Another Applebee’s?? Dear God, no. Here’s why I try to avoid chain restaurants when I am traveling and instead eat local whenever possible.
It’s Travel Tip Tuesday, readers! This is the 5th post in our series here in 2020! In this week’s Travel Tip Tuesday post we are talking food. Specifically, local food.
Travel Tip Tuesday: Eat Local & Skip that Nasty Chili’s!
I love my baby back, baby, back, I love my baby back…
Now that we’ve got that song stuck in your head! 🙂
Whenever possible, skip the big food chains and eat local. There are several reasons why eating local while traveling is a great idea:
- Supports local small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Why give your shekels to some corporate behemoth when you can give it to Evan and Sarah who are the owners of that local hipster taco truck. Supporting that local business could mean the world to them. Your $14.00 dinner will likely go a lot farther for them than it will for the folks over at Outback Steakhouse.
- You might get a more unique experience. I am pretty sure that every Chili’s looks the same and I suppose there’s a sense of safety in that. You KNOW what you are getting yourself into. But where’s the fun in that? You haven’t lived until you got a batch of food poisoning from that sketchy Somali BBQ joint that had a B rating in the window. Go for it! Your experience will likely be unique. Perhaps even memorable. Better yet…even fun.
- The food could be better. Who knows, the food could be better. I mean a piece of pecan pie made by Erma using her secret recipe passed down from generation to generation is going to be pretty good and definitely better than a piece of pie from Black Angus.
So, when traveling for work or even traveling for pleasure, try to eat local whenever you can. Skip those big chains. They will be alright.
Until our Next Travel Tip Tuesday…
We hope you are enjoying our the 2020 version of our Travel Tip Tuesday series. The response from our readers has been through the moon! So, stay tuned for a new travel tip each Tuesday and don’t forget to follow us on social media including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And, if you want, here are some other inspirational travel articles:
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2 comments
I agree with this 100%. My husband and I went on an overnight trip last weekend to a nearby city. I was chatting with a couple of friends beforehand who told me to eat at BJ’s in that city! I smiled and nodded but wondered “Why would I go o a mini-vacation and eat at a BJ’s??”
I almost laughed out loud when you said “You haven’t lived until you got a batch of food poisoning from…”! I got horrible food poisoning by eating a lukewarm sandwich in Mexico. I did have a fleeting thought of “Hmm, those should be refrigerated” and then ate it anyway. But I did lose almost 10 pounds!
But seriously, we like looking for local places to get a more authentic feel of a city. We already know what chain restaurants have. Might as well see if we can discover something new we enjoy!