[morgin]

Originally Posted by cmyden

I think that's an interesting question! I guess the first question would be, what is the typical savings of a package that is 'all inclusive' vs a regular flight + hotel package to the same hotel, on the same dates.

Using a real life example of the El Cid Marina which is going for $1125/person all inclusive on Jan 25, vs $983 for the non all-inclusive plan, I think your estimate of saving about $300 is a good one.

So $300, divided by 7 = $42/day.

I know for us, when we travel, I'm pretty sure we spend more than an average of $40/day eating and drinking at local restaurants. But then, you're not really comparing apples to apples, as at an all-inclusive resort some of your meals might be at a buffet, vs a higher quality local restaurant. And some people would probably put a value on eating somewhere that felt authentic, vs eating at their hotel.

And of course for some people, they could probably polish of $300 worth of liquor on their own!

Overall, I'd say a couple would typically spend a lot more than $300/week eating and drinking locally. I'd say for us, depending on the country, we typically go for a light breakfast (often included at our hotel, as we like smaller B&B type places), and then spend around $25 for lunch, and try to keep it to around $50 or less for dinner if we can (really depends on the country of course!). Throw in a few drinks here and there during the day and I'm sure it probably adds up to at least $100/day, or $700/week for us to eat out and drink every day while on vacation.

If you have a chance can you look at http://tinyurl.com/ajxonpo (I shortened an expedia url) to let me know if a) that's a decent deal (25% off hotel) and b) how I would use your tool on your webpage to find that deal? (I didn't see it through your all inclusive finder).