When you go on holiday you want to have a good time, right? You want the food to be delicious, the weather to be fabulous, and your accommodation to be clean and comfortable. You won’t have control over the weather, unless you make silly choices as to destination. For example, if you’re looking for sunny beaches, don’t choose Scandinavia in the winter. You certainly can have some control over the other two.

There are good things and bad thing about both all inclusive and self catering holidays. You can save money on either. When it comes to self catering holidays, you are responsible for your food – either making it or going out all the time – and you are responsible for the tidiness of your rooms. There is no maid service. This means that you may be staggering in from a day at the beach followed by lots of holiday “fun” and find that your room is a mess and the beds are unmade.

At first all inclusive holidays sound fabulous. Free drinks. Food all taken care of. Maid service. Well….sometimes this is good and sometimes it’s not so good. Lots of holiday travelers who have stayed in all inclusive accommodation report that the food was either bad or cold. Or that all of the meals were buffets or that there were limited hours as to when food was available. If you sleep too late in the morning and miss breakfast – well then you’re just not getting any.

Both all inclusive accommodation and self catering accommodation are available all over the world. Most of the former seem to be either villas or cottages. How do you know which type of holiday to choose? Get online and read reviews about accommodation where you plan to holiday. Chances are very good that if someone is writing a review online about where they stayed, that they have no motive other than reporting about their stay. You can usually put some trust in these reviews.

The best idea is to question your friends when they return from their holidays. You probably have friends who have been on both self catering and all inclusive holidays. They will be able to share their general impressions about both types with you. They may also have some ideas as to specific places that they loved.