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

richardw

Candice-Marie wrote: »

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.

How do you FIX your food and drink costs at home?

Clueless969

richardw wrote: »

How do you FIX your food and drink costs at home?

Where I come from, it's called budgeting!

richardw

Clueless969 wrote: »

Where I come from, it's called budgeting!

Exactly, if in summer you buy 8 ice creams for £2 from a supermarket at home and you can go on a self catering holiday with a freezer compartment in a fridge and get ice creams from a local supermarket for a similar price, there's no difference in cost.

bylromarha

I'll defend them too...mind you haven't been on an AI since my honeymoon in 1999.

It was great for what it was - a big bed, sun, a big bed, a jacuzzi on the balcony, a big bed, a fruit bowl every day, a big bed, a nice range of alcohol, a big bed, not having to worry about where to go for dinner and a rather huge bed.

We were miles from the town, but the AI had a shuttle bus to use. We were also joined with 2 other hotels so got to use their facilities too - one had a chinese restaurant, the other a mexican all part of the AI. The more facilities the better - this hotel had a whole range of watersports you could use and vouchers for a boat trip, the spa etc. We used the vouchers but not many water sports - we had the big bed you see.

Small budget needed for trinkets and tours, knew exactly what we were getting and was good value for us at that time.

Since then we've arranged holidays ourselves - off to SE Asia with the kids this summer (whoop!) and have booked a gorgeous hotel room with breakfast in Thailand independently, which I can see the holiday brochures are advertising as 3 times the price for room only.

In answer to the question, best tips for value for money are - think about WHAT you want from a holiday and if AI fits it, find a hotel that has all the facilities you need and book to locations which are less excursion friendly as you want to spend a day in the town, but then be back for dinner. No all day excursions to a fantastic monument that means you miss 3 hotel meals and need to buy 3 meals when out of the hotel like one of our honeymoon excursions.

paulwellerfan

i love AL
i have never gone self catering.
mind you i do like a drink or two or three when on holiday.
However i also go out of the resort every now and again.

i have done AL in Kenya, greece, Turkey, spain Tunisia
and i will be going AL next month to Cuba.

shehen23

Some people on here have clearly had a bad time on all-inclusives and that must be awful for them but a quick glance through holiday review sites demonstrates that every different type of holiday will result in some people having bad experiences.
10 years ago my husband and I took our children (quite small then) to Cyprus for a self-catering holiday. We had a wonderful time, however the costs of eating and drinking out were so astronomical that we ended up spending almost 3 times what we budgeted for. Never again! Eating out in different restaurants every day and night might work if there are just two of you or if you are one of those lucky people with money to burn but for normal families all-inclusive is unbeatable. For a family of 5 with teenagers to have a 'full' holiday with lots going on and three meals a day each I don't know how anybody can get by on less than on average £150-200 a day spending money. That's approx £1,000 a week (that's what it cost us 10 years ago, so I'm not exaggerating) on top of the basic cost of your holiday. Work it out - a cold drink, even water, is at least a £1 and in hot weather you need to drink several times a day so £1 for 5, 8 x a day = £40. That's just cold drinks, no food, no other spending. Even allowing for the extra cost of all-inclusive you still save big.

Those people who think that it entails being 'trapped' in a Hotel have obviously got no imagination or don't bother to do proper research. Our all-inclusives have been in walking distance of the resort's centre and because we don't have to worry about our food and drink budget we can afford to do more trips, excursions etc.
We generally have a big breakfast before heading out to have fun. If we were in the resort we would pop back for lunch but often we made do with a small snack or drink, knowing when we got back to the hotel we will be coming back to a 3 course (at least) meal. After our meal we would have a few (or many!) drinks in the hotel before walking out along the strip soaking up the atmosphere and maybe stopping in a bar for the odd drink which barely dented our spending budget. Toward the end of our break we have usually worked out where the 'good, cheap' places to eat are so we can enjoy a meal or two out then without being ripped off like most new arrivals.
There maybe some places in the world where the cost of living is so low none of this applies but if you are holidaying in Europe, in my opinion, unless you want to be chained to the grungey cooker in your apartment, non all-inclusive is only for singles or wealthier families

Clueless969

shehen23 wrote: »

10 years ago my husband and I took our children (quite small then) to Cyprus for a self-catering holiday. We had a wonderful time, however the costs of eating and drinking out were so astronomical that we ended up spending almost 3 times what we budgeted for. Never again! Eating out in different restaurants every day and night might work if there are just two of you or if you are one of those lucky people with money to burn but for normal families all-inclusive is unbeatable. For a family of 5 with teenagers to have a 'full' holiday with lots going on and three meals a day each I don't know how anybody can get by on less than on average £150-200 a day spending money. That's approx £1,000 a week (that's what it cost us 10 years ago, so I'm not exaggerating) on top of the basic cost of your holiday. Work it out - a cold drink, even water, is at least a £1 and in hot weather you need to drink several times a day so £1 for 5, 8 x a day = £40. That's just cold drinks, no food, no other spending. Even allowing for the extra cost of all-inclusive you still save big.

Have to ask, why on earth do you appear to have eaten out all of the time when you had booked self-catering? If your intention was to always eat out all of the time, why didn't you book half-board or A/I from the get go?

Carriannelouise

lydiajmassey wrote: »

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!

Totally agree! we go to a resort where the all inclusive is less than £2.50 difference between the AI and the full board. (which we need really having a 1 year old as she is always hungry!) we really get our monies worth as the hotel is a 50m walk from the beach so when we went to the beach we bobbed back and forward between the hotel and the beach for lollies and drinks. in addition to this if my daughter slept through lunch she could have food from the bar usualy a sarnie to tide her over. we went on our days out and had a great time and one waiter used to bring us a pint bottle of whole milk for our daughter to take out with us every morning (even though we said a flask of hot water to make milk would be fine) then come lunch if we were back another member of staff would give us more if we needed it) they were always brilliant and let us take bread and butter if my little girl wouldnt eat at breakfast (she usually wouldnt eat all of it) but that meant that we could feed it to the fish whilst snorkeling or the one of us sat with her in the surf could feed it to the small fish which she loved!. we love our holidays and have an amazing time. we cant fault it, my little madam loves it! her favorite is the kiddies disco she'll be 22 months when we go this year and im sure will love it as much as she did at 14 months. x

scottiemac

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!

Very true. Try the local language. Try local festivals and lifestyles. As you are saying, just enjoy the time away in a different country.

heatherkayejones

I have had some great holidays in all-inclusive resorts. I don't think you have to eat and drink to excess in order to get great value - the secret for me is in the budgeting for a family. You know what it's like with a teenager who wants soft drinks all day, burgers and ice creams for snacks, etc! It's lovely to be able to say yes to requests instead of watching the pennies all the time.
And no-one forces you to stay at the hotel all the time - it's a matter of choice. 2 years ago we had a lovely holiday in Egypt in a hotel with an aquapark. It was lovely to relax by the pool or get the free shuttle to snorkel on the beach. But we still went on 2 scuba diving trips and a day in Cairo.
Last summer we went to Turkey self catering and although we had a lovely time and ate very reasonably in traditional non-touristy restaurants, I think I spent more over all than for the all-inclusive holiday in Egypt.