Can You Really Travel With Enough Food on Vacation?

Is It Worth it To Lug Food Around On Your International Vacation?

One of the easiest ways to cut down on expenses during travel is to reduce how many times you eat out at restaurants. In almost all cases, snacking on something you bought and had to put together yourself will be cheaper than buying something that was made for you in a kitchen. While there are some exceptions, making specific plans regarding your meals on your vacation can help you significantly with reducing your budget.

One option is to pack all your food and take it with you, leaving nothing to chance, price-wise. You can fill up your bags with food and enjoy not having to spend money on restaurant visits while you travel. It is technically feasible to avoid eating out entirely, but it’s probably not the absolute best choice to try and avoid every ounce of food in your destination country.

After all, you’re probably flying there to experience the sights, sounds, and culture of the place, so why would you avoid all the food? In my mind, there are some huge benefits to taking a lot of food with you when you travel, especially if you’re on a tight budget. It can really help you stretch out your vacation when you want more time or need to reduce your overall costs.

However, I also think there are a few downsides to lugging around a suitcase full of food for your entire trip. Those downsides will probably vary based on where, how, and how long you’re traveling, and the best answer for your trip might be that you pack some food for a few easy meals and plan on eating out some of the time, too, just for the culture and the ease of walking in somewhere and having someone prepare your food.

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What Meal Should You Eat Out When Traveling?

Let’s say you’ve decided to take some food with you on your vacation, but you’re still interested in sampling the local fare. In many places, trying “street food” is all the rage, but sometimes street food isn’t any better or cooler than what you’d find in a restaurant. It’s usually easier to get because you don’t have to walk into a shop, and sometimes it’s cheaper, too, because the vendor doesn’t have all the overhead of a restaurant.

However, I’d caution you on really going gung ho on street food before doing a little research on the quality of the street food in your destination country and whether it’s even worth trying. Don’t let someone who’s Instagram famous convince you to eat somewhere just because it’s where all the cool people go.

Some of the best people to ask about street food are your tour guides. If you ask the hotel concierge or the front desk person at your hotel, you might get directed to a restaurant at the hotel or somewhere similar. However, the tour guides, who are usually locals who know the area, will always know the best street food, if any exists. They can show you the best (and usually the cheapest) street food around.

If you’re not into street food, I’d suggest eating out for dinner would be your best option for sampling the best fare your destination has to offer. Choose one or two nights to eat out for dinner as the meal you eat out, and then opt for lunch on the other days. Your lunches will usually be less expensive, but it’s nice to toss in one or two dinners in there just to experience the local fare.

What are Foods that Travel Well and Aren’t Protein Bars?

One of the easiest types of foods to throw in your suitcase is protein bars. They come in all sorts of sizes, flavors, and types. Some are meant for energy and give you a boost with their sugar content, and others are good for active days where you need the sustained energy granted by a big load of protein. But honestly, eating protein bars for two straight weeks can get really old really fast.

There are some cool options with protein and energy bars these days that aren’t sweet (I like Afar bars, personally), but if you want something that’s not bar-like, two of your best options are canned tuna and canned chicken (just make sure it’s the ready-to-eat kind, not the kind you have to cook). You can mix them with condiments and literally eat them right out of the can; I did this all across England when I visited.

I also carry around mixed nuts and gummy bears. Eating a single kind of nut gets boring, so that’s why I opt for the mixed bags, and eating random candy like gummy bears is just easy when you’re walking around the town on a tour. I tend to get the mixed nuts that also have the cranberries in there (it’s a popular mix with almonds, cranberries, and cashews that a bunch of companies make).

Virtually anything that you can eat while walking is a good choice for travel food. Yes, your protein and energy bars are a great option, but if your trip is going to last more than five days, you’ll definitely want to branch out from just one kind of bar or one kind of food. If you’re trying to budget and don’t want to get lured into going to a restaurant while you’re traveling, just make sure to bring a few different types of foods.

Buy Fruit While You Travel for Fresh “Cheap” Food

One way that I augment the food I bring with me on vacation (and I always bring lots of snacks, even if I’m traveling across an ocean!) is by purchasing fruit. It really depends on where you’re traveling, whether you can get fruit easily or whether you have to put some extra effort into getting some. You might go to a place where they have fruit stands everywhere, or you might visit somewhere that fruit just isn’t a thing.

When I visited Paris briefly, one of the best parts of it was the plethora of fresh fruit stands crowding into every street. You couldn’t walk a block through Montmartre and not pass a display of fruit. I’m sure it was probably marked up for the tourists, and that cheaper fruit was probably available elsewhere, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing an endless supply of strawberries during my time there.

However, the complete opposite was true when I went to New Orleans. Yes, I know there are grocery stores and convenience stores and all sorts of food things everywhere in the United States, but you couldn’t pay someone in Louisiana to show you a piece of fruit. I swear it was like pulling teeth to find a single fruit or vegetable anywhere, even in a restaurant. And fried okra is not a vegetable, I don’t care what anybody says!

The bottom line is that fruit is a terrific energy booster, it’s always delicious, and there are very few places where you can’t find at least something that’s easy to grab, peel, and eat. Oranges, apples, bananas, grapes, the list is endless, and your body will love the fiber, sugar, and healthy addition to your traveling food, especially if you’re thinking about eating out a few times at restaurants that aren’t known for health food!

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