On the China tour we had a buffet for every meal but breakfast! The buffets were more or less identical.

The hotel on the Italian holiday provided really unappetising food and most of it badly cooked! Lorenza the tour manager complained to the hotel manager for us and the food improved slightly.

I am reluctant to book another holiday with Just You, as after paying a decent amount for the holiday the restaurants seem to think no they can give Just You customers any cheap unappetising food they like. 

The food on holiday is something usually people look forward, it is part of the “holiday experience”.

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had poor culinary experiences on both of your JY holidays. I’ve also done the Inspirational China tour and have to agree that the food was...repetitive! Breakfast’s were fine because of the sheer amount of choice available, from Asian to traditional Western fare, but you always knew what was going to be served up for lunch and dinner before it actually arrived. The only exception to that was on the Yangtze cruise, where food in the upper deck dining room (separate from the main dining area) was really good.

Having said that, I’ve done over a dozen holidays with JY (all long haul with a few exceptions) and the China experience was the most disappointing of all from a culinary viewpoint. I don’t expect to go to China and NOT be served rice, noodles and watery soup, but after nearly two weeks it did get a bit much!

Iceland, on the other hand, was a ‘foodie’s’ delight with wonderful, flavoursome and well-presented food all the way.

On the whole, I’ve found the included meals on JY holidays to range from acceptable to really good, although you’re not the first person to complain about the food on European tours. I can remember complaints of a similar nature being received about holidays in Malta, Italy(again) and Spain in the not-too-distant past. So I do hope that JY will look into your complaint and select hotel accommodation and local restaurants with a little more care in future. I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor TM who’s left to sort out an issue which shouldn’t arise in the first place.

Hopefully your experiences to date will not put you off going on tour with JY in the future, as I’ve really enjoyed my holidays with them over the years, and met some great people along the way.

All the best

Mike

I have done over 12 holidays with JY,near and as far away as NZ, also I am classed as a vegetarian.

Most of my tours tend to be full on tours where you only get breakfast and maybe a welcome meal, so therefore I find places to eat. The sky’s the limit depending on what I fancy. Where I have been half board, there at times have been issues, and not to much the JY Manager can do many countries abroad do not do HOT food, and it can be shall we say tepid..and yes dare I say bland.

So perhaps if you are going to tend to book a tour with many meals, perhaps put a post up asking people who have previously been for a honest answer on their thoughts on the food they were offered.

I have been offered weird and not nice things as a vegetarian but I just get on with it, for me the tour is about the sights I am seeing and experiencing not what I am eating...

Hope you can find a tour where you can enjoy the food....

Cindy

I agree with much of what you have said - looking forward to meals is certainly a major part of the holiday experience as far as I am concerned.  I have done 17 JY tours and the included meals have varied from extremely poor to utterly delicious, mostly in the "fairly good" range.  

I did the Inspirational China tour nearly four years ago and very much enjoyed it.  I thought the food to be good, especially in Shanghai.  It was typical Chinese "tourist" style, with many dishes served on a lazy susan.  This is their tradition and I have also experienced this in Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia (however there was more variety in the dishes on those tours than in China, so I do understand where you are coming from).

I haven't been to Cilento but I have heard many others praise this tour so much, that it is definitely on my wish list.  

My gripe is that it seems JY (through their local agents) strike a budget with many of the restaurants/hotels for a set meal for us - and it is often not great - and we look around the restaurant and see other (non-group) diners having a lovely meal....very annoying!  Especially since JY prices have been raised time and again.  I am going with a couple of different tour operators over the next year, so it will be interesting to see how they compare!

All the best,

Bob

Sue

The Cilento Coast Spa Escape hotel must have changed a bit then. When I was there with JY in 2016 the food was excellent.

Sue

I agree Sue.  I've done the trip twice and not come across any problems.  The only complaint I ever had was the slow service.  I found the food perfectly acceptable

I was in China last year too. The Tibet tour. I found the food to be perfectly fine although as you say it was very predictable by the end of the tour. Some meals were a bit different and everyone got quite excited. 

Just be grateful .... China has come a long way. My parents, who are not fussy eaters, did a Travelsphere tour back in 1993 and for 2 weeks they more or less lived on rice and cabbage. When they got an egg it had a chick in it!! A plate of chips was given one night for the table to share and it was every man and woman for themself! There were also hardly any cars so least they had no congestion. How times have changed. 

Angie

I have been on two holidays with Just You, Inspirational China and Cilento Coast Spa Escape. On both holidays the meals were very poor. 

On the China tour we had a buffet for every meal but breakfast! The buffets were more or less identical.

The hotel on the Italian holiday provided really unappetising food and most of it badly cooked! Lorenza the tour manager complained to the hotel manager for us and the food improved slightly.

I am reluctant to book another holiday with Just You, as after paying a decent amount for the holiday the restaurants seem to think no they can give Just You customers any cheap unappetising food they like. 

The food on holiday is something usually people look forward, it is part of the “holiday experience”.

I went on the same China tour during the Christmas 2016. I am vegetarian and was expecting to struggle at mealtimes. I was pleasantly surprised to see more than 10 vegetarian items for lunch and dinner. Loved the variety of food so much that I put on 2kg weight. 

I have been to Australia, China, South Africa/Zambia/Botswana and Singapore/NZ. So far, the only problem I had was in NZ, having to eat veg curry everyday. I am from India and have curry everyday, but I prefer to have different veg food on my holiday. Once I explained, I was  given different food. 

Dyuti

produced in the Italian region we went to. The cheese was absolutely lovely!

It was served in the hotel restaurant a night or two later and you could hardly cut it open, it was so hard and rubbery. Obviously not fresh.

Sorry to hear of your experiences of the food on your JY tours.  I did the Cilento Coast a few years ago, before the spa was in operation.  The year I went I enjoyed the food, 3 alternatives for the starter and main with local fish dishes and good vegetable selection, tho' the desserts were underwhelming and I don't think vegetarians were well catered for.  I would like to repeat this holiday, to take advantage of the spa and there are some different excursions.  Possibly the year you went they didn't have such a good chef/kitchen staff?

Do agree with what's been said by the others.  Food can be anything from awful to excellent, most somewhere in the middle.  My worst experience was the welcome meal in Nice a few years ago - how you could find such a dreadful restaurant in Nice I don't know.  There were several people on the trip who were new to JY and, if that was me, would certainly have thought twice about booking with JY again.  Others on the trip gave the poor TM a really hard time, but she had no idea where she was taking us - it had all been set up by "local agents".

Have also experienced the situation described above, eg in Italy where the JY evening meal is clearly much worse than what's being served elsewhere in the restaurant - again, this could really put some people off booking with JY again if it was their only experience.  Having  good or bad experiences with the included evening meal makes a difference to how you feel about the holiday.

Katy

Regards

Jaya

For translation it was Aqaba where we had Foul Chicken and I loved Hisbiscus drink instead of orange juice. Never had it since Jordan.

Like Cindy says, many tours only supply breakfast, I have had great meals out, usually coming home with an extra 5 lb in weight :rolleyes: 

Jan

I have a feeling that if people moan too much about food, Just You may stop offering it altogether and everyone will have to find places to eat and this can add extra cost to the holiday!  I personally do not worry too much about food when on holiday as I know that it is not home and food is not going to be good all the time.  I too am a vegetarian and have so far survived on 17 Just You holidays.  Of course, it is always nice to be served delicious food.  Also everyone's taste is different in that what is like by one may be disliked by another.

Regards

Jaya

The food was not just poor at the Italian hotel, but the night we had the “grey chicken dish”  the lady next to me found some chicken that had not been cooked!