Rebecca Holland

A few months ago I found myself in the passenger seat of a rental car, winding through the steep, snow-capped Dolomites, a knife smeared with cheese and fig jam in my hand and breadcrumbs strewn across my lap. My boyfriend and I were road tripping from Vienna to Milan, and we had gone a bit overboard with the snacks. My love for road trips and snacks was inherited.

In my life, I have taken a lot of road trips. I have also eaten a lot of snacks. Along the way, I’ve learned that there’s a science to road trip snacks. Here are my five rules of road trip snacks. They should be simple, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be gourmet; they should be varied enough that you don’t get bored an hour into the drive; and, most importantly, they should have a local element. Experiment when you can’t read the labels.