How do you eat when you're away from home? We are traveling a lot this fall, and most of this traveling involves hotel rooms - as opposed to visits with friends and family. Even worse, the most recent hotel was one of those "resorts" with a restaurant onsite and very little else within easy distance. Even the fast food chains were a car drive away.
What's a food-lover to do? Bring your own food, of course.
We find that traveling is often hard on the tummy and the wallet. Restaurant and fast food portions are huge, and they leave us feeling a little yucky when we're eating prepared food three times a day. Plus conferences and meetings are usually located in places with outrageous prices and terrible quality. (Anyone been to Chicago's convention center lately? $15 for a half sandwich, anyone?)
But we have also learned that it's not so hard to eat healthy and cheap while traveling. It's not about food snobbishness (we like a good In-N-Out burger when we're in California); it's about saving money and eating a little healthier.
Here are a few ways we like to eat better in our hotel room.
• Bring your own coffee - This isn't for everyone, but we just about go crazy without a good cup of coffee in the morning. Those weak bags and hotel coffee pots just don't cut it. We bring a little bag of our own good coffee, and sometimes even the handy and portable Aeropress. (We draw the line at bringing our own grinder, unlike the very committed Intelligentsia barista we recently met.)
• Bake before you go - A home-baked muffin or some homemade granola are great additions to the suitcase. It helps us feel a little more centered, a little more connected to home to carry our own home-cooked food. Plus - cheaper.
• Find a farmers market - Our favorite thing to do when traveling is to find a local market and pick up a few lunch items. It helps us feel more connected to the town; it's the best form of tourism! On this trip we ended up at the Santa Monica farmers market (tough, right) and we walked away with a block of sage cheddar, some very sweet figs, tiny yellow tomatoes, a loaf of olive bread, and some ornamental kale to brighten up the hotel room. This fed us a good lunch for several days, and we felt much more nourished and cheery about our food each afternoon.
What are some of your habits and ideas for better hotel room eating? Do you have any favorite ways to keep your health, budget, and morale intact when traveling?
Related: What Foods Can You Carry On The Plane?
(Image: Faith Durand)
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I second the farmer's market idea. One of my fondest travel memories is curling up in my hotel room in the middle of a HOT day in Aix-en-Provence and munching on some marché-obtained bread, figs and raw-milk cheeses... sublime.
view crepesuzette's profile
My oldest sister broke her back and all her ribs on a trip to Las Vegas last year (she is fine now), so we spent 2 weeks in Treasure Island Casino during her surgeries and recovery until we could bring her home with us. It certainly wasn't a Vegas Vacation that anyone wants to be on, and the costs of our plane tickets, rental car, and hotel were certainly not planned. The smartest thing we did was stop at a Trader Joe's a few days in and pick up snacks, and bottled water.
While there is no shortage of eating in Vegas, it's very expensive and after long days in the hospital you just want to collapse. So we ended up eating a large brunch, then dinner in restaurants, and fast food, or TJ's snacks the rest of the time. I think this was a pretty smart way to do things.
The TI gift shop was charging almost $5 for bags of chips and water so we saved a lot from TJ's goods, not to mention they were good to snack on at the hospital too to avoid vending machines and hospital food. (Right up until I ended up sharing a hospital room with my sister for 4 days but I'll spare that story!)
I also still crave Del Taco which we don't have in Ohio, tacos and fries in the same place--good stuff!!
Our family also enjoys vacationing in houses/condos that have kitchens. We all like to cook, so the ability to make at least one meal a day, and normally eat breakfast in, saves a lot of money.
view bobcatsteph3's profile
When I was growing up, we did a lot of traveling by car, mostly since my dad was a career military person.
I clearly remember my mom carrying premeasured bags of rice AND a rice cooker to the hotel room. Add some water and TA DA! Hot rice with some condiments and some veggies bought at the local grocery store and it's a ready meal. I'm sure our family saved a lot of money and made sure all the kids ate a healthy meal.
It's always been an inside joke between my brother and I about bringing a rice cooker when either one of us travels. I suppose that's one reason why I don't own a rice cooker -- I've been damaged by the experience.
view Darlene's profile
I am so glad to see that I am not the only one (aside from Alice Waters) who feels the need to travel with some food. Traveling prepared is the best way to avoid fast food, sometimes the only option. True that there may be good food to be had at your destination if you have the time to find it but when traveling with a child it is important to have healthy snacks on hand. Packing does get tricky, space and baggage constraints being major issues but it can be done.
For some ideas as to what you might pack, check out my list from a recent train trip:
http://www.izzyeats.com/2008/05/short-train-adventure-snacks-for-road.html
view izzy's mama's profile
When I was in high school, I took a choir trip to Hawaii and they recommended that we all pack peanut butter and bread with us, in case we didn't like the food. And while I enjoyed nearly everything I ate, it WAS handy to be able to make a snack late at night when I was hungry. I never travel without snacks. It's easy to throw a box of granola bars and a few tea bags in my suitcase before I leave so I know I can have a nice midnight snack when I want one.
view popcorn.for.dinner's profile
on the topic of eating well while traveling, this article (and the comments!) is certainly worth checking out:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/healthy-eating-while-traveling-recipe.html
view ellenp1214's profile
Flying to London from Paris my friend and I brought a selection of fromage and tapenade in our luggage. Once we got to London we got a fresh baguette from a bakery in Notting Hill. We tore that baby up in our hotel room- it was FANTASTIC.
view eurodee's profile