So much of the wondrous experience that is long-term travel revolves around food. Whether sampling local delicacies, eating at markets and famous restaurants or sharing huge meals with your friends in the hostel, food is a wonderful and inseparable part of experiencing what the world has to offer.
Many of my friends often comment on how much I eat, despite my compact frame. I also like to eat healthy and organic food where possible, which often drives up the price for me. As a result, food is sometimes my largest expense. Of course, if you just eat fast food all the time then it won’t be, but you’ll miss out on many unique culinary delights, and will probably gain a ton of weight. Luckily, there are some methods for staying healthy food-wise without breaking the bank.
Travel Cooking For Yourself
The best way to save money on food is to cook for yourself. It’s really easy if you’re couch surfing as most hosts will have a kitchen in their house which you can use. Often, they will let you use some ingredients for free as well. I always offer to cook for my host as a sign of appreciation, and cooking together is a great way to interact with a host too.
Most short-stay places and hostels have decent kitchens where you can cook up a storm and even share with other guests if you’re feeling generous. Shopping at supermarkets or street/farmer’s markets is almost always cheaper than buying a cooked meal at a restaurant.
Eat local During Travel
I’m not big on Western fast-food chains but you can’t deny that it is a super cheap food alternative for travelers. That said, in many countries it is far cheaper and healthier to eat the fresh, local street food, or to eat in small places where the locals eat. Examples include buying fresh fruit, cheese and pastries at a French market, grabbing tapas in Spain, eating at a Bar Mleczny (milk bar, an amazing hangover from the communist era) in Poland, scoffing down spicy blue corn tortillas in Mexico, sampling delicious chaat on the roadside in India – the delicious list goes on!
Do some research on where the locals go before you arrive in a new country. My general rule is the less embellished, more ‘dingy’ and furthest from the tourist center a place is, the better, and the food there is usually fresh, traditional and cheap. Southeast Asia in particular has some of the greatest street food in the world, and it’s super cheap.
Just make sure that when you go to a local place or street food vendor you choose somewhere that is ‘moving’, i.e. there are a lot of local customers present and the food is being cooked fresh as you order it. Eating street food that has been sitting around for a while can cause nasty stomach cramps or worse.
Travel Hostel Deals
Many hostels and some short-stay accommodations offer free breakfast. This removes the cost of one meal a day at least. Some hostels even offer free dinner, which is just so awesome. Any time I’m booking a hostel and they offer free dinner, I’m right in there. Some even give you the double-awesome and offer free breakfast and dinner. Best thing ever. Greg and Tom’s hostels in Krakow, Poland, are good examples of this excellent deal. Most hostels will state on their website if they offer any free meals.
Pay-As-You-Feel Restaurants
In many cities around the world there are restaurants (usually a buffet) where you pay however much you believe the meal was worth when you finish eating. These places are usually charitable not-for-profits and the staff are often volunteers.
By eating at pay-as-you-feel restaurants, not only are you saving cash, but you are also contributing to a good cause. My favourites are Wiener Deewan in Vienna, Austria and Annalakshmi in Perth, Australia. Annalakshmi also has several locations in Singapore.
Dumpster Travel Diving
I know. The name of this activity doesn’t sound particularly appealing, but hear me out. In developed countries, an average of 33% of food is thrown out at the supermarket/grocery store as soon as it reaches its ‘expiry’ date. These dates are set by the manufacturer and are often premature to mitigate any risk of a customer getting sick after consuming their product. As a result, the food thrown out by supermarkets is perfectly edible. When I’m travelling in developed countries (dumpster diving in my experience isn’t as viable in less developed areas where it is super cheap to eat anyway) I’ll pop behind a supermarket every now and then to see what they’ve thrown out that day. It helps to know a local ‘diver’ who is familiar with the schedule of the supermarkets and when they throw food away. Many couchsurfing hosts who I’ve stayed with have experimented with, or are avid dumpster divers themselves. I’ve grabbed entire bags of potatoes, tons of chocolate, unripe fruit and vegetables, pre-packaged pasta, noodles and other savory foods – the list goes on.
I don’t dive just to save money, I also do it to rescue perfectly good food from being thrown in a landfill. I’ve eaten dumpster food (after a good wash of course) hundreds of times and have never been sick. Bakeries are a goldmine as many do not donate to charity (unfortunately) and throw out the day’s bread, pastries and cakes every single night. Usually all the freshly baked stuff is conveniently thrown out in a single bag, which you can then grab to gorge on or share with locals! I love handing out bread to the homeless in larger cities and keeping a little for myself. Talk about a unique travel experience. If you’re really trying to be frugal and despise wasting food as much as I do, then give dumpster diving a try.
Trash Wiki is a great online resource that contains information about dumpster diving in locations around the world. Please note that in most countries dumpster diving is illegal so be careful, dive at night, and if possible go with an experienced group. I’ve been caught by security once or twice and after explaining to them that I’m simply trying to avoid waste, they either provide a simple warning or allow me to move on after five minutes or so.
Note For Vegetarians And Vegans Travel
This isn’t a money-saving tip per se, but as someone who follows a plant-based diet I feel like I can offer some useful additional advice for fellow veggies out there. (Feel free to ignore this section, meat eaters!) The first thing I’ll say about finding vegetarian or vegan food while abroad is that it is always possible to find food, but it’s not always easy. Of course, if you cook for yourself, it’ll never be an issue.
Eating out is an essential experience while travelling, however, and this can make things complicated. The degree of difficulty of finding veggie food varies from country to country as well. For example, India is a haven for vegetarians, being the country with the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and it is always easy to find vegetarian or vegan food here.
Eastern Europe, China, Argentina and Russia are prime examples of where things get more difficult. My best tip for veggies travelling to meat-centric countries is to carry a note with you that explains you don’t eat meat, or any other dietary requirements, written in the local language. Get a couch surfing host or local hostel staff member to do this for you. This way, you can just sit at a restaurant and they’ll cook something suitable; sometimes even a special item just for you. This works especially well in China where the spoken and written language, and its many dialects, is a challenge for most travelers. Another tip for China is to find Buddhist restaurants. These all but disappeared during the Cultural Revolution but are coming back with gusto, and are usually vegetarian or vegan. This strategy is viable throughout most of East Asia, especially in Taiwan where they are plentiful.
I’d also recommend using Happy Cow. This is a fantastic site and app which returns a list of all the veggie eateries in any city in the world when you do a search.
