I bet there are supplier of food and other goods who are only in business because of A/I, it pays all the staff who work for the supplier and in turn they spend the money in the local economy. If A/I went then the supplier could go bankrupt, staff losing their jobs a knock on effect of less money being spent in the local economy and then more job losses, not to mention the staff who are employed by A/I hotels.

Looking at A/I its not as simple of local bars and restaurants losing businnes, a more completed economic view the effects of A/I on local economies.

The A/I probably create more jobs than the local bars and restuarant, and these job don't pay real wages and are not dependant if the bar or restuarant does bad the staff don't get payed.

Nobody has the right to preach A/I are not good for local business and we should all B&B to help out struggling restaurants and bars. Some people like A/I and some don't its as simple as that. Somebody who love A/I don't have right preach to people who liike to B&B and H/B that A/I are superior and rubbish there choices.

Thats what has happened on here towards A/I holidays. Maybe greedy bar and restaurant owners are pricing themselves out of the market and are the cause why more and more people are opting to go A/I.

I agree and with our present situation over here in the UK with the so called credit crunch people will have to set themselves realistic budgets and stick to them. This is what all-inclusives allow you to do! I could go with just my £30 visa fee and not spend a penny more other than on tips should I so wish at an ultra all-inclusive hotel!!

If you go self catering you invariably have to pay for hiring a safe and air-conditioning. You have to carry cash around and exchange money etc. We like the fact that we have everything at hand and we like the luxury that we have in the better hotels. The Barut lara for example have bottle beers, local brands effes light and dark, miller light and becks plus all the major brands of spirits included so we do get value for money i think. They include ice-cream for several hours per day, have an al a carte snack bar at lunch time so the food is cooked freshly for you and we can go to the several al a carte restaurants in an evening! We have a Junior suite booked and get 24 hour room service should we wish and a turkish daily paper, self service executive bar and miniture spirits ,wine and soft drinks in the fridge daily plus a friut basket changed daily. So we are hardly suffering at our chosen hotel!!!
The food is excellent and the hotel is number one in Antalya on 2 other holiday sites!
Why would I want to go looking for restaurants, places to drink and pay more for my holiday in the long run and stay in some 3 star basic accomadation??? I do not get ripped off and come home fresh and chilled out!
That's just my prefered holiday, others like to form friendships with other brits and meet up in the bars and that is there choice. We do not go out here to pubs prefering to save for our next trip, so do not feel the need on holiday to go bars. We prefer sitting in the elegant lobby bar of a quaility hotel with a nice drink waiter served. Boring to some people I know but the hotels are always full of happy people from all over europe so they must be doing something right.
The shops in Lara beach rely on the Russians coming over and they spend a small fortune in their shops, the clothes are abit dodgy for the british taste to say the least so they are not actually catering for us ( We bought some fake G-star jeans for our son but most of the stuff was not suitable. ) I was told this by the family we met at easter at the Barut lara, and the husband was a turkish man, yes staying at an all-inclusive hotel ????? He was very impressed by the food and loved the turkish offering and the service received.

whatever your opinion we seemed to have missed one important point... IF THERE WAS NOT the demand for AI then the hotels would not be offering it.. All the owners of AI hotels are doing is catering to demand [not just Brits but all visitors] so at the end of the day its choice for the holiday maker[ and some would not go to Turkey if they could not get HB or AI] its down to the restraunters and bar owners to be competitive and stop moaning, a trait they have unfortunately leaned from the British

wizard

It's all a case of horses for courses really, and most of the Turkish folk we spoke to were at pains to put more of the blame on the Germans and Russians rather than British tourists. Personally, AI is not for me and what for Violet is her dream holiday certainly wouldn't be mine (and I have two teenagers!) - but I wouldn't dream of telling anyone they shouldn't go AI if that's what they want. Surely there is room for everyone?
I like to experience more of the country I'm visiting, and if you're going to go on holiday and stay in the one AI resort the whole time, to be honest, you could be anywhere?
(Before anyone starts, I realise not everyone does that - but some certainly do!)

I just have to say Violet that in all the years I have been to Turkey, either on holiday or living there I have never been ill through the food. I have eaten in a few all inclusive restaurants and the food was really not very good, admittedly these were not the luxury hotels, I did eat at one luxury hotel and the food was nice though.

The thing is, I didn't start this post as a debate on who thinks their kind of hoilday is best, I did it purely to realate what we had been told my some of the bar and restaurant owners this year. A lot of people are just trying to justify why their way is better etc. and that really wan't the point of the original post.

Im with Violet, i like a bit of luxury when i am away.

Ive stayed at Raffles in singapore and used their resturant, should i have stayed at a cheaper hotel and eaten outside of the hotel then? I have stayed at the Ritz in london and had dinner there, again should i have used a travel lodge and pizza hut. I am a bit lost here.

Through out life people will spend according to their income. You would not expect to see the queen in Mc Donalds now would you.

Kedi
I know your post may not have been intended has a debate but that did not stop people using it to slate the all-inclusive resorts, and saying that people are made ill by the mass catering at such resorts!! but calling the thread "" The big all-inclusive Problem "" invited this!!

To those who say that if you spend all your time at these resorts you could be anywhere, what rubbish!!
I could go all-inclusive to say spain and the spanish people would be has pleasant has the turkish people???? I have found through experience that is not the case. We love turkey because we like the people and 99% of the staff are wonderful!! If we venture out!! we love the banter and friendliness of the people whether you buy from them or not it is usually good humoured fun on their part! I like to chat with the people who serve us and treat them with respect! A local Lara jeweller came talking to me while waiting for my husband and he merely wanted to talk to me in english to improve his. Yes we actually do go out of the hotel!! I will say though when it is in the high 40's it is more tempting to stay around the pool and be sat on a free lounger and be served ice cold drinks in the height of summer!! and only have to walk a short way for lunch etc!

I contributed to this because it is unfair to band all the all-inclusives together, I know that there are some terrible ones.

Has for my dream holiday I do not remember calling it that but it is the type of holiday that WE choose and it fits in with OUR budget !!! If ever I won the lottery I would travel all around the world !!!

Wendywu is a recent holiday maker to Turkey and has I know travelled extensively to some exotic places but she to has become addicted to the Luxury value for money (compared to europe ) 5 star all-inclusives in turkey, had her first visit been to say Marmaris in a SC apartment I am sure her opinion of turkey would have been oh so different. Thanks for chipping in wendy!

Like i said this thread could go on forever, because we all have different expectations and opinions and it would make for a boring world if we did'nt!!
BUT please people stop knocking those of us who do know quality all-inclusive hotels exist and stop trying to make us feel guilty for using them!!

I don't think anyone was trying to make others feel guilty on this thread - and I've been at pains to point out that what suits one person doesn't necessarily suit another. For some, staying in an upmarket luxury five-star all inclusive resort might be their idea of hell (yes, honestly!), while those who enjoy that type of holiday would probably find a two-star self-catering holiday to be their idea of hell. If it stimulates debate, then fine - it's not about attacking others for their choice of holiday.

I agree Blondirscot, debate is a good thing, it makes life interesting! For me a 5 star luxury all inclusive would be a holiday from hell but I know the kind of holiday I like would not suit others either and it is good that we are all different.

Wendywu, I don't quite get what you are saying, just because people choose to stay in cheaper accomodation and eat out doesn't mean they like to eat in pizza hut or McDonalds, I would never set foot in McDonalds at home let alone in Turkey , I like to eat at nice places, I just don't like hotels and I'm sure most people who eat out do the same.

Ive seen people who eat out in Turkey eat in inferior places also with Sky Sports constantly on the telly, followed by kareoke. I would prefer the dining room of a nice five star hotel to that any day of the week. There are loads of indifferent restaurants out there. People say they haven't had a bad meal but that doesn't mean others haven't had them. You are far less likely to get reports of this also people often cant pinpoint the restaurant it happened in, as it may come 24 or 48 hours later by when they could have eaten in 3 or 4 establishments.

It's the same argument everybody who is anti AI uses only turned on it's head ergo not everybody who goes AI stays in the hotel day after day, doesn't 'see Turkey' and gets drunk on cheap alcohol. Presumably not every body who goes SC and stays in cheepo SC apartments eats in Brit bars and McDonalds but I am sure some do, especially with the prices the decent resturatns charge.

But that is what is constantly trotted out as a rational argument against AI's.

Unfortunately it isn't and as Brian said if there was no market for AI's they would have gone under long since. Its the bars and restaurants that need to get their act together not the AI's.

Doepsmc

We are of the same mind. some people cannot go anywhere unless they can meet up with other brits to watch a big game in a place that resembles a pub and be very load as if to prove what a great time they are having. I hear many on the forums say the food in the all-inclusive hotels is boring when infact they mean they do not get fed an english type diet of burgers and chips or the full english fry up of bacon and eggs etc!!

If that is the way they choose to go fine.

The deluded who actually think that they save money are the ones that get me!!

I hope though that the people who enjoy the above carry on and do not invade the hotels i frequent. One hotel in Lara has already been the victim of the larger lout mentality and I enjoyed this hotel but would not now return.
I like a drink with the best of them but not in a typical british setting. I like a nice clean glass served with a drink I choose in nice opulent surroundings.I like to be entertained by quality acts and not watch some drunk warrbling on kareoke!!!
Anyone who thinks 5 star luxury is a holiday from hell is being stupid, maybe not to there liking yes but to say that is ridiculous.
Let the debate continue!!!!!

violet123 wrote:

Anyone who thinks 5 star luxury is a holiday from hell is being stupid, maybe not to there liking yes but to say that is ridiculous.

LOL I agree with you Violet. I would imagine it is a statement from someone who has never stayed in five star luxury so how can an effective comparions be made if you haven't done both. When I was younger we sayed in three star apartment complexes on many occassions, so I feel I can at least make a sensible comparison as I come to the debate from a postion of knowledge, having been there done that and got the TShirt.

Doe

Well sorry, but I have stayed in a five-star AI hotel in the past, and yes, it was my idea of a holiday from hell and not an experience I'd be in a hurry to repeat. You've criticised others on here for trying to make people feel guilty about their choice of holiday, yet your post is coming across as having more than a hint of snobbery about it. I wouldn't tell tell people who enjoy AI not to go there, so please don't look down your noses at us just because that's not OUR idea of a good holiday!
Those of us who don't favour AI and prefer to do our own thing on holiday are certainly not all lager louts who spend all our holiday watching football and stuffing our faces with fast food. As Kedi has already said, if we wouldn't do those sort of things at home, why would we want to do them on holiday? I like to eat out in good places, enjoy mostly local cuisine and enjoy the odd, civilised drink. I'm not scrimping and saving by not choosing AI - personally, I just don't enjoy that type of holiday and neither do the rest of my family. It doesn't make us bad people, you know...

Someone said being in an allinc hotel means you could be anywhere.
Well i go to them and i agree which is why i go to turkey because you get a better hotel for your money.To be honest i'd rather go to spain but its alot more expensive.
I know i shouldnt be saying this on the turkey forum but its just my opinion of course.

A few of my fellow guests in Olu this year chose to pay to eat in the AI restaurant at the Belcekiz Beach Hotel more than a few times this year - this was instead of one of the many restaurants in town , which apparently did not impress them that much. They found that with the price and massive choice available this was a really good option for a great meal for a group with different tastes.

i stay ai in turkey and have done for a few years now. i have noticed prices have risen quite a lot outside the hotels for food and drinks so people cannot afford to stay ai and go out to eat and drink , well i cant anyway i used to but not anymore . i do use the barbers supermarkets for bits and bobs and also go for maybe the odd drink but not as frequent as i used to. i also noticed in some parts of turkey the prices are in euros now im no expert but going down to euro path turkey will die off just like the rest of the med. it is just not cost effective for us brits to spend the euro anywhere now.

i am hoping to be back in turkey in a few weeks , and have already booked for next year and as you can probably guesss yes it will be ai...

i do both and have this year already stayed in 2 all incs, 5* all inc & 3-4* all inc and stayed at my own apt a few times. firstly i dont drink and secondly i hate any kareoke bars or any bars that are showing football etc, but i was very disappointed with the last 5* all inc i stayed in and found the food below standard and very limited choice and terrible for kids at whit half term, yet the 3-4* all inc we stayed 2nd jan for a week so slightly out of season was a lot better. so its really difficult to judge just by the star rating. everyone is looking for different things in a holiday and food is very important to me, if i stay in an all inc i have to go out at least once a day, i would hate to be stuck in a hotel everyday without leaving even if it was 5*top quality, this is why i havent looked at the lara area as i know there isnt anything much around and didnt like the beach much there either, but thats my choice and i would rather eat out in a traditional turkish restaurant and go to the real turkish resorts than a 5* hotel in a man made resort, anywhere that i see advertising british cooked breakfasts etc i give a wide birth. i can see pluses and minuses in both sc and all inc, and its up to whatever suits each person, i would never categorise anyone for their choice of holiday. good job we dont all want to go the same resort lol, i probably wont go all inc much now unless i found an exceptional deal. happy holidays everyone

Blondiescot
I was not aiming my comments at you personally but it was a generalization of some brits on holiday!!
I can assure you I am no snob and do not look down my nose at anyone! I am from the north from a working class background!
Lets agree to dis-agree and i hope all those of us that love turkey can do so in the way that suits them best!!

Lets agree to dis-agree

I agree, sometimes thats what you have to do.

Sarah