Do people buy lunch and dinner out on holidays?

[user1471554720]

When we go on holidays in e.g. France Spain, Italy, we get our breakfast included with the hotel. We eat dinner out in a restaurant. For lunch, we go to a supermarket and get rolls and ham/cheese.

I see lots of people eating a main course at lunchtime. Do those people eat a dinner in the evening as well? Surely this would cost a lot. Any hot lunch could come to 20 euro by the time people get water, coffee after.

What do people generally do? I know people staying in apartments would get breakfast and lunch in the apartment, and eat out for dinner.

I asked people but they evaded the question irl. Dh would eat enough at breakfast to keep going until dinner but I find this uncomfortable.

If self catering we have breakfast in our apartment (cereal/pastries from local bakery/toast/fruit) go for a long walk then back to the room for lunch (olives, tomatoes,meats, fresh bread again from local shop/bakery) & we tend to spend the afternoon by the pool then always out for a meal at a different restaurant every night. If we are all inclusive & we've done this a few times now with a teenager then we use the restaurant for breakfast & evening meal & tend to have a snack from the snack bar rather than go to the restaurant for lunch. I must admit that going all inclusive means we don't get out & about as much as self catering but sometimes we need a holiday where we can just flop & relax! X

I always stay in hotels with breakfast included, and have my main meal at lunchtime in a restaurant somewhere. In the evenings, if it’s warm, I like to sit outside somewhere with a glass of wine and a snack.

We always self cater and eat out at lunchtime when we're out touristing and then usually cook in the evening.

We normally are self catering as prefer our own space. I generally make toast etc at breakfast and go out for the day. Sometimes we'll have a snack lunch but if something more substantial then have cheese, olives, tomatoes and bread back at our apartment if hungry. Mostly though it will be a lovely taverna for a full meal in the evening. We are good eaters but couldn't manage a proper lunch and dinner.

What do people generally do? I know people staying in apartments would get breakfast and lunch in the apartment, and eat out for dinner.

We mostly have an apartment or villa and in general eat lunch out, often mid afternoon, as we are out and about in the day time and then just have a snack in the evening. If we do go out in the evening then we normally skip breakfast and have an early lunch like a baguette or something.

We only tend to stay in hotels for the odd couple of days and in that case we would just pick up a snack lunch like a sandwich or cake whilst walking round.

A mixture!
If we are at an apartment for say a week we would probably do breakfast at home every day, then there are probably a couple of days where we have lunch and dinner out (but lunch would be lighter, like a toastie/sandwich/salad).
Most days though we would have lunch out and dinner at home, as we have small children, so it's easier to put them to bed first then have a nice dinner.

Lunch is definitely out because I'd be out and about. It doesn't cost me 20 e in a cafe. Dinner usually out too, but if I'm self-catering we might get something to heat up in the microwave. No real cooking on holiday.
I don't bother with breakfast and many hotels don't include it any more.

Yes. .... we eat out all the time on holiday

We have breakfast and lunch in the villa and eat out on a night.
Don't like hotels and being held to times.
As you say.
Ham/ cheese/ crusty rolls/ prawns/ salad etc.

There are 3 of us - DH. Me and DS16 - up to the last year or so we always did AI so DS when younger as an only child had chance to make friends by pool , activities etc

Last year or 2 we have gone to Spain and rented apartment or villa - we do basic shop - drinks, croissants, bread , ham and cheese , fruit

We do t tend to eat breakfast but will have a light snack fior brunch ir lite snack at lunchtime and then we eat out in the evening - we are going away for half term and will probably follow a similar pattern - we like trying different places for drinks and food

How does that work exactly, I see this often but I dont understand the if you can afford to do X you can afford to do related item Y

How? Surely you might have spent you last money doing X, I don't get the logic

On the meals in holiday I'd guess that people don't have predetermined rules and do what they fancy as they are on holiday to enjoy themselves

Yes. We always eat out as we consider it a very important part of the travel experience.

@pestowithwalnuts
Yes we have that difficulty with tapas - either an overflowing table or we're starving afterwards! And the portion size doesn't necessarily link in with the price either.

Yes, always

It depends is the short answer.

We do picnic lunches, baguette, cheese, fruit, drinks, snacks. If I can't keep things cool to use the next day, I try to get something ready made I can eat in one setting or we share a pack of cheese/salami but I find this quite boring for a week/two weeks. So we swap with a sit down lunch which can be just starters and dessert or a light main or a full blown meal.

If we booked AI and we did a proper lunch, then I may just nibble at dinner.

I don't like savoury food for breakfast so my usual yoghurt, croissant/rolls and fruit does not last until dinner.

Yes, generally we do. Or, more likely, we go out for a late breakfast in a café then have ice cream, coffee and cake or a tapa or two with a drink mid-afternoon and a main course and dessert in a restaurant in an evening.

We have a nice lunch out and early tea for the kids in the air BnB, then tapas and wine from the supermarket on the patio when they're asleep.

@user1471554720
We generally do breakfast where we are staying if it's included, then bakery or slices of pizza or make sandwiches from the supermarket for lunch.
We then have a meal out in the evening.
It's what we've always done. We do have two teens now, so if they need more food in the day we might grab them a burger or something.

This fits in with our holiday routine in that while we do enjoy eating out we wouldn't necessarily want to have to be near restaurants in the middle of the day and would rather have something portable with us. It's also a cost issue because we don't want to fork out for meals multiple times a day when there's no need.

It depends.

We're normally out and about and walking lots so we need a sit down in the shade with a coffee and a bite to eat around lunchtime. We don't normally want a big lunch if we had a full breakfast though.

Depending upon where we are normally aim to have something like a sandwich, a filled crepe, a topped flatbread or a salad to keep us going.

If we are in the car or on the train we might buy some snacks at the shop instead.

If we stay somewhere full board or all inclusive they often do packed lunches which is useful and saves money.

We eat a full meal in the evening.

Some people will have a big lunch because they didn't have a big included breakfast. I have certainly done this if my accommodation doesn't include breakfast.

Others perhaps aren't planning a big evening meal.

Depends where we are, in Switzerland we made sandwiches and bought discounted supermarket food for lunches because it was £200-300 a meal for 2 adults to eat in a restaurant (no alcohol) and we didn't want to spend £500 a day on food. Just ate dinners out.

Conversely in Ukraine we had room service for a lot of meals because it was crazy cheap.

In Paris we have a tradition of getting fresh bread from the bakery and meat/cheese from a deli, because the food in tourist areas is always crazy money and we never know where we'll be or if there will be anywhere to eat.

For standard sunshine holiday we would eat out every meal and have breakfast in the hotel.

Sone lunch menus can be cheaper than evening ones and you less likely to have booze so some people might be eating lunch out and having supermarket snacks for their evening meal to save money ?

Not all hotels have the facilities in the room to make a lunch though.

It's also quite cheap to eat in many places eg Tenerife, we spent 60 euros on lunch and dinner for 3 of us and the food is really tasty and freshly prepared

We generally go AI but will also still eat out, sometimes for all 3 meals, sometimes for 1 or 2 but we save up for this

Yes, whether we go abroad or on a UK caravan holiday, we eat lunch and dinner out.

We don't eat breakfast anyway.

Eat out if we’re sight seeing, but if lying by the pool we’d smuggle snacks from the breakfast buffet and maybe get a few things from supermarket to line the stomach for a few day drinks 🍺

When in a hotel, we get breakfast there or sometimes out locally. Normally eat a sandwich/salad type lunch somewhere, or occasionally buy the bits to have a picnic style lunch in a park etc. Dinner is usually in a restaurant.

But it's rare that we are in a hotel for more than a couple of days - any longer and we normally go self catering somewhere. It's very relaxed - we get a few nice bits to have easy breakfasts and a couple of easy meals and snacks, but normally eat out at least once per day (and could well be all 3 meals). But it's equally nice to cook an easy dinner with a bottle of wine and enjoy each others company some evenings as go out to a busy restaurant.