Travel Advice - Take a picnic lunch

Picnicking is often overlooked as a mealtime opportunity during vacations. Every time we see a travelogue on TV or a spread about a destination in a travel magazine, scenes of a lavish feast with multi-course meals are prominently displayed. We do not know about you but we try to eat sensibly during vacations. While traveling, we usually limit ourselves to one or two “feasts” as a matter of budget and health sense.

One especially pleasant way to slow things down on fast-paced vacations is to picnic. In addition to providing leisure time and good food, picnics can be quite economical.

• We usually start preparations by visiting a bakery for sandwiches, a loaf of thick-crusted bread, and a delicious looking but small desert. (Of course, we buy the dessert only for its energy value!)
• We stop at a fruit stand and have the attendant select fruit for us (in European and many other countries, the customer does not touch the fruit – it is a faux pas to do so).
• We grab a couple of bottled or canned drinks and head towards a local park in search of a bench and shade.
• We usually put together a great lunch for less than ten dollars.

Sometimes when our travel plans feature destinations separated by long drives, we picnic in the car, if we do not find a scenic stop. We grab the types of food and beverages mentioned above and eat it while we are driving across country. Sometimes, we will dispense with the sandwiches, buy a  loaf of fresh-baked bread, and pick pieces  off as we eat fruit and cheese. We still chuckle over our embarrassment at returning a rental car in France that had breadcrumbs everywhere.  Embarrassing yes, but it was very good bread!

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