Travel advice on eating delicious food while on vacation, even with children and on a budget
Food is life. At least it's super important as part of the travel experience to our family. Mind you, my husband and I eat completely differently than our children, which sometimes puts a strain on maintaining happy moods.
Planning ahead on where and what we'll eat makes all the difference in a successful trip.
At this point in your planning, you should have a decent idea of where you'll be each day of your journey. Your travel itinerary document should be looking pretty good. The only thing left to plan is your meals! If you haven't read Part 1 - choosing your location, or Part 2 - picking your activities, head on over to those blog post now!
Big Lunch or Big Dinner, not both!
The first thing to keep in mind is that most people do not sit down to 3 meals a day when on vacation. When traveling, I tend to plan for a hearty breakfast, mid-day snack, and a decent dinner. If we're busy late at night, I'll opt for a large late lunch and late night dessert instead.
Start your day off right!
Breakfast is the easiest to get correct, even with the pickiest of eaters. Did I mention my kids are super picky? Well they are. If I can get them to eat a big breakfast, I know they will last longer in our activities.
When you can save money with an included hotel breakfast, make sure you take advantage by grabbing an extra piece of fruit, filling that to-go cup with coffee for the road, and even looking for a pre-wrapped muffin or box of cereal as a snack for later. Some hotels have a mini-fridge that you can use to store milk cartons or yogurt cups. Also keep an eye out for bottled water as not all hotels offer them for free other than at breakfast time.
Plan around your activities
Most of my vacation meal planning happens by using Google Maps. I know where we'll be and when we have an activity planned. So I look up the location of the activity and find food options nearby. This is where the fun happens.
Google reviews are your friend
Once I find a few restaurants in the area, I check out the menu to make sure there's at least one item each of the kids will eat. I look at prices to make sure we're staying on budget. I check out the food pictures. And most importantly I check out the reviews and search for "family" to see what other families thought of the location. If it looks promising, I'll star the location on my Google map and/or copy the link to the website and add it to my Planning Doc. Once I narrow it down to two or three options, I'll keep those links and also copy and paste the address onto the document for easy reference.
Have several options for each meal stop just in case plans change. I like to have a casual option just in case we don't feel like being too fancy after a long day of tourist activities. Or just a back up option in case one place is super crowded and we're running out of time before our next activity.
"Best Places to Eat in ___"
If the first step is feeling overwhelming and you're not finding any hidden gems, don't be afraid to try another research option. Google "Best places to eat in ____" and add the city name where you'll be. Most places have some sort of food blogger or tourism site that will give you a nice long laundry list of their recommendations. I cross reference that list with my locations and typically add at least one or two options to our plans. If the place looks amazing but out of the way, I'll save that as an option for a day we have less going on and have time to travel a little further for something special to eat. Priorities!
Make a reservation
If a place seems really popular, I will make a reservation. This is really useful for dinner as most people tend to go out for dinner rather than lunch. Saturday or Sunday brunch is another time you might want a reservation for a favorite restaurant.
Check the days/hours they are open
Make note of the restaurant hours! Sometimes a restaurant will close on a Monday or Tuesday because those or not busy days.
Food tours
One of the best way to experience a city for the first time is to take a food tour! While they are a little more money per person than a regular meal, they are a great activity that doubles as meal time and typically leaves you very full and satisfied for hours afterward. I found that the kids are more willing to try new things when on a food tour than when we try to offer it at home. Even if a food tour is not on your agenda, you can always sneak a peek at some of the food tour websites, check out the examples of what kind of food they offer and find your own locations to try something similar.
One of my favorite food tours was when we went to New Orleans and opted to tour the Garden District rather than the French Quarter. Every food tour in the French Quarter listed the same foods, so it was easy for us to just try those local foods on our own during the rest of the trip.
Grocery stores for the win!
Just because you are on vacation, doesn't mean you need to eat out for every single meal. If you booked a vacation rental home, stopping at a grocery store is a given. But even if you are in a hotel, you can save yourself a bunch of money by stopping at a grocery store to get a snacks to curb the mid-day hunger. You can also bring or buy baggies or containers to pre-package items and throw them in your backpack or purse to carry during the day. If you have a mini fridge this is even more handy.
Great snacking items include granola bars, chips or pretzels, fresh fruit or veggies, yogurt tubes (if you have a fridge). We've even done microwavable mac-n-cheese cups or ramen soups for when there are no good food locations around (National Parks are notorious for overpriced or undesirable food options).
Hopefully this helps you think about how to plan out the last few details or your trip and ensure that everyone stays happy and well-fed on your next travel adventure.
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