Traveling on a budget? You can still eat cheap on vacation while exploring the unique flavors of the local cuisine.
July 5, 2022
Your first buttery taste of a perfectly flaky Parisian croissant, the way a rich Italian hot chocolate melts in your mouth, the best Indian daal of your life—food memories are often the longest lasting. And for good reason: Tasting new cuisines is often why so many travelers love exploring the globe.
It might seem impossible to dine well and eat cheap on vacation, but it can be done. The secret is to act less like a tourist and more like a local.
Venture outside the tourist areas to eat cheap on vacation
A surefire way to save money on food while you travel is to venture outside the tourist zone.
Jessica van Dop DeJesus learned this lesson early, and it’s served her well. As a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve living abroad, she made friends in many countries and grew to love traveling. Now, whenever she’s headed to a new destination, she asks friends who live there to recommend places to eat cheap on vacation that are outside the tourist-heavy city centers. Not only do the neighborhood restaurants she discovers that way serve less expensive and delicious food, they also provide a refreshing change of atmosphere.
“Usually the spaces are a bit more quaint,” says DeJesus, who left active duty in 2009 and has been writing a food and travel blog since 2012. “It’s less noisy than when you’re dining with a bunch of tourists.”
Ask locals where they recommend eating
Word of mouth is another effective way to eat cheap on vacation. Find out where the locals like to go when they dine out, says Erik Wolf, executive director of a nonprofit that promotes the food tourism industry. Three of Wolf’s most interesting trips took him to Sweden, Spain, and Ecuador, where he made a point to ask hotel employees and other locals where they eat. “I was able to find some real gems,” he says.
Baristas, bartenders, and passengers on local buses and trains are among the favorite sources for dining tips for Sarah Schlichter, a financial writer. On the other hand, she says the hotel concierge isn’t always the best guide to eating on a budget while traveling.
“Sometimes they’ll give you good recommendations, but a lot of times they kind of have their standard places they recommend that are tourist-friendly,” Schlichter says.
Source: discover.com