10 Ways To Save While Eating On Vacation

Food isn’t like souvenirs. No one goes on vacation without buying it. You have to make room in your travel budget to eat, but there are many ways you can make that part of your expenses smaller. Just because you are trying to save money doesn’t mean that you have to eat fast food or sandwiches for every meal or can’t experience the best cuisine a place has to offer. Below is my top 10 list of ways to stretch your food funds.

Ask the locals where they eat

Odds are, people who live where you’re traveling don’t eat at the fanciest restaurant in town. You know who eats there? Tourists and people celebrating their anniversaries. The “normal” people eat at affordable dining establishments that are also delicious and serve food from the local area. They are going to want to point you towards some of the city’s gems and impress you because, unlike hotel staff, they don’t get paid for recommending the crazy expensive steakhouse down the street.

Look forward to lunch

You probably aren’t always frugal. While on vacation, it’s okay to splurge sometimes. If that includes going to a top-rated restaurant that you know is spendy, make reservations for lunch instead of dinner. The food will be just as tasty, but cheaper than at dinnertime.

Split an entrée

Most restaurants serve you at least twice as much food as you can eat. Don’t be weighted down having to carry around leftovers or feel bad about food left on your plate. Share a main dish with your travel companion. Most hotels will split an entrée for no fee, but even if you have to pay for an extra plate, it only costs a few dollars, which is cheaper than paying for a whole other meal. 

Order an appetizer for a meal

Most appetizers can be plenty to fill you up and can be as little as a third of the price of an entrée. This is also a great option for you if you like to try many different dishes. Order two to three for the same price as a meal.

Hit up the food carts

Food carts can offer a huge variety of different local and international foods, but can be half the price of (or less) than dining at a sit-down restaurant. With this kind of savings, you can try fare from several carts with no regrets.

Shop the farmers market

There’s no better way to experience local cuisine and interacting with residents than a visit to the closest farmers market. You will find a variety of food, including meats, fruits, vegetables and cheeses. Purchase enough for lunch and enjoy the afternoon having a picnic in a nearby park.

Rent a vacation home or stay in a hotel with a kitchen(ette)

This is my favorite way to stretch my food budget, because there are so many options. Renting can be a great value over hotel stays if you’ll be visiting for a week or more, plus it gives you the chance to check out the local grocery store. Make many of your own meals and save considerably. I don’t often like to spend money on eating breakfast out, so I love to buy new cereals and pastries I can enjoy in my room.

Stay at a hotel that offers free breakfast

You don’t realize how much dining out can cost until you go on vacation. A reasonable breakfast can cost between $8-15 per person. If you multiply that by the number of people you’re traveling with and the number of days you’ll be staying, that number can be huge. If you find a hotel in your price range that offers free breakfast, you’ve hit a jackpot of savings.

Sign up for Groupon

If you haven't been using Groupon, what are you even waiting for? Save 40-90% off food and more, meaning you can eat for way less than you originally planned, meaning you can splurge on a fancy meal, spend that money elsewhere, or actually just stay on budget. Sign up at Groupon for the destination of your next vacation (they cover many international locations as well as the United States) and eat for less!

Don’t order off the kids’ menu

If you travel with children, you’ll notice that most kids’ menus seem to have the same small rotation of foods. Obviously, little ones don’t just live on hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets and PB&J sandwiches. Not only do they charge an outrageous amount for these “staples” that cost hardly anything to make, but they offer hardly any nutritional value and your kids are likely to eat only half of it before declaring they’re full. Instead, order a meal that you both will eat and share. This saves you money and might get them to eat a vegetable or two.

While there are other ways to save on dining, these have proven to be the most useful for my travels and are my first suggestions to anyone asking how to cut costs on their trip. They are easy to do and will enable you to try a bigger variety of foods, too. You’ll experience more of the city and its people, giving you a greater vacation experience.

How do you save money on dining out when you travel?

Dog-gone Good Travel Tips

This week saw National Pet Day and next month is National Pet Month, plus with summer coming, people will be hitting the road (and sometimes the skies) with their dog. If you fall into that category with 30 million others, then you might need some help in traveling well with your dog. 

We've taken quite a few dog trips and they can be challenging, but can also be very rewarding.

Photo credit

Getting there isn't all there is to your traveling. You also need to think about accommodations. Choice Hotels has some great tips on how to deal with hotels - not just their own - and what to bring in order for everyone to be safe and happy on your trip. There are lots of great, budget-friendly hotels and vacation rentals to choose from. 

photo credit

Don't forget to also look for pet-friendly restaurants, so your dog isn't staying in the car if you can help it. Most eating establishments with outside seating allow dogs, many coffee shops do, and, of course, you can always eat your own food at rest stops, parks, and overlooks. I love to look for dog parks, too. It's nice to let your dog run around off-leash in between long stretches in the car. 

What are your favorite dog-friendly cities? From my experience, Portland, OR is lovely (and the coast, basically allows dogs everywhere), as is Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Kalispell & Missoula, MT.

Visit National Parks for Free This Year

If you're hoping to get outside this year on a budge, perhaps a free trip to a National Park is an option for you. Get out and go hiking, biking, camping, see some national monuments and historical places. These do sometimes take planning, since the parks can get real busy. 

With winter dragging on and some places still getting fresh blankets of snow, you might be ready to get out of town. In preparation for the warmer temps, or for those of you who don't care how cold it is or how much snow is on the ground, let's talk about how you can get out and explore your national parks this year for absolutely free. Each year, the U.S. National Park Services open their gates to everyone and waive the daily entry fee to make getting outside cheaper and more fun.

• Jan 16 — Martin Luther King Jr Day (if you want to start planning for next year)
• April 22 — National Park Week kicks off
• Aug. 4 — Celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Great American Outdoors Act
• Sept. 23 — National Public Lands Day
• Nov. 11 — Veterans Day

If you're an avid outdoors lover, then you may already have an annual pass, because you want to explore all the things. If you're like me, you only go to the parks when you're on a road trip, so you can't see the value of spending $80 for the year when you only spend maybe 3 days at a National Park. For you, save some money and plan your trips around these free days. The parks maybe be more crowded, but that can be part of the fun. Unfortunately, more people may mean fewer glimpses of wildlife, but it really depends on the park. 

Pack your cooler with some delicious foods, a blanket, and throw some clothes in an overnight bag if you plan to make a getaway of it (because, sometimes you aren't that close to a National Park), because getting outside just got easier:

Save some money on your pass

Did you know that seniors (age 62 and over) can buy a lifetime pass to the parks for just $10? Now that's a fantastic deal! Want to get a cheaper pass? Well, you might be able to. U.S. Military and permanently disabled citizens can get an annual pass for free. If you have a child in the fourth grade, with the Every Kid in a Park initiative, your whole family is eligible for a free pass. 

Split the pass with a friend and add $40 to your pass cost. Each pass can have two people as owner on it (and they don't need to be related), so if you have a a friend or family member who also wants to go to the parks, but doesn't necessarily want to spend full price, add both  your names to the annual pass and split the cost. You'll each pay just $60 that way and will only have to work out who gets it when (or go together). This is great for families, because the NPS has a lot of offer for kids, not least of which is the Junior Ranger program, where kids engage in different educational activities at each park and receive a stamp in their parks passports and often a badge for completing each one. 

When to skip a pass

If you only plan on visiting during the above times or you plan to visit the smaller parks that don't charge a fee. For the record, there's almost 300 of them. Here is the list of 120 parks that charge admission that you can get into free on fee free days. If you want to try to avoid the crowds, check out these "hidden" spots.

Want to get away from the crowds? Visit these 15 least popular parks and you'll get the same lovely scenery but have tons of space to yourself:

• Pinnacles National Park - California
• Voyageurs National Park - Minnesota
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park - Texas
• Congaree National Park  - South Carolina
• Virgin Islands National Park - St. John, USVI
• Great Basin National Park - Nevada
• Dry Tortugas National Park - Florida
• Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve - Alaska
• Katmai National Park and Preserve - Alaksa
• North Cascades National Park - Washington
• Isle Royale National Park - Michigan
• Lake Clark National Park and Preserve - Alaska
• Kobuk Valley National Park - Alaska
• Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve - Alaska
• National Park of American Samoa - Vatia, American Samoa

Visit Canada

Canada has National Parks of its own, and they were established before the U.S. NPS. With tons of open spaces, it's a great place to head to get outdoors, plus they also have fee-free deals for under 17s and new Canadian citizens at all 47 parks across the country. Once they are open to Americans again, it's a good excuse to visit and enjoy new outdoor spaces. 

Now that you have some options, all you need to do is plan your trips, find some awesome hiking boots/shoes, charge your camera and get out there. 

What's your favorite national park and why do you love it?