A travel agent advised us to avoid the packaged tour that included food. I was shy to ask here but it kept me wondering. When we were in Kuala Lumpur last April, we had the buffet breakfast included in the hotel package. It is a 5-star hotel so the food is great. But not really great because we don't relish much Malaysian food. In short, we only ate the continental part of the buffet area.
To save some cash on food: - If you intend to stay in a place for long then rent an apartment and cook all your meals. - Before traveling do some research, find out which restaurants will be the cheapest. This should be the places where you eat. - Since not all have some online presence, when you get to your destination ask the locals to direct you to the "best" place to get affordable meals. It could save you a lot of money and gives you the opportunity to taste food you've never eaten.
One of the main reasons why all inclusive packages are best avoided - is that they often work out more costly. For the simple reason - that as hotel meals are served at set times - if you plan on sightseeing or going out for the day instead of staying in the vicinity of the hotel and are therefore unable to get back to the hotel in time to have the meals that you have paid in advance for - you effectively land up paying for them twice - as you generally have to eat the meals that you have missed elsewhere - on top of which you might want to eat elsewhere out of choice - as you may not like the food served in the hotel or even worse - there may not even be a choice of food - as it is a repetitive set menu - the latter of which is quite common on all inclusive holidays Apart from the tip already given of preparing your own food - the best tip I can give is to stay away from tourist restaurants and eat where the locals do - as apart from getting the chance to savor the delights of the local cuisine - not only is it cheaper but the food is generally way better and more importantly - you are less likely to get stomach upsets by doing that
Self catering is the best way to save money on foreign holidays. This will especially save you a lot of money if you're staying for a while. If you want to save even more money, whenever you go out during the day, pack your meals, and avoid restaurants and smaller eateries altogether. If you want to try out local food as well, try to go to the lesser known restaurants - they generally need the business more, and often their prices will be a lot lower than the more popular restaurants. Ask people and google for cheap restaurants in the area.
I love self-catering on holiday. The bread, cheeses and sliced meats are always much nicer than back here in England and I love trying new varieties. I like to see what's in the delicatessens too.To save money, we'll have a few meals like this in the apartment before going out.
