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If you're someone who tries to eat healthy food or if your usual diet falls into the "real food" category then you might be wondering how to handle the food situation when you're traveling on vacation. Vacations can be challenging enough when it comes to all of the packing and preparing and planning, but when you're also trying to figure out how to eat healthy on vacation away from home it can be even more challenging.
It's pretty hard to go from avoiding foods with artificial flavors, preservatives, etc. to suddenly eating those foods at every single meal. Now that I've gotten used to eating real, home-cooked food on a regular basis, I can't help thinking about the quality of the ingredients in the food I eat and wondering where those ingredients came from.
You might also be someone who doesn't always feel the best if you suddenly eat a lot of foods that are different from your usual diet. If you normally eat mostly simple, real foods cooked from scratch and then spend an entire week eating tourist food for every meal you might end up not feeling the greatest.
That's why it can be helpful to try to find ways to eat healthier on vacation even if you can't fully eat the way you usually would at home. Even just adding in a few healthier meals or snacks can go a long way towards helping you to feel better and have some balance between maintaining your normal food habits and having fun and enjoying the experience of traveling.
Even though it's a bit of a challenge and you'll probably end up having to make some compromises on your usual diet, with a little bit of planning ahead it is possible to still eat some healthy, real food when you're away from home.
Here are a few of the things that I've done in the past to try to eat healthy on vacation:
4 Tips for How to Eat Healthy Real Food on Vacation
1) Bring Some Food from Home With You
This may not be possible if you're traveling somewhere by plane, but if you're going on a road trip then there are a lot of things you can buy or make ahead of time to bring with you when you go on vacation, especially if you know you're going to have access to a kitchenette or a mini fridge at the place where you'll be staying.
When I've gone places with a fridge, I've packed foods like raspberries and blueberries; lettuce, green beans, cucumbers and other veggies; grass-fed cheese to go with homemade or organic store bought crackers; homemade gelatin or fruit snacks, etc. And I've also sometimes done some baking ahead of time, too, so I could bring things like homemade breads, muffins, and desserts.
If you don't have access to a mini fridge, though, or if you're traveling from place to place where you need to leave things in a hot car while you sight-see, there are still some healthier versions of non-perishable items you can bring with you. Here are a few ideas of things to bring:
- Dried fruits
- Mixed nuts or trail mix
- Homemade or store bought crackers
- Healthier chip options
- Homemade cookies or healthier store bought cookies
If you have some things that are semi-perishable (like things that won't truly spoil sitting in a hot car but things that might get melty or won't keep as long) you can also bring a cooler and refill it with ice as needed.
Bringing some food from home can allow you to maintain more of your normal diet if you're someone who doesn't always feel well eating different food than usual. It can also save some money on your trip since food options in tourist areas are often more expensive, too.
2) Shop at Health Food Stores or Grocery Stores While You Travel
If you research your destination ahead of time you can probably find some local health food stores where you could buy some healthier food options. Even a lot of regular grocery stores carry many healthier brands and food choices now, so depending on what specific brands and foods you are looking for you might be able to shop at grocery stores, too, rather than specifically trying to find a health food store.
Shopping for some food when you arrive at your destination can be a better option than trying to bring food from home with you if you are flying to your location or if you're traveling in the summertime where you're worried about keeping food in the car with the heat.
If you're staying at a place with a fridge, you can pick up a bigger variety of healthier options at a store, and if you end up staying somewhere that has a kitchenette then you can really do a lot to prepare and cook foods that are similar to what you would have at home. Even if all you have is a fridge, though, you can still buy fresh organic fruits and vegetables, cheeses, pre-cooked meats, etc.
You might even be able to find a health food store that has a little cafe area where you can buy some pre-prepared meals. It won't be quite the same as home cooking, but you might be able to find something that's a little better quality and a little more "real" than the typical fast food and overpriced tourist food.
3) Find a Farm Stand or Farmer's Market
If you're vacationing in a more rural area, you might stumble upon some small local farms or farm stands, and in more suburban and urban areas you might find a farmer's market where you can buy fresh local produce and other specialty items like homemade breads or other baked goods. You might even be able to find some pastured eggs or grass-fed meats if you have access to a kitchenette to cook them in.
While going through northern Virginia on a family road trip several years ago, I remember finding a little farm stand tucked in the middle of a quaint little town, and it had organic fruits and veggies as well as a little café that served salads and sandwiches. It was a beautiful little spot in the hills of the Shenendoah Valley, and I had one of the most delicious peaches there that I've even eaten.
On another trip near Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, I got some nectarines, plums, and green beans at a farm stand along the road, and it was really nice to have some fresh produce to go along with all of the not-so-fresh tourist food I had eaten.
4) Just Relax and Enjoy!
Vacation is one time when it's definitely best to put the 80/20 rule into action. I wouldn't be surprised if I used up nearly my whole 20 percent for the year on one vacation, but vacations are times when you can see new places and have experiences that you never would have had at home, so I feel like it's worth it to compromise on my usual food for a week.
Unless you have a food allergy or intolerance, the best plan it just to try to relax and take the focus off of food for a week and focus on having a fun time instead. If you know that eating a certain food will make you feel sick then try to avoid that food as much as possible, of course, but otherwise, it's best to just try not to stress about what you eat. If you spend your whole vacation worrying about food, then you'll be too stressed out to enjoy anything else!
When I was in the Lancaster area before, I ate at some of the smorgasbords (because you can't go through Lancaster and not eat at one), and for dessert I had a slice of Shoo-fly pie. Did the filling have GMO corn syrup in it? Probably. Was the crust made with vegetable shortening? Most likely. But I decided to ignore all of that and just thoroughly enjoy each bite. And it was delicious!
So, I think it's great to try to eat healthy food as much as possible, and it can be helpful to find some healthier options while you are traveling, but it's important to have some balance, too, and focus more on enjoying your vacation than on analyzing the quality of the food that you're eating.
(Lori Elliott is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.)
The information in this post is not to be taken as medical advice and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.