Part of the joy of traveling for me is dining out. I love to try new and different foods, and I love not having to cook for myself. But I don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for the privilege. Especially with the economy being what it is right now, your vacation dining budget could make or break your ability to take a trip, so here are some tips for saving money while dining out:
- Drink tap water with lemon with your meal (it’s free and healthier for you than most other beverages);
- Eat at restaurants with generous appetizer portion sizes and make that your meal (I’ve eaten at places where even the appetizer was too much food for me!);
- Consider a meal of sides–say, garlic mashed potatoes and sauted vegetables;
- Eat where the locals do; prices will tend to be less expensive than the tourist restaurants;
- Along the same lines as making friends with bartenders for freebies, make friends with chefs at exhibition kitchen counters for freebies;
- Eat at bars that offer happy hour appetizer specials; even if you plan to eat dinner afterwards, if you can fill up on some cheap appetizers first, you won’t need to spend so much on dinner later;
- Use coupons; you can get them from Restaurant.com, local papers, and the tourism office’s literature;
- Check the bill when it arrives to see if a gratuity has already been added; some restaurants are adding automatic gratuities now–don’t make the mistake of double-tipping.
