A couple weeks ago, we visited Corpus Christi for the first time. Whenever we plan a family vacation, we try to stay in a place that has a kitchen so we can meal plan. Meal planning for vacation saves us so much money. this vacation was no exception. We planned our meals, brought most of our food, and found a couple of restaurants to try while we were there. After all, half the fun of travel is eating at new places! I made this printable vacation meal planning page to help you plan your meals for vacation, too!
How to Meal Plan for Vacation
I won’t go into too many details here because I have a whole post dedicated to meal planning for vacations that you can read here. I definitely recommend starting there if you’re new to meal planning for travel. In that post I share some really useful tips and recipes that are perfect for eating away from home.
The basics are simple, though. Simply decide which meals you’ll eat at “home” and which you’ll eat in a restaurant. We usually plan our meals around our itinerary. If we’re going to be out all day, we’ll plan on lunch out, etc. We do this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
If we’re road tripping and only a few hours from our destination, we load up our food and take it with us in a cooler. That way we don’t have to spend vacation time at the grocery store! If we’re traveling a longer distance, or flying in to our destination, we’ll order groceries using a delivery service like Instacart to have our groceries brought to the house.
The other thing you’ll want to make sure of is that the place you’re staying at has cooking utensils for whatever you’re planning on making.
Camping? Here’s a collection of healthy recipes that are perfect for camping!
How to Use this Vacation Meal Planning Printable
This meal planning printable has been created with room for you to plan your meals, snacks, and grocery list all on one page. I recommend sketching out an itinerary for the week first. That way, you’ll know what you’re doing every day and can plan meals accordingly. As you’re filling in your meals, fill in the grocery list next to it.
Use the “bring from home” space for things you need to bring from home (I know, duh). This might be condiments if you’re having burgers one night, or napkins, or even your Crock Pot! I would normally never in a million years travel with my Crock Pot, but on our trip to Broken Bow, OK, my daughter asked for Crock Pot Pulled Pork for her birthday dinner. The cabin didn’t have a slow cooker, so we brought one so she could have her favorite meal for her birthday.
How to Download Your Printable Vacation Meal Planning Page
To download, click on the black and white “download” button below. If you have any trouble, just shoot me an email and I’ll send the file to you. 🙂 If share, tag me at @shopcarrieelle or @carrieelleblog – I love to see my printables in action!
