Vacation food ideas

My boyfriend and I are heading to the west coast for a vacation in the next little while, and I have a checklist of each thing that I need to bring so I don’t forget. But we also want to keep the costs down on eating out as well. We went on a trip to the west coast last year and you can see all of the recaps here.

Last year we spent too much money and not planning things out.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to eat inexpensively? I’m thinking of packing up the following items and bringing it with us, or buying it at a local grocery store:

  • pasta (bring)
  • pasta sauce (buy)
  • fruit (buy)
  • milk (buy)
  • cereal (bring)
  • trail mix (bring)

I have no idea what to do. I don’t want to eat out every single night for our 2 week vacation! I need all the help I can get. Any/All suggestions welcome — especially from you Cassie!

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4 Comments

  1. I usually bring oatmeal, and then buy fresh fruit to put in it when I get to my destination.

    Sometimes I request that there be a microwave in my hotel rooms (when travelling for work), and I bring those Uncle Ben’s microwavable rice packages… my favourite one is the tomato risotto one.

    Nancy says: Good idea. I have a bunch of things listed so far like: apples, crackers, fruit leather, trail mix, granola – the PC brand … with almonds. Delish… (and now oatmeal packets). Thanks!

  2. I’m going through this planning right now as we are going away to the Caribbean for 6 days this Saturday.

    The last couple times we went up to VT for some skiing (3-4 day trip), we have brought along a loaf of bread, PB, and Jelly (and Fluff at my husband’s request). (And some Plastic silverware and Ziploc sandwich bags). We brought bananas and apples with us as well. Also, a box of Kashi granola bars, and some trailmix/dried fruit (apricots). The hotel provided breakfast; this was usually our lunch at the mountain or while driving around doing touristy things. Then we didn’t feel guilty about going out for dinner.

    Is your hotel room going to have a little kitchenette where you can make the pasta & sauce?

    Last time we went away on a real vacation (our honeymoon, almost 3 years ago) to the US Virgin Islands, not only were we both students at the time so we didn’t want to spend a ton of money, we got tired of having rich restaurant food all the time. We were able to go into town and pick up a sub from Subway that we loaded with practically all the veggies they offer. We got the biggest size, so it was our lunch that day and we had the rest for lunch the following day. Same deal as in Vermont, our hotel provided breakfast for free, we were on our own for lunch, and then we’d go out to dinner (usually casual). We bought some fruit in town as well. We bought rum from the grocery store so we could make our own drinks at night less expensively.

    We’re going out of the country/US territory this time so I have to find what food restrictions there are (probably no fresh fruit). I plan to bring trail mix/dried fruit/ granola bars. We are planning on going to the grocery store/markets there to get fresh fruit, and some French bread & cheeses (yum!)

    Have a great vacation!!

    Nancy says: I LOVE all of the comments you leave me! They’re so informative, thank you!! I know the first motel room where the race is, is definitely going to have a kitchenette – we stayed there last year and I made pasta or something carb related for the Boyf to fuel up for his race. So that’s a definite plus there. I just don’t want to spend a fortune like we did last year. We didn’t exactly plan anything lol.

  3. How about sandwiches? PB & Banana sandwiches, grilled cheese, ham & cheese, PB & Jam… ohhhh the possibilities are endless :)

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