We usually try to book a place that has a breakfast included so everyone can fill up in the morning.

We don’t bring food but we do a grocery store run shortly after arriving and stock up on a snacks, drinks and some breakfast / lunch foods. We usually do the included breakfast then one meal out per day so the other meal is Something we put together ourselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our day-to-day lives, my family eats pretty healthfully and we eat out only occasionally, but on vacation, we splurge (money and calories). Hotel breakfast at a nice resort (I'm not talking about the powdered eggs and stale donuts in the Hampton Inn lobby) feels so indulgent and really makes me feel like I'm on vacation! My kids are adventurous eaters and we all enjoy going out for local cuisine for lunches and dinners. We aren't wealthy. We budget and save for our vacations including meals out.

PP here adding that we're a busy, on-the-go family in daily life so on vacation we're happy to take a more leisurely pace rather than rush out to "start the day."

+1 I totally get that people are different but part of our goal in traveling is to smell the roses and hop off the grind a bit. Choking down yogurt and granola in the room at 7am so that we save time and can “start the day” is exactly the opposite of the pace we choose. The lovely breakfast IS part of the day for us. Not every single day. But yes, if I’m in Amsterdam and they are known for pancakes or stroopwafels, no I am not having a clif bar in the room.

"Choking down yogurt and granola"

Why does having it in the room make it "choking it down"? If we are sharing a hotel room there's one bathroom, so some of us eat and watch tv or chat while someone else is in the shower, then we switch. And yes then we have more time to visit the area we are in. Don't dramatize having snacks or breakfast in a hotel room just because you don't do it, it's really not that big of a deal. Do it how you want, and let other people do it how they want. No extra drama needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our day-to-day lives, my family eats pretty healthfully and we eat out only occasionally, but on vacation, we splurge (money and calories). Hotel breakfast at a nice resort (I'm not talking about the powdered eggs and stale donuts in the Hampton Inn lobby) feels so indulgent and really makes me feel like I'm on vacation! My kids are adventurous eaters and we all enjoy going out for local cuisine for lunches and dinners. We aren't wealthy. We budget and save for our vacations including meals out.

PP here adding that we're a busy, on-the-go family in daily life so on vacation we're happy to take a more leisurely pace rather than rush out to "start the day."

+1 I totally get that people are different but part of our goal in traveling is to smell the roses and hop off the grind a bit. Choking down yogurt and granola in the room at 7am so that we save time and can “start the day” is exactly the opposite of the pace we choose. The lovely breakfast IS part of the day for us. Not every single day. But yes, if I’m in Amsterdam and they are known for pancakes or stroopwafels, no I am not having a clif bar in the room.

-100. We prefer a leisurely start to the day on vacation that doesn't require leaving our apartment as a family. We tend to have someone pop out for coffee and croissants or other pastries for people to eat when they feel like it, and have a larger sit down lunch and dinner.

Besides, in what universe is a stroopwafel a "lovely breakfast"?

I use food in the room as a backup plan. When we travel we are often in a very different time zone than usual and my teenage boys get hungry outside of meals. having some snacks around just makes sense and keeps things more leisurely. If someone wakes up at the crack of dawn hungry, they can have a granola bar and make themselves tea while they wait for a croissant at a civilized hour.

Anonymous wrote:In our day-to-day lives, my family eats pretty healthfully and we eat out only occasionally, but on vacation, we splurge (money and calories). Hotel breakfast at a nice resort (I'm not talking about the powdered eggs and stale donuts in the Hampton Inn lobby) feels so indulgent and really makes me feel like I'm on vacation! My kids are adventurous eaters and we all enjoy going out for local cuisine for lunches and dinners. We aren't wealthy. We budget and save for our vacations including meals out.

Healthfully? Gtfo

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our day-to-day lives, my family eats pretty healthfully and we eat out only occasionally, but on vacation, we splurge (money and calories). Hotel breakfast at a nice resort (I'm not talking about the powdered eggs and stale donuts in the Hampton Inn lobby) feels so indulgent and really makes me feel like I'm on vacation! My kids are adventurous eaters and we all enjoy going out for local cuisine for lunches and dinners. We aren't wealthy. We budget and save for our vacations including meals out.

PP here adding that we're a busy, on-the-go family in daily life so on vacation we're happy to take a more leisurely pace rather than rush out to "start the day."

+1 I totally get that people are different but part of our goal in traveling is to smell the roses and hop off the grind a bit. Choking down yogurt and granola in the room at 7am so that we save time and can “start the day” is exactly the opposite of the pace we choose. The lovely breakfast IS part of the day for us. Not every single day. But yes, if I’m in Amsterdam and they are known for pancakes or stroopwafels, no I am not having a clif bar in the room.

You disgust me

We don’t take food on vacation. We just buy food when we get there. Over the years, we’ve done it stateside, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe. We are going to Florida this week - Publix, here I come!

But mainly we buy fruit, veggies, and water we can snack on. We have a timeshare and will also VRBO. We generally cook breakfast, sit down for lunch, and cook dinner 50% of the time.

Honestly, this started after it took WEEKS to get my digestive system back on track after a cruise just before I turned 30. 🤮🤢

Cereal, milk, peanut butter, apples, crackers.

Anonymous wrote:In our day-to-day lives, my family eats pretty healthfully and we eat out only occasionally, but on vacation, we splurge (money and calories). Hotel breakfast at a nice resort (I'm not talking about the powdered eggs and stale donuts in the Hampton Inn lobby) feels so indulgent and really makes me feel like I'm on vacation! My kids are adventurous eaters and we all enjoy going out for local cuisine for lunches and dinners. We aren't wealthy. We budget and save for our vacations including meals out.

“We’re not wealthy, we just spend $10k on a week of vacation.”

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone do this? I feel like this isn’t much of a vacation. I love eating fancy breakfast at a nice hotel or resort.

With kids??

When all of my kids are upper elementary and older, yes. Now? Not just no, but HELL no.

I understand bringing a few snacks, especially when traveling with kids, but smelly foods like tuna fish and boiled eggs in a standard size hotel room??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our day-to-day lives, my family eats pretty healthfully and we eat out only occasionally, but on vacation, we splurge (money and calories). Hotel breakfast at a nice resort (I'm not talking about the powdered eggs and stale donuts in the Hampton Inn lobby) feels so indulgent and really makes me feel like I'm on vacation! My kids are adventurous eaters and we all enjoy going out for local cuisine for lunches and dinners. We aren't wealthy. We budget and save for our vacations including meals out.

PP here adding that we're a busy, on-the-go family in daily life so on vacation we're happy to take a more leisurely pace rather than rush out to "start the day."

+1 I totally get that people are different but part of our goal in traveling is to smell the roses and hop off the grind a bit. Choking down yogurt and granola in the room at 7am so that we save time and can “start the day” is exactly the opposite of the pace we choose. The lovely breakfast IS part of the day for us. Not every single day. But yes, if I’m in Amsterdam and they are known for pancakes or stroopwafels, no I am not having a clif bar in the room.

Pouches of tuna, tiny jar of mayo. Sandwich bread. Soup. Fruit cups. Oatmeal. Boxed milk. Bagged salads bought once we are there. Subway sandwiches.

The big question is if you are flying or not. We typically don’t bring perishables unless we are getting a beach condo type thing. But we will bring cereal bars, applesauce packs, dried fruit so that if we are rushing to get gojng in the morning we can have a quick bite — if you have an early morning tour or activity, it can really be a pain to add in time for a sit down breakfast. I also often bring some tasty snacks like yogurt covered pretzels to avoid paying $6/pp on overpriced snacks while we are out and about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone do this? I feel like this isn’t much of a vacation. I love eating fancy breakfast at a nice hotel or resort.

I love eating out too, but my digestive system doesn't. Even if I order fruits and vegetables, eating out every meal is killer on me and at least one of my kids. Plus it's insanely expensive to have a restaurant meal 3 times a day for a family of 4 for a week. Even if we have the money it seems silly to spend it all if we can have yogurt and granola for 1/10 the price.

+1 same, I can’t do days on days of salty, heavy restaurant meals.

This is a good point. I’m about to go on a 7 day alaska cruise and already wondering how my stomach is going to handle it.

Oh, a cruise is totally easy because there are so many choices. Here was my typical cruise day — breakfast was usually a fried egg, small pastry, lots of fruit, coffee. Lunch was often whatever Indian veggie curry was on the buffet, some more fruit and/or a salad. Dinner was whatever I wanted but typically included a serving or two of veggies.
Basically anything you’d eat at home you can get on a cruise.

The trip that really killed my stomach was western PA. Lots of good pizza, burgers, pasta and fried food but I couldn’t find a salad that wasn’t awful.

My kids love chopped veggies so that's easy to stick in the fridge- cucumbers, bell peppers, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes.

Oatmeal, boiled eggs, bread, lunch meat, apples and tangerines.