Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Bringing Ramen on Vacation

If you had a limited budget for a vacation, do you think you'd
1. choose to go to an expensive and exotic location but *bring* most of your meals
2. go to a more modest location but go out to eat every meal to sample the local culture

Yes, there are people who have done the first option when going on vacation. Most people choose to live within their means and don't over extend themselves so much that they no longer have any money left for food. Nevertheless, I am sure there are a surprising number of people who choose to BYOB it on their vacation. O.o It's a crazy notion if you ask me but I guess there has never been a place where I've wanted to go where I can no longer afford to pay for my own food.

The people who BYOB it aren't the ones who are bringing food to a condo ... it's bringing ramen and any other instant food (e.g. granola, dry cereal) to some (for example) Caribbean island because they spent all their money on air and hotel and none is left over for food.

It doesn't seem like a real vacation to me unless I'm able to go mingle with people and eat out at restaurants with them ... figuring out how some of the locals eat or eat at some of the best restaurants the area has to offer.

What would you do? Would you spend all of your money on air and hotel or would you spread it out more evenly such that you have enough to eat at the local restaurants?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We went to an exotic place, Tahiti/Bora Bora where it is super expensive. We packed our own food (instant noodles, bottled water, orange juice, chips, snacks). We were happy staying in a nice place and eating simple stuff we brought for breakfast and lunch. All you need is to get full. Sometimes you eat out and spend a fortune and food isn't good. For 7 days there, we ate out only 4 times total (if you eat out for every meal, 7 days would run you $1500 easily just on meals itself--no alcohol). Instead, we used the money we didn't splurge on food to treat ourselves to a nice massage.

I did a lot of research before going there, and many travelers actually said to bring your own spirits/liquor. It is insanely expensive. A can of beer at a restaurant or hotel is over $5 USD. In the market, a single can costs nearly $3. This is the cheapest beer available. Liquor costs you more than twice in the US.

As long as you're having fun and spend money on things you feel that's worth spending on, then you don't regret it.