Self Catering

If you are really serious about saving money on a holiday, the best tip I can give you is to make sure you are self catering somewhere with a well equipped kitchen. By doing that you can make your own meals and packed lunches and, at a stroke, save a large amount of money that would otherwise go into the coffers of over priced restaurants or cafes. As soon as we get anywhere we go to a local shop and buy food to cover breakfast and lunch for the duration of our stay and at least a couple of dinners. This allows us to focus our spending on sightseeing and enjoying ourselves. I have mentioned previously how much we prefer home cooking to eating in a restaurant, but even if you are a fan of restaurants it makes no sense to spend the bulk of your holiday money on food.

What about if you are in a hotel with no kitchen facilities? Well, we stayed in a hotel in Salzburg and for breakfast we went to the local budget supermarket to buy pastries and yoghurt for the morning. We also bought food that we could take with us for lunch wherever possible. When that wasn’t possible we went to food stalls which were far cheaper than restaurants. The pretzels we got from the Christmas Market were better than anything you could get from a restaurant, that’s for sure.

So, if you are one of those people who has previously eaten every meal at a hotel, cafe or restaurant, try my ideas. Cook for yourself, buy from the supermarket to cut costs and use food stalls for your snacks or meals. You will have so much more money to really enjoy yourself.