Before taking off on a cross-country or weekend journey, it’s a good idea to bring some tasty road trip foods!
This is the third installment in our Road Trip Tips series. The first post discussed tips for sleeping in your vehicle while traveling, and part two focused on road trip packing necessities.
Now it’s time to talk food. Specifically, I’ve got a road trip food list with suggestions for what to take with you on a vehicle journey.
Quick Summary: Best Options for a Road Trip Food List
-Room-temperature fruit (bananas, apples, oranges)
-Tuna packets with crackers
-Jerky and cheese
-Nuts & granola bars
-Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Before my big cross-country journey, I was very concerned that I would pack on the pounds while I was on the road. I imagined that eating fast food and snacking all the time would result in huge weight gain.
To my shock, I ended up losing 10 pounds throughout the summer. And I managed to stick to a $10/day food budget. So I’ve put together a few tips for how travelers can eat a somewhat healthy diet while sticking to a budget.
Basic Road Trip Food List:
Jerky and cheese sticks
Pepperoni
Cans or pouches of tuna with crackers
Nuts of all kinds
Granola bars
Bread, peanut butter, jelly
Bagels & cream cheese
Apples, bananas, oranges
Raisins
Avocado
Tortilla chips & salsa
Filled cracker snacks
Candy
Lots of water!
Single-size condiment packages
If you have access to a cooler, consider the following items as well:
Lunch meat
Sliced cheese or cheese sticks
Yogurt
Grapes
Hard-boiled eggs
Carrots and celery sticks
Lunchables
Pre-made salads
Don’t forget the packaging & wrapping essentials:
Aluminum foil
Baggies or ziploc bags
Napkins
Silverware
Garbage bag
Road Trip Foods: Suggested Snacks and Meals
When it comes to road trip foods, lean heavily on items that don’t require refrigeration. Now, if you have a cooler or mini-fridge, then you can pretty much take whatever you want. So stop reading and go to the grocery store!
Without a cooler, you’ll want to stick to room temperature foods. Jerky and cheese twinpacks are always great for hikes or long drives. Throw in some nuts, and you’ve got a protein-packed meal that will keep your energy up.
Sandwiches that don’t require refrigeration are also good ideas, such as tuna or peanut butter and jelly.
I actually ate a few of these sandwiches when I went camping at Dry Tortugas National Park and Isle Royale National Park, where I didn’t have a cooler.
Fruit is one of the best foods for road trips. Go for those fruits that can be consumed at room temperature, such as bananas, oranges, and apples.
Avocados (remember to bring a knife!) are loaded with healthy fats and vitamins too. I even bought those mini-packs of pears and peaches in juice and kept those in my van to eat whenever fresh produce wasn’t available.
Junk food is fine occasionally. You don’t want to gorge yourself on potato chips, cookies, and candy all the time, but it’s certainly fine to have those with you. Candy like tootsie rolls are fine – just don’t bring chocolate candy bars that could melt in the sun.
Bring a jar of salsa and some tortilla chips for a quick snack during car trips. Salsa doesn’t need to be refrigerated until the jar is open, so buy smaller jars that you and your traveling friends can finish off in one sitting.
The same is true of pepperoni — many packages of pepperoni slices can be kept at room temperature, but this varies by brand, so check the label.
For road trip foods for breakfast, try granola bars, cereal bars, and muffins. Bagels and cream cheese work great too. Many cream cheeses don’t need to go in the fridge.
You can see that having a cooler does offer a lot more flexibility, but it’s still totally possible to feed yourself without one.
A fridge also offers the benefit of being able to save leftovers. You can grab a large pizza whenever you like, then store the leftover cold pizza for future meals.
TIP: If you’ve been saving up packaged condiments from fast-food places, that will keep you from having to bring an entire bottle. Remember to bring those mini packs of ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise!
Tips for Eating Healthy While Traveling: Log Your Daily Calories
Here’s the single most-important thing I did to watch my waistline. I created a spreadsheet and logged every item I ate everyday.
I tracked my calories and fat content, making sure to keep my calories below 2,000 per day. If you track that religiously, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose weight.
These days, it’s even easier to do because your can find apps for your iPhone and Android that will calculate these totals for you if you simply punch in what you’re eating.
Additionally, websites like calorieking.com and apps like Lose It! are great resources for looking up the nutritional info for pretty much any food in the world.
Tracking everything allows you to indulge a bit without wrecking your diet. If you’re in Chicago and want to indulge in a couple slices of deep dish pizza, that’s totally cool! Just balance out your day with a salad or other small dinner.
I actually went to the crazy extreme of also tracking sodium, carbs and cholesterol, but found these additional values to be mostly irrelevant.
Budget Tip: Eat Fast Food on Road Trips (But Make Smart Choices!)
Yes, I’m really suggesting that you eat fast food. You’re on a budget, remember? So you have to eat cheaply. Fast food is likely to be one of your most common meal options on the road, and that’s perfectly fine.
But it’s all about making smart choices. Just because you stop at Wendy’s doesn’t mean you have to eat the triple cheeseburger. Why not a chili, plain baked potato and side salad?
In fact, that meal option is super affordable, because each of those items is on the dollar menu. So it’s better for your waist and your wallet.
Always use the dollar menu. It’s way cheaper than a “value meal,” and you don’t need the empty calories from a soda. I can’t tell you how many fast food meals I had on the road for less than $5 each.
Taco Bell has a discount menu and a “Fresca” menu of items with low calorie content. Subway has the legendary footlong, which is big enough to supply both lunch and dinner and provides lots of servings of fresh vegetables. Just remember to hold the cheese – and don’t add cookies on the side!
No one’s forcing you to eat French fries. Don’t go to places like In N Out Burger that only serve burgers, fries, and shakes.
Instead, seek out fast food and fast casual joints with soup, salads, and low-cal options. To name two examples: Chipotle is affordable, and Panera has cheap lunch specials.
Make smart fast food choices and you can feed yourself for less than $10/day when you’re following these habits!
Refilling Water on the Cheap
Aside from a few adult beverages (if you’re into that sort of thing), never drink anything other than water. The empty calories will go straight to your gut.
And don’t keep buying bottles of water – those can cost up to $3 depending where you are, and that’s way too expensive.
Don’t forget to add water to your road trip food list. Go to Target or another department store and load up on full gallons of water at 99 cents each. Then, use them to keep refilling your sports bottle as you go.
Or just use water fountains at rest stops to get hydrated for free.
Stay Active to Stay in Shape While Traveling
I tend to do a lot of hiking, even in big cities. Walk whenever possible. A one-mile walk is only 15-20 minutes.
There’s no reason to take a bus or cab if you’re within a mile or two of your destination! The extra steps add up to a lot of burned calories.
I suspect that, in addition to my diet, my weight loss was largely due to staying physically active and participating in activities like a grueling Grand Canyon hike on the North Kaibab Trail.
Money-Saving Road Trip Tips: Consider Cooking Your Own Road Trip Foods!
I’m not one of those people who insists that you should always avoid restaurants and cook your own food. In fact, I think that’s a horrible idea.
For me, a huge part of getting the full cultural experience of a place is sampling the local cuisine. I would feel like I missed out if I spent a month in some foreign city cooking all my meals in my hostel kitchen.
But it is a smart idea to cook your own food every once in a while. One option is to take a small grill with you and buy chicken and veggies from local groceries to grill up. Or use the grills at campgrounds to prepare dinner.
Another fun option: Bring along a portable stove like the one I wrote about in my list of road trip necessities. Just plug the stove into your cigarette lighter and cook up canned items right inside your vehicle.
Cans of stew and ravioli usually cost close to $1, and they’ll do a lot less damage to your arteries than curly fries and chicken fingers!
And don’t forget to seek out fresh local produce at farmer’s markets. Failing that, a giant $4 bag of apples from Walmart will last two weeks and help keep the doctor away. There are just so many different kinds of road trip foods to consider!
Conclusion: Eating Healthy Food on a Budget
Eating cheaply while traveling is not hard, and with some smart choices, your diet can be both affordable and reasonably healthy.
How sweet will it be to come home from your trip with not only with great tales from the road, but also a noticeable weight loss?
Do you have any other suggestions for items to add to the suggested road trip food list?
