Top Tips to Save Money on Food While Traveling

Food is often the best part of traveling. Trying new cuisines is an exciting part of the adventure. However, if you want to save money, cutting food costs, without sacrificing that adventure can be done. 

Let’s face it. Food costs have gone up since last year. Try these tips to save money on food while traveling.

Get a Room with a Kitchen

When you book your travel, consider getting a room with a kitchen. This can be through home rentals, hotel suites, rooms with mini-fridges and microwaves.

You can save money on food costs by having some of the things that eat your budget on hand. This can be drinks, snacks, grab-and-go breakfasts, etc.

If you do a full kitchen, you can eat nearly every meal in and save the most money. 

Rooms with free breakfasts

Speaking of breakfasts, if you are booking a hotel room, make sure you’re booking one with free breakfast. While breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, I know we can save a lot of money on food by having a hotel free breakfast.

Generally, chain hotels offer free breakfasts, but if you’re looking for unique hotel accommodations, it may be worth digging around to see if you can find one that has free breakfast. Of course, your travel agent will have this information handy too. 

Usually, the added cost, if any, is minimal.

Keep in mind that COVID-19 policies have changed many hotel breakfast programs, so you may not find the hot buffet style everywhere. However, these hotels know this is an amenity you’re looking for and have created grab-and-go options. For example, on a recent trip, we were able to grab individually wrapped breakfast sandwiches to heat in our in-room microwave.

Book the Club/Concierge Level

Have you ever booked a hotel  club or concierge level? This is not just for luxury travelers.

The concierge is both the person that helps you as well as the level of the hotel. The hotel concierge can help you with savings on attractions, dining out, fitness facilities, and more. They are connected and there to help you.

Staying on a club/concierge level often has more food than just a hotel breakfast. You can find beverages, including adult beverages, hors d’oeuvres, better views, private lounges, snacks, and sometimes full meals. Take a look at booking a cclub/concierge level to see what the perks are and if they can save you money on other things such as food.

The extra you spend could be made up in the amount of food you save.

Plan Ahead

Planning meals is not always fun for everyone. However, it is key to saving money on food.

Plan both for meals you’ll make, and what you want to spend dining out.

Know what you have in your rented kitchen or hotel space and plan accordingly. Even if you don’t have a way to heat food, a lot can be made from cold cuts, cheeses, fruits, and snacks.

Plus, as I said earlier, plan drinks, both for the kids and adults. Don’t forget waters. Plunking down $3 for water is not budget-friendly.

Bring Your Own Food

Once you’ve planned ahead, you know what food you need to bring. If you’re driving and doing short trips this is easy. Get your list together and shop ahead of time. Know how much space you may need in the cooler as well as if you have a full-size fridge or an in-room mini-fridge.

When I shop ahead of time to save money on food, I keep those items separately bagged in my pantry and ready to go. I also section off part of the fridge for cold items we need to take with us. We road trip often and know this is a key way to saving money on the road.

Related: What to Eat on Road Trips

Order Groceries to be Delivered

If you can’t take all your food with you, order groceries to be delivered. We’ve done this both at home rentals and at hotels.

You can order from many different places using Shipt or Instacart. You can even plan ahead and schedule your delivery for a specific date and time. Say you arrive at noon, schedule your groceries for 3 pm.

Don’t feel weird ordering groceries to a hotel room. Every time I’ve done this I’ve never had a problem. You may need to meet your delivery driver in the lobby, so grab a luggage cart when you do. Just be sure to give the delivery driver specific instructions as to where to meet you (and maybe even how to get to the hotel.)

Cook Breakfast in the room

We’ve planned meals. We’ve shopped. Now onto more ways to save money on food.

Usually, with a family, everyone wakes up hungry. Unless you also have family members who are up and ready to go, this means you will probably eat breakfast at the hotel or in your room.

Here are a few things you have on hand to cook or make for breakfast that are perfect for travelers:

• bananas
• individual yogurts
• granola
• breakfast sandwiches (microwave)
• cereal and milk – get the shelf-stable milk if you don’t have a fridge
• frozen pancakes
• hard-boiled eggs

Pack Lunches & Snacks

If you’re going to be out touring all day, packing a lunch and snack not only helps you save money on food, they also save you time. There’s no need to take an hour out of waiting in line at a theme park in order to eat when you can just grab a sandwich and go.

Plus, even if it’s a quick service meal, you’re still dropping a lot of cash in a busy touristy area. Having lunch packed in your day bag is a money saver.

The same goes for snacks. No matter what age your kids are, they start to crash and become cranky when they’re hungry. Have snacks on hand so you can keep going.

Here are a few lunch and snack ideas.

• Hoagie sandwiches – regular bread may get soggy throughout the day. Hoagie bread seems to hold up better
• PB&J on rolls. (Think King’s Hawaiian)
• Trail Mix
• Cheese Crackers
• Power Bars
• grapes
• Dry Cereal mix
• Oranges (Easy to peel tangerines)
• Individually packaged cheese
• Make your own Lunchable with salami and pepperoni and crackers. (Making your own is less costly than buying the prepackaged stuff.)

A lot of the time we eat snacks throughout the day rather than an actual lunch meal. Also, just think of what your kids like to snack on at home and make that a part of your plan.

Eat Lunch Out instead of Dinner

Alternatively to pacing a lunch, consider making that your big meal of the day and eat lunch out. This can be a great way to save money on food. Many places have lunch menus that are cheaper than their dinner menus, often with the same types of food. The portions may be smaller, but seeing as the portion size is out of control at many places, this is okay. You don’t necessarily want to cart leftovers with you when you’re traveling.

We’ve done this before and then snack on food when we get back to the room in the evening. We’ll eat some of the same things we may have packed for lunch, or grab a bag of popcorn and settle in to rest.

Dine Out Smartly

When you do plan to dine out, do it smartly. These are a few of the ways we save on food when we’re dining out in a new area.

• Choose cafes instead of formal dining
• Ask the locals where their favorite restaurant is
• Shop the food markets or street vendors. This can be a fun cultural way to eat as well.
• Go outside of the tourist area
• Check out Purple Light’s recommended restaurants in our city/port overviews. We always include one or more good budget options.

Eat the appetizers

When you’re dining out, it’s also easy to make a meal out of the appetizers. Even if it’s not your typical tapas kind of restaurant, imagine if everyone in the family ordered an appetizer and you shared family-style.

I know places where you can get a decent size plate of nachos as an appetizer. It can be another great way to sample more.

Pack a Water Bottle

No matter what you’re doing all day, be sure to stay hydrated. Pack a reusable water bottle and refill it throughout the day. If you can refill your water from a sink, or even while you’re dining out, you’ll save a ton on buying plastic water bottles.

Worried about the quality of water? Get a water bottle that not only can be refilled, but it can also be sanitized. I don’t go anywhere without my Crazy Cap bottle. You can read my review here, but in short, it sanitizes water through UV light technology.

Discounts

Don’t forget to look for discounts. And don’t hesitate to ask. Many places are offering discounts in order to keep the business going.

Think of the following:

• AAA
• Senior
• Military
• Teachers – That includes you, mom if you’re a full-time homeschooler (not distance learning through their normal school)
• Front Line Workers
• Health Care
• Police/Fire

Kids Eat Free

Finally, when trying to save money on food, don’t forget to look for the kids who eat free deals.

When you’re doing your planning, search for kids eat free and add your location. With teenagers, that doesn’t often include them, but there are some places that do include anyone under 18, so it’s worth looking even if you are past that under 12 age restriction. 

Book a Cruise or All-Inclusive Resort

One of the major attractions of cruises and all-inclusive resorts is that they include all meals with limited exceptions. Contact Purple Light Vacations for the best options for these as well as vacation rentals, and hotels with breakfast or Concierge level access.

Purple Light Vacations provides you with the knowledge, insight and personalized service to make your vacation all you want it to be at no additional cost. We help you travel in the know wherever you go. To get started, fill out this quick form or call 619.324.1444 (ext. 3).