiming to be 5*

Have I avoided drunks yes , have had a few problems with Russians try to jump the queue for the fresh eggs in the morning ............ but if you stand your ground!

Back to the subject , Ai bad for the local economy, If I go to a resort I have 'x' amount of £'s
I could pay all up front and go Ai , or I could spread it around , its still the same amount of money.
I could be served by the Ai barman employed by the hotel , or I could be served by his twin brother in a small bar .......... its still the same amount of employment.One bar man serving one thirsty customer.

Anyone who goes somewhere expecting 5 star service when they've paid almost nothing (relative to local prices) for their holiday is living in cloud-cuckoo land and deserves to be disappointed.

Something we can both agree on .

If anyone wants a recommendation , this is where I was last July
http://www.susesihotel.com/index_en.htm..........................

Patrick1968

I went to Tunisia for the first time last year. My first all inclusive. One week £445 pounds. The hotel had three restraunts, a main dining hall and number of bars. All free including snack shacks on the beach. They had a number of pools and recreational acivities also free including a well furnished gym. The only things I paid for were a sailing course £60 over five days, massages and a quad bike excursion. It was excellent, we went at the end of the season so it was not mobbed. The only people who kicked the ar7e out of the drinking were English. We did the local market thing and got harrassed my partner being a curly haired blonde with green eyes drew alot of unwanted attention. Would I go again? Yes and will I go all inclusive? Yep.

lady1964

We've done both AI and self catering holidays and can honestly say, we've enjoyed both for different reasons.

We enjoy AI because we know how much it has cost and we can budget for excursions ahead of time. I think for families and those on a bit of a budget, this is invaluable. We've done AI in Egypt, Barbados & Mexico.

We've also had self catering where we've booked flights & accomodation seperately and then had to lots of research into costs of eating out, coffee etc during the day, tranport etc prior to going so we can make sure we take enough money/budget for the credit card. We've done SC in Spain, France, Cape Town & San Fransisco.

We've done AI & self catering for different reasons. The SC holidays were more for sightseeing (Cape Town in August is not hot & sunny) and the plan was always to see as much of the city as we could in 10 days. The AI have been planned as a 'do nothing much' holiday, beach/pool with a few trips out to see something of where we are.

The AI takes away the 'where shall we eat dinner' and having to go into town, that said, the SC option makes you go out to find where to eat in town/locally. We've really enjoyed both types of holiday.

As an aside, someone mentioned a Bali AI that includes cigs, we've just booked to go AI in Bali for our 25th anniversary and one web-site I found said cigarettes are included in our package........

IMO, the AI is the easy option but you know, sometimes when you've worked hard all year and saved, all we want is to relax by a pool and not have to worry about where to eat & how much a drink is going to cost. Have never done an AI main holiday and not seen something of our surroundings (Sharm in Egypt differs but for a week of winter sun, I really couldn't be **sed leaving the resort - shocking maybe but it was always going to be a week by the pool holiday).

Each to their own, we've enjoyed both AI & SC but appreciate we're all different.

Clueless969

wallbash wrote: »

Back to the subject , Ai bad for the local economy, If I go to a resort I have 'x' amount of £'s
I could pay all up front and go Ai , or I could spread it around , its still the same amount of money.
I could be served by the Ai barman employed by the hotel , or I could be served by his twin brother in a small bar .......... its still the same amount of employment.One bar man serving one thirsty customer

Sorry don't agree in the slightest. If one spends money in a hotel on a drink (even if it is part of your A/I package), sure the barman gets his pay but the nett profit goes to the owners of the hotel (shareholders, multi-national or local Mr Big). If one spends the equivalent amount of money in the local bar, you are likely to get 2 drinks (if you're lucky ) and the gross and nett profit goes to the owner, who is likely to be part of the barman's family.

Whilst I agree that this may not always be true, the big hotel may be owned by the barman's family and the local bar by a Mr Big, my own experiences suggest my hypothesis to be closer to reality than your sugestion would imply.

Candice-Marie

My preference when holidaying with my two children will always be AI for budgeting reasons. I just don't want to be subconsciously or consciously totting up every ice cream or drink when I'm away on holiday, because that would spoil it for me and I just wouldn't relax. It's the same principle for me as having a fixed rate mortgage and fixed energy prices - I just want to KNOW what I'm paying.

I agree that you should always know what's included in your particular hotel of choice to avoid disappointment, and I would always suggest going outside the hotel during your stay and also tipping the staff (the best way to benefit them).

We are repeat visitors to an AI hotel in Tunisia and that's what we do. My kids are also well practised in not wasting food or drink when we're there, we don't go mad. We've also got to know the staff very well. Last year was very difficult for tourism but the staff will tell you that even on AI, every visitor counts, so let your conscience be clear!

Incidentally, in my experience it IS the Brits who go overboard on AI for the first couple of days of their holiday, but then they settle down (and I can't help but notice, blame their upset stomachs on the hotel rather than their over indulgence...but that's another soapbox so I won't go there)