Is All-Inclusive Actually Cheaper Than Half Board?
Usually yes on paper, and often no in practice. All-inclusive wins the arithmetic if you drink at the hotel and eat every meal there. It loses if the resort is somewhere you'd want to leave, because the cost isn't the upgrade — it's the meals out you stop having in order to justify it.
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Why there are no prices on this page
We're not quoting typical drink or meal prices here, because we don't hold verified figures for them and they vary enormously by country and by hotel.
Any number we gave you would be made up, and that's exactly the thing this site exists to avoid.
The arithmetic everyone does
Take the upgrade cost, divide by the nights, work out how many drinks and meals it covers. Fine as far as it goes, and it's why all-inclusive usually looks like the winner.
But it assumes your behaviour stays the same, and it doesn't.
The behaviour change nobody prices in
Once you've paid for all your food and drink, leaving the resort starts to feel like paying twice. People eat at the hotel when they'd have gone into town, and drink at the pool bar when they'd have found a café.
That's fine in a purpose-built resort. In Crete, Corfu or the Algarve it can quietly remove the reason you chose the place.
When all-inclusive is clearly right
Big resorts a long way from anywhere, families with children who eat constantly and unpredictably, groups who want one bill settled up front, and anyone who wants a week with no daily money decisions.
Also anywhere the surrounding restaurant scene is thin.
When half board is clearly right
Somewhere with a town worth eating in, and couples who'd rather have three good dinners out than fourteen buffet ones.
Also anyone who doesn't drink much — the drinks are what makes the all-inclusive maths work, and if you don't drink you're subsidising people who do.
The question that settles it
Ask yourself honestly whether you'd leave the resort for dinner if the food was already paid for. If the answer is no, take all-inclusive. If it's yes, half board will cost less and you'll have a better week.
One more thing worth knowing: what “all-inclusive” covers varies more than people expect. Our guide What Does All-Inclusive Actually Include in Turkey? goes through which drinks and extras are genuinely in the price.
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