Which is for you? All-inclusive vs A La Carte Hotel

What is your vacation jam?

One of the reasons to travel is to experience the local cuisine. But this can also be a burden; sometimes, you just want everything taken care of for you. 

This is especially the case when my vegetarian family travels together.  We love exploring local restaurants, and all the free things to do with kids in each place we visit, but there is work involved in sussing out the food and activities options.  This is where staying in an all inclusive can be advantageous . You don’t have to do any thinking - everything is taken care of, and you can just spend your time relaxing.

If you are trying to figure out which is better for you, remember that your needs change all the time - what is right for you now may not be right six months later, or a year.

Are you a joiner?

If you and your kids like organized activities, than an option like  all-inclusive resorts in Cancun could be for you. When my children were younger, they really enjoyed the supervised children’s programs at resorts, and staying at an all-inclusive meant we didn’t have to consider the extra cost each time we dropped them off. 

For one week long stay in Cancun, we split our time in two; half the time at an all-inclusive, the rest at an a la carte hotel, where we could dip our toe into local restaurants and spend the day sightseeing or playing at the beach with our children.  After all, part of a family vacation is time together!

All inclusive options usually include alcoholic beverages

Do you like to drink?

Most all-inclusive resort residences include free alcoholic drinks. If you and your spouse want to have a couple of drinks during the day, you don’t have to consider cost. But if you never drink, remember that the price of your all-inclusive is based partly on you taking advantage of the ‘free’ drinks. Your deal isn’t as sweet if you are a teetotler.

Do you like staying in an upscale resort?

It may be hard to believe, but some people prefer roughing it on vacation, staying at a dive where they can slob around in ratty t-shirts and let the kids be as messy as possible. 

Then there's the rest of us. Hot spots like the all inclusive resorts in Cabo San Lucas include family sized villas with marble floors, spa tubs and private balconies. You have plenty of space to spread out, and access to such resort amenities as a full service spa and a children's pool.

Do you like privacy?

If you stay with your children in a suite, it is often a living room with a pull out couch, and a bedroom. So when the kids go to sleep, you have to be quiet; sometimes, you can’t even access the bathroom without walking past the kids. At the resort residences, https://vacatia.com, the kids can have a separate, private place to sleep and you and your spouse can enjoy each other’s night-time company.

This post is sponsored by Vacatia.

3 Easy Things to Cook in a Vacation Rental

Well stocked kitchen at a Disney Vacation Club resort

Renting a house or a condo on vacation can be a great way for a family to save money, with more space and a kitchen. But you are on vacation - you don't want to cook elaborate meals, and you don't have your usual arsenal of pots, pans and cookbooks at your fingertips.

The first thing to do is see what your kitchen has: is there an oven, or just a cooktop and microwave? Are there big pots for making pasta or boiling lobsters? Is there even salt, pepper, olive oil?

The next thing to check is access to food. I love when we go to the Hamptons, which has farmer's markets and gourmet food shops everywhere. We sometimes just grab a lot of produce, grill it and call it dinner.

But there are a couple of go to, simple dishes that you can make in even the most inadequately supplied kitchen.

A new website, Vacatia, offers access to condo rentals across the Untied States - foreign rentals will come next year. The condos have full kitchens and let a family enjoy extra space, a kitchen and a living room - all for much less than a couple of hotel rooms.

Unlike AirBnB, Vacatia vetts every listing, and you can find condos, timeshares and resort homes with the right amount of space for your family - and the kind of kitchen where you can whip up a great dinner if you want.

But you're on vacation - you don't want to spend all of your time cooking.

Here are 3 easy to make dinners for a vacation rental - or for quick dinners at home.

Dinner One: Frittata
You can make these as packed with vegetables as your kids will tolerate; in fact, the cheese and eggs do a good job of disguising how many veggies you sneak in.

I start by sautéing an onion in butter (or oil - don't buy butter just for this dish). If you are using mushrooms, slice and add after the onions soften. Then dump in any cooked chopped vegetables you have in the fridge - roasted red peppers, zucchini, eggplant. If you don't have any cooked vegetables, chop up some fresh bell peppers, greens, asparagus, and cook till they soften.

Frittata with mushrooms and greens

This is a great way to use up vegetables if you have leftovers at home, or if you are on vacation, you can take a doggie bag with you from a restaurant.

Beat the eggs with a little milk and season with salt and pepper.  For 4 people, use 6-8 eggs.  Add to the pan and cook until nearly set. If you have an oven, turn on the broiler, sprinkle the top with cheese and broil to eggs are completely set and cheese is melted. If you don't have an oven, just cook till the eggs are done.

If your vacation rental has a cast iron skillet, it's a great stove top to oven dish; be sure to check the pans in your rental to make sure they can go from stove to oven, or finish the dish on the stove, as above.

Voila, dinner.

Beans & rice - added eggs for even more protein

Dinner Two: Beans and rice
Our go to vegetarian meal is beans and rice, on a flour tortilla. You need a can of beans (14 ounce) for about 3 burritos. Brown rice is the best choice and if you don't want to spend time cooking brown rice (it can take 45 minutes) get an order of brown rice from a Chinese restaurant. The one on my corner charges just $.75 for a pint of cooked brown rice.

Generally, I rinse the beans in a strainer, to get excess salt off; if your vacation rental doesn't have a strainer, you can skip this step. Buy low sodium canned beans to cut down on salt.

Our kids ate burritos with rice, beans and cheese only when they were younger; as they got older, we added salsa, cooked veggies, kale. So basically you can go as loaded as you want; you need some cheddar cheese, or spicy Jack, and a jar of salsa. For easy extra veggies, a bag of pre-washed spinach can be put right on top of a beans and rice mixture; the whole thing can be microwaved for each person, or you can bake all the burritos at once. If there are no baking sheets in your vacation rental, use the microwave; make sure the plate are microwave safe first.

Layer:
One whole wheat tortilla
Brown rice
Beans
Grated cheese
Salsa
Cooked veggies
Greens

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 or microwave for 2 minutes until everything is hot and cheese is melted.

Dinner 3: Use that grill
Once corn is in season, a quick summer meal is super easy. Get at least one ear of corn per person. Pull out the silks but leave most the husk on and grill about 5 minutes per side. We also grill portable mushrooms to go with this, and sliced zucchini; serve with meaty Beefsteak tomatoes sprinkled with salt. You can throw a steak on the grill if you want real meat, but we find the vegetarian version satisfying and filling.

Note: Vacatia sponsored the TravelingMom retreat in Orlando.