Any A.I. that I have been on, specifies that all drinks are local brands and branded drinks will carry a suppliment. Have to say that I din't mind "local" vodkas or gins as long as the mixers are good quality.

Does anyone know which hotel the Majorca Daily Bulletin meant by this comment:

"At one of the meetings a specific case was highlighted which has happened in the Port of Pollensa, "where a hotel now offers all-inclusive packages and the result has left all the shops and bars deserted"

as none of us who visit Puerto Pollensa regularly can think of one. Also the comment re deserted bars etc. is really not true so we are intrigued.

Thanks.

Yes, the comment about the shops & bars is clearly total nonsense.

Comment here....
http://www.majorcadailybulletin.es/first.dba?1695+0+0

Makes you wonder about the veracity of the rest of the news in that publication. Where do they get this stuff.

I would have thought that there are so many hotels, and also apartments in PP, that even if one had gone all-inclusive (which seems completely unnecessary!), there would still be plenty of tourists around to fill the bars and restaurants!

However the Majorca Daily Bulletin usually spends all summer portraying gloom and doom about the current year, only to end the season with reports of "another bumper year" for Majorca's tourism industry!!!

Any advice for first timers

Thanks

Michael

Hi newinspain

Do not buy any of the named drinks or you will probably get charged for them, stick to the locally produce.

Hi Michael ... just in case you haven't seen it, we do have an All-Inclusive Holidays forum where you may pick up some tips.

David

Thanks Guys

I will try A I Forum..thanks David...missed it

Regards with thanks

Michael

Can anyone recommend any good all inclusive complexes in Majorca ? Ideally I'm looking for somewhere that does apartment style 2 bedroom accomodation, but would not rule out a good hotel also.

Thanks..

Scott..

With regards to the Daily B.
Many bars and restaurants in Mallorca are taking less than 50% of last year, which was bad, staff have been laid off and many owners are running on a shoestring, hence quality and service suffer and eventually places close because they cannot make money, whether the problem is AI or something else no one is sure but it is true that many small businesses are ready to close or are up for sale, unless they are located in a busy popular area of a resort they are suffering --- badly

Off topic posts deletd by Biff

I totally think that local businesses in holiday resorts are suffering because of the all inclusive deals. They are ghost towns - couldn't believe that we were staying in a hotel complex full to capacity & yet you could go into the main town & there was hardly anyone around. Every restaurant/bar that we visited only ever had at the max half a dozen people in.

Maybe half board should be the max a hotel can provide.

The reason why bars and restaurants are suffering and recently covered in the daily B is after the euro was indroduced prices were increased in at a stroke and tripled. I don't think its A/I that is causing the problem but the price hikes from euro introduction. Holiday makers will go for value for money, bar and restaurant owners need to compete. After all they have embraced the market economy with the euro and need to be competative to get people out of the A/I hotel into their restaurant and bars. It was pure greed and the belief that tourist will pay anything that has backfired on the greedy. Now they are all moaning, they brought this on themselves.

The sol tordos in palma nova is a good A/I hotel with quality food available from 7am to midnight. And drinks from the bar from 10am to 2am. 2 Mins from the beach, fully air conditioned. The only downside for me was the pool area is on the small side, but you can use the pool at the mirlos that is in the same complex.

Mike

I think it's quite sad that people go on holiday (to wherever) and stay in the complex for all inclusive. Much better to get out and about. Can never understand people who just want to stay around the hotel pool/bar.

Okay, I agree with your comments, but don't you think the hotels or should I say the holiday companies are doing the same. We were s/c and to buy a pint of lager in a restaurant was only 2 euros. To buy a 1/2 pint in the hotel was 2.30 euros.

Alot of people can't afford A/I - so what will happen eventually. You'll have A/I hotels full to capacity & ghost towns - not my idea of a holiday. We need to remember that other countries rely on tourism to survive, we can't just use them for their sun.

Cloggy. I would never go all inclusive. I can't think of anything worse than being confined to your hotel because 'you've got to get your money's worth'. There must be loads of people out there who never venture out of their hotel. What's the point? I know people will argue that it's cheaper if you have several children but it's not my idea of a holiday.

We stayed in a beautiful four star hotel - 95% of holiday makers were A/I. It was like the prince & the pauper to me. Found it embarassing to sit with new friends at night when we went to the bar. They would feel obliged to get us drinks for nothing & we were like no, its okay. The prices were rediculous. We were quoted double s/c to go a/i (only queried it), but would never go a/i as we like to do our own thing. Talking to alot of a/i, their kids didn't like most of the food so ended up living on (what I liken it to) macdonalds & KFC for the fortnight. You would hear a bunch of kids competing with how many icecreams they'd eaten in the last half hour.

We cooked in the room for breakfast & dinner, and went to many beautiful restaurants in the evenings, while seeing the fantastic sights of the country we were visiting. To me, a/i is like going to your local every night on the trot. But, everyone to their own. I just feel sad that everyone is not experiencing the culture of the country and not just the weather.

Hi Cloggy. I agree with you. We like to go abroad to see different cultures, scenery, etc/. How can you do that from the side of the pool. Happy holidays. Gail

I have priced up holidays and the difference between H/B and A/I I have never been able to justify the higher price of A/I compared to SC/HB/. I will not be drinking £300 worth of drink in 2 weeks, knor will my wife and 14 year old daughter is full price and be drinking anything but soft drinks. I don't like the local spirits, yuk I want branded. Any cheap A/I the food will be awful. When I went to the sol tordos, we were going H/B to turkey but the missus wouldn't go because of the Iraq war and it was the only half decent hotel I could find for a reasonable price at short notice.

There are people who drink from morning to night on holiday and thats not my type of holiday being drunk all the time, they will justify the extra cost by drinking as much of the local spirits as they can in the two weeks, eating as much food as they can. This year I will be S/C and as gail knows Sa Coma is mostly apartment so the bars and restaurants are busy and the resort is not dead and last year I went H/B.

But saying that I was in sa coma the year before the euro and the year it came in, the only change made to prices was to remove pts sign for euros sign ie, 250pts became 2.50 euros when this happened the exchange rate was near 250pts to the £ and with the getting 1.65 euros to the pound at the time it meant an instant 50% increase in prices, and when the euro strenghtened against the £ the difference was increase of of 70% to 80% and thats why the restaurant and bars were empty.

The hotels did the same slipping in room and drink increases so that put many off going to spain as well so another reason for the empty bars and restuarant, then the local people had to cut back eating and drinking out because their wages didn't increase by 50% to 80% another reason for less people in the bars and restaurants. Unless they go back to the date of introduction of the euro and lower prices to what they should be then resorts will turn into ghost towns.

Lower prices would encourage more trade and increase profits. So all in all I don't blame people who go A/I if only to teach the greedy restaurant bar owners a lesson they will never forget, that tourists will vote with their feet and find better vaule if you try to rip them off. Its about time they stopped blaming A/I and looked closer to home for why they have problems. A/I holidays have been around in spain for many years now and the problem didn't arise until the euro came in and the restaurant and bar owners thought they were clever thinking tourist wouldn't notice the big increases .

Mike