Food Tips for Your Next Road Trip

When you are traveling with a family, one thing that can add up quickly is the cost of food.

Once your kids outgrow the children’s menu (usually after they turn 12) a single sit-down meal can run $60-120 depending on where. Even fast food for 4 can run close to $40.

Over the years, I’ve come up with some strategies that allow me to budget between $100-120/day on food for 4 people. Here’s how:

Eat out Once Per day

One of the joys of vacation is not having to cook. Well, more specifically not having to clean up. The easiest way to save money is to cook for yourself, but where’s the vacation in that?

Eating out once per day allows for the pleasure of eating a restaurant meal, yet by the end of your trip you’re not totally burned out on restaurant meals.

I mix it up. Usually dinner is the most difficult meal to DIY on the road, but sometimes it works out better to eat out at lunch time. Maybe you have stopped in a quaint town and there is a delicious looking cafe. Maybe you have a long driving day and will be arriving at your destination well into the evening.

If we do eat out lunch, we make sure that it is our primary meal of the day.

Breakfasts are the easiest to DIY, but a nice breakfast out is also a treat, so we usually try to have breakfast out at least once a week.

Drinks often add $3+ per person to the bill, so opt for water and pack your sodas and juices to have on the road or in your room.

Pack Drinks and Snacks

Bring a cooler and your own bottled water, sodas, or other canned/bottled beverages. Ideally they are shelf stable and you can just put a few in the cooler per day to keep the weight of it down. This allows us to use a smaller cooler with only enough for 1-2 days in it.

We bring our cooler into the hotel room at night if we have a fridge so everything can stay cold overnight while we re-chill our freezer packs. We also refrigerate just enough drinks for the following day so that we can pack them already chilled into the cooler the next morning.

We bring a few freezer packs along and distribute them throughout the cooler. Many hotel freezers aren’t big enough to freeze all of them, so what doesn’t fit in the freezer compartment at least goes in the fridge.

I also bring two 1-gallon Ziploc bags. This is enough to hold a typical hotel ice bucket’s worth of ice. (Shhh. I know using hotel ice for your cooler is frowned upon). Actually, I am good about this–I only fill the ice bucket once for my cooler. If we need more ice than that (like the fridge had no freezer) then we buy a bag.

Either way, I recommend double bagging your ice so that if the inner bag leaks as it melts, your stuff isn’t floating in the cooler.

Cook in Your Room

Eating in your room is an economical way to feed yourself on the road.

Kitchenette

A room with a kitchenette is often a little more expensive than a standard room. However, let’s say it is $40 more and I am staying for two nights. If eating out costs $80, then I have saved a net of $80 (2 nights eating out=$160 minus $80 extra room cost for a kitchenette).

A package of spaghetti and a jar of marinara will feed four for $6. A deli roasted chicken and a package of instant mashed potatoes might run $12. So, even with the cost of a few groceries you’ve saved $60+.

You can even bring food from home. Maybe you have some spaghetti and marinara in your pantry already. Try to stick to easy, shelf stable options.

One thing to consider though–you won’t always know what kind of cookware and utensils you have available until you check in at the hotel. For this reason I may bring something simple to have on hand for one night but usually wait until we arrive to shop. For example, spaghetti may be easy and cheap, but if you don’t have a way to strain the noodles then it becomes a hassle.

Microwave & Fridge

If your room only has a microwave, the easiest thing to do is to buy microwavable meals from the grocery store. Each meal is usually $4-6 so for less than $25 you can feed four people.

I find this is a good option if you ate your main meal at lunchtime. Microwavable meals come in a range of sizes from diet portioned to hungry person size so each person can choose the size of their dinner. Plus, everyone gets to choose what they want to eat.

If You are Camping

I can’t get my family to camp anymore. What you can make is limited mostly by what kind of equipment you are packing–a one-burner camp stove or a full-blown camping stove/grill.

Either way, I find it easiest to only buy perishable ingredients for one day’s worth of meals. Then I don’t need to worry about whether they will stay cool enough in the cooler.

Picnic on the Road

On the first day of a road trip, consider packing a lunch. Often the first day is a bigger driving day as you move away from your home turf. Having a lunch with you saves money and is easy and quick to consume so you can get back on the road.

If you are already on the road, you can usually pick up pre-made sandwiches at the deli of most grocery stores.

Ideas for Specific Meals

Breakfast

When hotel shopping, all things being equal I will choose a hotel that offers a complimentary breakfast. These have come a long way from the donut and a cup of coffee “continental breakfasts” I remember as a kid.

Many chain hotels have warm offerings like scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, waffles, and breakfast meats. They usually also have a selection of cereals, yogurt, fruit, juices, pastries, milk, and of course tea and coffee.

I am not a big breakfast fan, but having a decent breakfast on the road can help keep hunger at bay and reduce the need for food while driving. After all, sitting in the car doesn’t burn a lot of calories.

If your hotel doesn’t have breakfast, you can buy a box of cereal and a small container of milk. Or, visit the bakery section of the grocery store and make your own continental breakfast of danishes or croissants. Maybe add a piece of fruit or a container of yogurt to healthify it up.

Lunch

For lunches, I might break the once a day restaurant rule and have fast food occasionally. I try to choose a healthier fast food option (soup, sandwiches, salads) most of the time, but sometimes you just need a fast food burger. That’s okay, you’re on vacation right?

I already mentioned pre-made deli sandwiches, but you can also DIY your sandwiches. A loaf of bread, a package of cheese slices, and a package of deli ham will usually keep you in lunches for a couple of days. Or, if the store has a deli, have them slice up just enough meat or cheese and have no leftovers to keep cold.

Often the produce section has packaged single serve salads that are ready to eat. This is another nice option.

Dinner

Any of the above lunch options can also work for dinner. If you are making dinner, I already mentioned getting microwavable meals.

If you have a kitchenette (which usually just means a 2 burner cooktop in addition to the microwave) here are a few options:

• Pasta with a jarred sauce
• Hot Dogs or Hamburgers (get pre-formed patties), or other sausages; soy or veggie burger patties also work well
• Packaged flavored rice or noodle mixes (like a box of chicken broccoli rice or fettuccini alfredo)
• Cut up fruit, prepared in store
• Packaged salad kits that come prewashed with toppings and dressing
• Deli chicken and salads from the deli counter like broccoli salad or potato salad

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Take everyone to the grocery store and just wander around a bit. If something looks good, decide whether it can be made stovetop or in the microwave.

When you eat out once a day, have breakfast at your hotel, and get your other meal from the grocery store a family of four can usually eat for an average of $100-120 a day.