Eating Out
Wondering how often you visit a full service restaurant. It would be interesting to know what sort of RV'er you are: weekend warrior, frequent short-tripper, snowbird, fulltimer, etc. I'll go fir...
Forum Discussion
This has little to do with RVing, and eating out is not so much about the quality of the food (atrocious in many of the most popular chains or franchises), it is about the atmosphere and experience.
When my wife was still alive, after I retired, I took her out for one meal almost every day. After all, I was doing a meal a day when I worked, even if many were fast food or a company canteen. This was mostly about separating her from the chore of cooking for me.
Alone now, feeding myself, maybe once or twice a week, when at home, or maybe less often. I limit myself to a small number of locally operated restaurants where I like the service or atmosphere and the food is OK.
RVing, or other travel, it changes. When RVing means going out to the lake for a few days or a couple weeks, I'll prepare all my meals in camp, unless business catches me away and I have to buy a meal. When RVing means travel, when I was still traveling with my wife, at least one meal a day either full service or fast food, often in chains like Cracker Barrel, Friday's, Chili's or Applebee's where the food is mediocre at best.
But most of my travel is not RV, either road trips, escorted tours or cruising. Road tripping, I'll seek out a full service restaurant for at least one meal a day, snacking or fast food for others. Touring I'm stuck with the places chosen by the tour company, cruising it is mostly the food service on the ship. I tend to choose my cruise lines based on dining room experience, which is once again more about service and atmosphere than about quality of the food. It might be luck of the draw, but I've found really good food only in Asia and Central or Eastern Europe, most of the U.S. and Western Europe is chain restaurant quality.
When my wife was still alive, after I retired, I took her out for one meal almost every day. After all, I was doing a meal a day when I worked, even if many were fast food or a company canteen. This was mostly about separating her from the chore of cooking for me.
Alone now, feeding myself, maybe once or twice a week, when at home, or maybe less often. I limit myself to a small number of locally operated restaurants where I like the service or atmosphere and the food is OK.
RVing, or other travel, it changes. When RVing means going out to the lake for a few days or a couple weeks, I'll prepare all my meals in camp, unless business catches me away and I have to buy a meal. When RVing means travel, when I was still traveling with my wife, at least one meal a day either full service or fast food, often in chains like Cracker Barrel, Friday's, Chili's or Applebee's where the food is mediocre at best.
But most of my travel is not RV, either road trips, escorted tours or cruising. Road tripping, I'll seek out a full service restaurant for at least one meal a day, snacking or fast food for others. Touring I'm stuck with the places chosen by the tour company, cruising it is mostly the food service on the ship. I tend to choose my cruise lines based on dining room experience, which is once again more about service and atmosphere than about quality of the food. It might be luck of the draw, but I've found really good food only in Asia and Central or Eastern Europe, most of the U.S. and Western Europe is chain restaurant quality.
