Saving Money On Food On International Trips

Is it Possible to Save Money on Food While Traveling in an Expensive Country?

Big ticket items during international travel tend to be your hotels, flights, and ground rentals, but the cost of food can actually add up to a significant amount.

Some countries are quite affordable overall, but their food prices are higher than you’d expect. Other countries offer affordability across your entire itinerary, which means you can splurge on various features of your international vacation.

If you don’t take a look at the average cost of food in the country where you plan to travel for your international vacation, you might find yourself running low on local currency by the end of your trip.

Whether you’re traveling to a country like Vietnam, where you’ll pay the equivalent of just a few US dollars for a meal, or you’re headed to a place like Iceland, where a fancy cup of coffee will cost you just as much as it would in the states, you have options for saving money on travel by planning your food and beverage purchases ahead of time.

Let’s talk about how to figure out your budget for food, how to lower it if you need to, and some tricks for making more affordable choices when eating out.

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Relying on the Dollar Signs on Google Maps

One of the quickest last-minute options you can use to find an affordable place to eat is Google Maps. The search engine allows users to create reviews about restaurants, which is pretty helpful when you’re in a different country and you’re not familiar with the restaurant.

However, one of the most helpful parts is actually the set of dollar signs you’ll see next to each restaurant. If you perform a general search for restaurants in Medellín, you’ll probably get a map full of different options.

When I went to Colombia June 2023, I came upon a place called Restaurante La Matriarca. It was not too long of a walk from our hotel (took us about a half an hour to stroll there).

If you notice, the restaurant gets two dollar signs, meaning that it’s not the cheapest with one dollar sign, but it’s not an upscale eatery, which might have three dollar signs. The food was delicious, by the way – we got there about 30 minutes before they stopped serving, and they were gracious enough to allow us a meal.

In a pinch, Google Maps is a great resource for finding an affordable place to eat, because the search engine includes those helpful dollar signs. If you want to splurge on a nice dinner, go find a four-dollar sign restaurant. If you’re on a tight budget, one dollar sign is your goal.

Regarding the restaurant we visited for dinner – I think our meals cost the equivalent of about $35 USD (we paid in Colombian Pesos – nobody really takes US dollars in Colombia). So, $35 for two dinner portions (that includes the tip we left) is pretty accurate for an “affordable but not cheap” dinner, which is what I consider two dollar signs.

Packing Some Food for Your Travels

One option for saving money on food is packing some portable meals in your luggage. You might toss a few protein bars, some nuts, and a few snacks in your personal item on-board, but you can also put some additional food in the luggage you carry under the plane or your carry-on luggage.

When I traveled to England in 1999 (yes, I know, eons ago!), I was on a really really REALLY strict budget, since I was still in college and was funding my trip with a Discover card (oops) and my income from a food service job on campus.

I knew I wouldn’t always have enough money to eat out everywhere, and I’d heard that food in England wasn’t the cheapest either. Google Maps in all its amazingly detailed glory did not exist, either, so I had no way to look up tons of cheap restaurants before I left.

My solution was to pack these tuna fish & crackers snack packs – I must have had at least 20 of them in my luggage. I’m not joking. I literally had a ton of tuna fish in my luggage, and every afternoon, I ate one of these for lunch.

I can’t say I’ll ever forget eating one of these packs while leaning on the old (famous) wall that surrounds York in the north of England. A sort of hilariously epic experience snacking on some Star-Kist while looking at York Minster Cathedral, down the wall from where I stood.

But the tuna really did carry me through every day. And to make things even easier on my wallet, I always stayed in B&Bs, which always included breakfast in the morning. The only meal I was on the hook for was dinner.

Finding Hotels With Free Breakfasts

As I suggested in the paragraphs above, finding a hotel with a free breakfast is a great way to reduce your budget. You might assume that getting a free breakfast at a hotel means paying a higher price for the room, but not always.

When we traveled to Vietnam, it wasn’t absolutely necessary to find hotels with breakfast, but it turns out that our beautiful hotel in Hanoi offered the best breakfast I think I’ve ever had in a hotel. And the rate wasn’t any more than any other establishment without breakfast.

In fact, with a little searching, the hotel I found was not only beautiful inside and offered free breakfast but was also less expensive than many of the other hotels I considered. If you pay attention to things like reviews and amenities when searching for hotels, you can find affordable rates combined with great breakfasts to fuel your journey.

Choosing Which Meal for Eating Out

One of the best ways to budget your food on your vacation is to choose one meal to eat out and the others to eat at your hotel or from snacks in your luggage.

You might assume that eating dinner as your only meal out would be the automatic choice, but if you’re absolutely focused on price, always choose lunch as your meal for eating out. Lunch specials are virtually always cheaper than dinner plates, and you often get the same amount of food anyway during lunch.

However, if you’re keen on experiencing the best of what your city has to offer, dinner options will usually allow you to sample some of the best offerings in town. When I plan my itineraries, I’ll often choose one meal during our stay at a nice restaurant. Something well-reviewed and popular.

For the rest of our meals, I’ll try to focus on a priority list of quality > price > location. I want to experience the best the city has to offer, but I’m also aware of price and the distance to our hotel. Can we walk there? Does the menu have options for me (I have an allergy that gets in the way sometimes)? Are they open during the hours we want to eat?

Ask yourself these questions as you search for your meals, and you’ll always get to enjoy a great sampling of different dishes during your international vacation. And do consider visiting the street vendors, wherever you are, whether it’s the Medina in Marrakech or Wall Street in New York City. Street food is delicious everywhere!

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