All Inclusive Family Holidays: What the Price Hides
Three operators sell the same two words and cover three different lists. Here's what each one settles, and what it leaves you to pay.
Quick Answer
Three UK operators sell the same two words. Only one says what you're buying.
- TUI defines every other board basis in a line each. All Inclusive "varies depending on where you're staying" (as of August 2026, source: TUI help centre).
- Jet2holidays commits to 22kg baggage and transfers. First Choice covers meals and local drinks, hedges kids' clubs with "usually", leaves baggage out and sells transfers as an extra (as of August 2026, sources: jet2holidays.com and firstchoice.co.uk).
- The six weeks below run £808 to £1,100 per person, £3,232 to £4,400 for four full fares (as of July 2026, source: Which?).
- Age fit: one free child place per room, set by the child's age on the return date, so four lose one fare, not two (as of August 2026, source: jet2holidays.com terms).
- Skip it where eating out is cheap: an Algarve week on the ground is £347.50 for four, the lowest of the twelve resorts we price in full (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money).
- Price your dates: the budget calculator gives a full number.
Only one of the three puts baggage and transfers inside its definition, and for four people that gap is eight bag charges. The dearest week below turns out cheapest once you land.
Most parents filter by price per person first. All Inclusive is where that filter misleads hardest: the words aren't a standard, just whatever each hotel decided.
Jet2holidays' terms put a number on it: All Inclusive typically covers meals, snacks and local drinks "for a minimum of 12 hours per day" (as of August 2026, source: jet2holidays.com terms). So two hotels sold the same way, same week, can sit side by side in the same listings and cover different lists.
The six weeks below rank on both halves of the bill.
In a hurry? The live all inclusive listings price your dates.
How we picked
Board basis wording comes from each operator's own pages; prices from Which? tracking and the Post Office Family Holiday Report 2026, both July 2026.
Be clear on what the picks are: holiday areas priced from that tracked data, not properties anyone here inspected. No pool depth, kids' club age band or room sleeping five is claimed, because none was sourced. That check stays yours.
What All Inclusive actually covers, operator by operator
| Operator | What the wording covers | What it doesn't settle |
|---|---|---|
| TUI | Every other board basis in one line, but not All Inclusive | Everything. Asterisked facilities are chargeable |
| Jet2holidays | Flights, accommodation, 22kg baggage, transfers, three meals, drinks, snacks | Branded drinks and à la carte dining sit in All Inclusive Plus |
| First Choice | Flights, accommodation, three buffet meals, local alcohol and soft drinks, snack bars | Baggage and transfers. Premium spirits need an upgrade. Kids' clubs "usually" run |
Operator wording as of August 2026, from tui.co.uk, jet2holidays.com and firstchoice.co.uk.
So your comparison isn't like with like. A set menu can replace the buffet in quieter months, which matters if your youngest eats about four things (as of August 2026, source: jet2holidays.com terms). Our breakdown goes tier by tier.
The charges that land after the headline price
| Charge | Where it stands | What it means for four |
|---|---|---|
| Hold baggage | 22kg stated by Jet2holidays, not by First Choice | Eight bag charges for four |
| Transfers | In the Jet2holidays wording, a paid extra at First Choice | A per-person coach or taxi |
| Drinks tiering | Premium spirits behind a First Choice upgrade, branded drinks in All Inclusive Plus | The bar may not match your quote |
| Under-occupancy | Prices assume two adults sharing; changing the party can lose free child places | One adult with two kids pays more |
| Local charges | Cots, highchairs, babysitting, pool towels, plus tourist tax | Cash at the desk on arrival |
| Deposits | £60 per person at Jet2holidays and easyJet holidays, from £19 at On the Beach | Spreads the cost, doesn't cut it |
As of August 2026, from jet2holidays.com and its terms, firstchoice.co.uk and onthebeach.co.uk; the easyJet deposit as of August 2026. No operator itemises paid kids' club sessions.
The inclusion list is set per hotel; the financial protection isn't. Any flight-inclusive package sold in the UK must be ATOL protected, so if the operator fails you get your money back or the CAA gets you home (as of August 2026, source: UK Civil Aviation Authority).
Where do kids stay free, and what that free place is worth
Free child places are an operator mechanic, not a destination one. Jet2holidays sets the conditions in its terms: selected accommodation, dates, departure points, room types and board basis, two full-price passengers, one place per room, and a child age limit set on the return date (as of August 2026, source: jet2holidays.com terms). First Choice runs its own free child places page but sets no conditions there beyond "T&Cs apply" (as of August 2026, source: firstchoice.co.uk). easyJet publishes no eligibility window and its terms page blocked two reads; TUI's returned 403 (as of July and August 2026), so neither is claimed here.
Can a family of four go all inclusive for under £400 each?
The cheapest tracked week was Turkey's Dalaman coast at £808 per person (as of July 2026, source: Which?). In the school summer window £400 each is about half that, and £300 doesn't appear at all.
Those adverts are seasonal, not false: the prices sit in the shoulder and winter months, at lower board tiers, outside the school holidays. The nearest cheaper window for English families is autumn half term, 26 to 30 October 2026 (as of August 2026, source: Ealing Council term dates), though academies set their own. Our twelve-destination ranking works it through.
What about 2027?
Nothing here is a 2027 price. The Which? tracking covers August 2026 departures, and we found no comparable 2027 series published when we checked on 10 August 2026.
Six weeks that survive the fine print
Dalaman coast, Turkey
Cheapest tracked at £808 per person, with a family week at Marmaris on the same coast at £358.60. The catch: an average flight time of 4.5 hours (as of August 2026, source: jet2holidays.com Dalaman Area page), a long afternoon with a three-year-old, and a UK GHIC doesn't cover Turkey (as of August 2026, source: NHS). Check current rates
Kefalonia, Greece
£829 per person, the quieter Ionian option. The catch: no independent Post Office pricing, and a hire car is near compulsory. Check current rates
Costa Blanca, Spain
£859 per person, and the arithmetic below turns on it: second dearest of the twelve resorts we price, at £450.40 a week, so the upgrade buys out a bill you pay twice a day. The catch: August is loud. Check current rates
Tenerife, Canary Islands
£866 per person, week on the ground £429.16. One waterpark day for four costs £146.79, dearest of the twelve resorts we price. The catch: south and north are different holidays. Check current rates
Peloponnese, Greece
£903 per person, down 16 percent on March, where the larger Greek family resorts sit. The catch: no Post Office pricing, and long transfers nobody budgets for. Check current rates
Algarve, Portugal
Dearest of the six weeks here at £1,100 per person, down from £1,313 in March, yet cheapest on the ground of the twelve resorts we price, at £347.50. The catch: a premium fare to the cheapest place to eat out. Check current rates
| Destination | Band | Per person | Four fares | On the ground | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dalaman coast, Turkey | Budget | £808 | £3,232 | £358.60 Marmaris | 4.5hr flight |
| Kefalonia, Greece | Budget | £829 | £3,316 | Not priced | Hire car needed |
| Costa Blanca, Spain | Mid-range | £859 | £3,436 | £450.40 | Busy in August |
| Tenerife, Canary Islands | Mid-range | £866 | £3,464 | £429.16 | South differs |
| Peloponnese, Greece | Splurge | £903 | £3,612 | Not priced | Long transfer |
| Algarve, Portugal | Splurge | £1,100 | £4,400 | £347.50 | Weakest case |
Per person is the Which? tracked package week, flights and hotel; on the ground is the Post Office figure (both as of July 2026). No best-ages or kids' club column appears: neither was sourced, because these rows are holiday areas priced from published tracking, not properties anyone inspected.
Also worth pricing: Costa Dorada (£832) and Costa Brava (£878).
Which one's right for your family?
- Two under six and a hard budget cap: the Costa Blanca.
- Children who live in the pool: Tenerife, where a waterpark day for four costs £146.79 on top.
- One adult flying with the kids: read the under-occupancy line first.
- You like eating out: the Algarve on half board, where the Post Office barometer basket is cheapest of all 22 resorts it prices, at £139.65 (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money).
Our checklist for choosing an all inclusive resort runs the questions.
Our take
The Costa Blanca is the pick, and the reason is arithmetic. It's second dearest of the twelve resorts we price, at £450.40 for four, while its package price of £859 sits mid-range (as of July 2026, sources: Post Office Travel Money and Which?). Only Majorca costs more on the ground, at £455.22. Dalaman is the runner-up, outright winner if you'll take a 4.5 hour flight.
Run the check before you pay, with the budget calculator: price the week at half board and at All Inclusive, same room and dates. If the upgrade costs less than the week it replaces, take it, then read the hotel's inclusion list. That's the document you're buying. Our Turkey versus Greece comparison runs the same test.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Costa Blanca. All Inclusive returns most where the week on the ground costs most, and it's second priciest of the twelve resorts we price in full, at £450.40 for four (as of July 2026, source: Post Office Travel Money).
No single answer. All Inclusive is defined at hotel level, so the hotel's own list decides it: TUI says the contents "varies depending on where you're staying" (as of August 2026, source: TUI help centre).
Turkey and Greece led the tracked prices: the Dalaman coast at £808 per person and Kefalonia at £829, against £1,100 for the Algarve (as of July 2026, source: Which?).
Free child places are an operator mechanic, not a destination one. Jet2holidays limits them by accommodation, dates, room type and board basis, needs two full-price passengers, and allows one per room (as of August 2026, source: jet2holidays.com).
Judge the package by its inclusion list, not its label. Jet2holidays states 22kg baggage and transfers inside its definition; First Choice states neither and sells airport transfers as an extra (as of August 2026, sources: jet2holidays.com and firstchoice.co.uk).
Turkey on price, Spain on convenience: the Dalaman coast was the cheapest tracked week at £808 per person, the Costa Blanca and the Canaries mid-range on shorter flights (as of July 2026, source: Which?).
For a first All Inclusive week with young kids, Spain: the Costa Blanca and Tenerife sit mid-range at £859 and £866 per person, flights under five hours (as of July 2026, source: Which?).
Data Sources and Verification
Board basis wording was taken from the operators' own live pages: TUI's help centre answer on board basis, the Jet2holidays All Inclusive page and the First Choice All Inclusive page, all captured in August 2026, plus the Jet2holidays terms and conditions, re-read on 10 August 2026 for the free child place conditions, the under-occupancy and local-charge clauses and the 12 hour All Inclusive wording. The Dalaman average flight time comes from the Jet2holidays Dalaman area page, read on 10 August 2026; no departure airport list is claimed, because that page names none in its text. The free child place wording for First Choice comes from its Free Child Places deals page, read on 10 August 2026. The First Choice airport transfers observation comes from the Extras menu on the First Choice All Inclusive page, read on 10 August 2026, which links airport transfers out to a paid third-party booking partner; transfers are not named inside the All Inclusive inclusion wording. ATOL scope and the failure-protection mechanics come from the UK Civil Aviation Authority's ATOL protection pages, read on 10 August 2026. GHIC scope comes from the NHS page on applying for a free UK Global Health Insurance Card, read on 10 August 2026 (gov.uk/global-health-insurance-card redirects to it). That page lists the countries where a UK GHIC can be used as the European Economic Area, Switzerland on stated conditions, Montenegro, Australia, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension, and adds that the UK government is negotiating to expand it, so always check cover before you travel. Turkey is not on that list, which is the only GHIC claim made here. The easyJet holidays deposit figure was observed on 1 August 2026 and is stamped August 2026 to match the same figure on our cross-linked week-costs guide. Package prices come from the Which? package holiday price tracking published on 17 July 2026, which checked more than 17,000 prices across 8,794 package holidays from easyJet holidays, Jet2holidays and TUI for two people sharing for seven nights, departing on or around 2 August 2026. No comparable Which? series for summer 2027 had been published as of 10 August 2026, so no 2027 price is stated anywhere on this page and none is forecast. On-the-ground family week costs come from the Post Office Travel Money Family Holiday Report 2026, produced with TUI, with local prices converted to sterling at July 2026 rates and survey fieldwork carried out from 12 to 14 June 2026. Autumn half term dates come from the Ealing local authority school calendar for 2026/27.
Package prices are tracked averages for a specific summer departure window, not quotes for your dates, and the family-of-four figure is four times the tracked per person rate. The six areas are priced from published tracking, not inspected as properties, so no hotel-level inclusion, kids' club age or pool detail is claimed. easyJet holidays' own pages blocked automated reading on 10 August 2026, and tui.co.uk returned HTTP 403 to the same check, so neither operator's free child place terms are quoted here. Operator inclusion lists change, and All Inclusive contents are set per hotel, so confirm the inclusion list on the hotel page before you pay. Prices observed July and August 2026.