Finding good food when traveling

Normally I am hesitant in recommending specific places to eat. Our preferences are different and it can be difficult to find a perfect place that pleases everyone. For example, some like to take their time to sit down and enjoy a restaurant, some only want to spend a certain amount of money, and some are satisfied with a quick and simple fast food meal. While none of these preferences are wrong, I do still feel that it is important to share some recommendations for how to find food on the road. The easiest guidance I can give is to think about how you eat regularly at home, what types of foods you enjoy the most, and what you are interested in trying someday. With this in mind, you should now know what to search for while traveling.

Driving along, you can find yourself in remote areas with limited food selection, so, before you get too hungry, begin to search the area a little in advance of your arrival for nearby food options that interest you. One example from a recent road trip, when we were driving through Nebraska, we started looking for a place to eat around thirty to forty minutes ahead of our arrival to Omaha. We were initially searching for Korean food when this Vietnamese sandwich place came up on a Google Maps search. After a brief look through the reviews and photos, we decided to stop there and we were glad we did! 

When researching for food, keep your research simple with skimming and quick browsing through reviews, photos, and also letting your instinct guide you to the right places. You may also find when traveling with others that there is someone in your group that is good at quickly locating a good place to eat. It can be helpful to have these individuals designated for this type of destination searching.

Now, what should you do if you are too hungry to wait and there are not any restaurants nearby that you like? Your best option is to stop at a grocery store and grab a snack or buy the ingredients in order to fix up a wrap, salad, or sandwich that can hopefully satisfy your hunger until you get to a place that you would like to eat at. Try to have foods that you like to snack on or ingredients that you can easily assemble together with you already in the car. You can put something together while taking a quick break from the road and you will find it easier to travel long distances. 

Before you begin to get hungry while driving, and if you have cell reception, start looking for food in nearby towns and cities. Depending on where exactly you are, you can gauge what you are willing to wait for based on how far a food or restaurant of interest is from your current location. If you are also staying the night there or just need a pause from driving for the day, you can take the time to sit down and enjoy a sit down meal or a local activity in the area.

While I like to take consideration of the suggestions from others and I do take pictures of memorable meals that I have eaten, I ultimately prefer a good simple meal that is high quality and fairly priced. If I can also have it ready without a long wait that is the ultimate deal especially on driving days. I like quick service restaurants when traveling. Quick service can be similar to fast food, however it feels like a step up from fast food, because the quality of food tends to be better. You may need to wait a little longer for them to prepare it than you would at a fast food restaurant, but it still feels quick. Quick service eliminates the need to take wait for a table, have a waiter or waitress wait on you, needing to tip, or wait for the food to be prepared. When dining at quick service restaurants, you will place your order at a counter, give them your name or they give you a number, you sit down, and then come back to the counter for your food when it is ready. You can tip the quick service restaurants, but it is a choice at these types of restaurants based on their service. Whenever we have more time on our travels, such as staying longer in a certain place, eating at a sit down restaurant is nice.

If you are hoping to find a quick service restaurant, you can search directly on Google Maps for “quick service restaurants.” You can also search by specific food types such as BBQ, seafood, Korean, Vietnamese, pizza, Thai, hamburger, Pub style, cafe, sandwich, or any of your personal favorite food types. You can also sort through your search results by price. If you are trying to locate a quick service restaurant you will find that the lower the price, the less likely it is to be a sit down restaurant. Skimming through recent reviews and looking at pictures will help you decide. If the food looks good to you from the pictures and the price matches what you are hoping to pay, then it looks like you have found a good place to stop. If you are interested in eating the food at a sit down restaurant, but don’t have the time it takes to eat at a sit down restaurant, ask if they offer food to go or through pick-up which is done by pre-ordering online.