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.

We usually go half board so breakfast and dinner in hotel. Personally I would prefer to go S?C and eat all meals in restaurants but for various reasons we now go HB.
For lunch we will try different restaurants and have something light like bread, aoli and olives or a salad.
If cost is a priority for you OP then buying sandwiches will keep it down.

We always do self catering holidays, but I absolutely will not do packed lunches while I'm on holiday. I am happy to cook some nights or even some lunchtimes depending on what we are doing, but otherwise I will eat in a cafe or restaurant. I want to be sat somewhere proper while I'm eating and for me, lounging around in cafes is a big part of being on holiday.

We're away a lot these days so it depends on the destination and type of accommodation. In self catering often for a month or two it's mainly eating in with a few meals out if we're away for the day. If it's a short break or a city destination we favour eating out at lunchtime over the evening. We're usually in a villa or apartment rather than hotels so we can pick and choose what we do. Not everyone's choice I know.

Agree!

Big breakfast at hotel. Small lunch, like a sandwich. Proper meal out in the evening.

I wouldn't want to eat two large restaurant meals in one day. Although we do seem to manage it when we are AI.

I think if you have an apartment, you could easily make a sandwich for lunch, or even buy a sandwich and eat it somewhere nice, like a park or the beach.

We're away for quite a long holiday soon, and won't eat out every night, as it's so costly. Sometimes we will get a take away, and go out for drinks only.

We’re at an AI at the moment, usually just having 2 meals a day pretty much like we do at home but we’ve had breakfast too on the first full day because we woke up so bloody early!
We’ve also eaten lunch and dinner out of the hotel a few days because no matter how many restaurants and things there are here on the complex there is so much more to be found off the beaten track a bit and mostly it’s just better.
When we do a villa type holiday with us and the kids (adults now) we pretty much have lunch and dinner out but if we’re having a lazy evening dh will go and get supplies from a supermarket somewhere and fire up the bbq. Actually this is sometimes nicer because we just laze about and he cooks, we can swim, chat, listen to music etc but the downside is any kind of clearing up on holiday. Luckily some salads and grilled meat and bread doesn’t make too much mess!
Meals out on holiday are great though, everyone gets what they want, we all try stuff we haven’t had before and again you can find some amazing places with a bit of local info.

I live in Italy so our habits are a bit different to UK. On hols ( and most of the entire year at home) we eat our main meal at lunchtime, by which time we're very hungry as breakfast is very small. This is when it's far to hot to stay under 38°c on the beach, so at around 1:30pm, we'll head off for a long lunch with some wine and then head back to the beach around 4pm & stay there until 7pm, then nip back to accommodation for a quick shower and then go out to another restaurant for dinner, but not eat or drink that much so we don't go to bed on a very full stomach. This is pretty much what most of us do here. Not having lunch is a huge no-no here, we live for it and plan every day around it. We usually budget €75-€100 a day per person to cover lunch and dinner with wine, sometimes we spend much less sometimes more We spend our entire year working and saving up for 3 weeks on the beach in August, so it's worth it!

I can't stuff myself stupid in the morning.
I don't love half board as I'm not going to eat loads just because I've paid for it

I have a morning coffee, eat an early lunch and have dinner all at restaurants

We eat out for both lunch and dinner. I love trying as many restaurants as possible and having a break from my usual boring lunches. Usually aim for a lighter meal at lunch or sharing some meze/small plates and a salad or if we end up with a heavier lunch we would go for a lighter dinner.

We had a villa in Greece for a week one year and had a lovely little mini market near us. We had teens with us and their friends who didn’t get up in the morning, so DH and I would go out on the moped each morning exploring secluded beaches etc and then grab food eg freshly made tzatziki, bread, feta, salad ingredients at mini market and bring them home for lunch (well brunch I guess).

It was fun for two days and then pissed me off because it’s what I do at home all the time.

The next holiday I made sure was a B & B with no food prep facilities so I didn’t get sucked into that again! On those holidays, we have a big breakfast at hotel and then perhaps share a snack at a bar late afternoon and have supper out around 8-9pm.

We generally eat out for lunch and dinner with one meal usually being a lighter meal from a cafe or street food rather than a full restaurant meal. Occasionally we’ll buy sandwiches, fruit, snacks etc from a supermarket or convenience store and have a picnic but it’s usually cafes and restaurants for two meals a day.

I have no problem buying a light lunch out for one person.

I was wondering about cost as I saw whole families out at lunch in a restaurant. In Spain and Italy, people generally go out for dinner. Were they buying both in a restaurant for a whole family? I prefer to buy a drink or coffee out during the day. You still get the ambience but don't pay 100 for lunch with another 150 for dinner. 250 per day for a family plus drinks etc can push the cost of a holiday up.

The good thing about Psain, Italy and some parts of France is there can be a more casual eating culture in the summer evenings so you can gets small snacks whilst out and about or at bars.

We went to a great little wine and beer bar in France this year where you could order seafood from the restaurant up the street and they brought it down to you to eat outside.

Similarly we went to a seafront brewery one night and at about 9pm a fisherman turned up with some fresh mussels and sardines and grilled the lot in the kitchen- you just walked up to the bar and bought a plate of them with a load of fresh bread for about 15 euros a plate.

But people spend what they have either saved or can afford, it's not that hard to comprehend.

We don't want to sit in a hotel room with bread rolls and cheese for our lunch. Spending money is part of the holiday cost and this covers food, drinks and trinkets

Why are you struggling with people spending their money in a way you choose not to?

We've also never spent anywhere near £100 for lunch, though there's only 3 of us (two adults and 16 year old) or £150 for dinner

We buy lunch and dinner every day on holiday. Breakfast is with the hotel.

We might occasionally skip lunch (or dinner if lunch was big and/or late which is often the case on holiday). I really enjoy trying a variety of local restaurants/food etc, we don't do self catering holidays. Might get room service a couple of times too.

OP - surely you know there isn’t a single answer to the question?
People will do a variety of things according to the type of holiday, their preference and their budget.

But unless you follow them around all day you don't know if those families out at lunch will also be going out for dinner. If they're Spanish or Italian, they almost certainly won't be because they'll have something lighter in the evening either out or at home.

Most people eating a full meal, instead of just coffee or a 'light lunch', at lunchtime in the Med, so between 2 and 4 pm, won't want another meal that is 'dinner sized' by UK standards in the evening. So it's unlikely they're spending 150 euro on food in the evening if they've spent 100 euro on lunch on the same day.

I find it very strange for people to eat little or nothing all day in anticipation of a large meal in the evening. That makes me feel ill so I don't do it, which can be hard to manage when working and having to fit in with people who do that but a bonus of holidaying in Spain is that I can have a decent lunch in a restaurant when it suits me and then just something light like a tapa with drinks in the evening (DP will often have something like a salad at lunchtime and something more substantial in the evening or he'll have 2 proper meals, but he eats a lot more than most people anyway).

Spain and France have a strong affordable lunch culture with fixed price menus. Spain in particular as it is the legacy of the Franco era government mandated "menu de dia".

We. More often have a late lunch out - good for a sit down when exploring , then snacky tea at home ( we self cater but also I cook very little on holiday iyswim 🤣).
lunch is almost always better value

This. We go to inland Andalucia a lot where they still have the traditional tapas culture so if you buy drinks it comes with a tapa, to the extent that you don't need to order dinner, if you have a few drinks (which are small, this is not binge drinking), you've also had a small meal in small portions, which is plenty after your 3 pm 3 course Menu del Dia.

I do have lunch every day whether I’m at home or on holiday.
if I’m spending the day at a beach I might buy picnic stuff or a sandwich at a bakery to take on the beach.

if I’m sightseeing I’ll probably have a coffee and salad in a cafe.

we usually prefer to have a bigger meal in the evening.

I like the fact in France if you go to a niceish restaurant for lunch during the week, you see what are clearly colleagues enjoying a lunch and glass of wine together. Very civilised.

We tend to go camping as a main holiday, so I make and freeze evening meals in advance (helps keep things cool in icebox too!), and then take groceries to cover for most breakfasts, snacks and lunches. I took the kids abroad for a holiday this year and we did an all inclusive package, as it worked out cheaper, but would buy the odd thing when we were out and about.

We tend to have a hotel breakfast, at lunchtime it’s just a snack, a cake from a bakery or chips from local chippy, and then an evening meal, which tends to be something relating to where we are, traditional food,

Of course, some people could be buying lunch and dinner out each day. 250 euro per day is about £1500 pw.

It's quite likely that it's cheaper to self cater or stay in a hotel that does B&B and eat all your meals out at local restaurants than it is to stay in the sort of AI hotel that does a la carte dining, but with more flexibility to be able to eat wherever you are out and about plus the chance to try a variety of different restaurants and cuisines, eat at a beach restaurant etc.

The cost of eating out all the time might be comparable to 'buffet AI' but it will be a far nicer experience than having to serve yourself at the buffet for all your meals.

Plus not everyone is on a budget of course. They might be able to afford it, either because they have a lot of money, or because they've saved to pay for the holiday they want.