Tired of eating out when on the road
 

Tried searching for this, but couldn't find anything older, so:

I find that after a few days of eating out 3 meals a day, I get tired of doing so. I get to the point where going to the grocery store wherever I am and picking up a salad and a roast chicken or if there's a BBQ place, I'll get takeout, but eating alone in my room with the news on TV is far preferable to anything else.

At home, I love to cook, which I think plays into my fatigue. The other side of it is that for work, I talk all day, and by dinner, I just want to sit and be quiet, and not have to interact with waitstaff/hosts/others.

Anyone else?

That's why I look for apartment hotels (stayed in a nice one in Vienna last week). Even if there's only a microwave you can have a nice relaxing meal without having to leave your room or worry about looking reasonably civilised and clad for room service. Your hotel room should be a retreat after a day of
business, conference etc. For the same reason I deplore hotels which don't have a kettle and tea/coffee making facilities.

Absolutely, even for leisure travelers such as we are.

We're looking forward in a few days to a week in Southern Germany in a little apartment with decent cooking facilities. We can go out for lunch, for dinner, both, or neither, and we're not dependent on restaurants. :)

That's why I often prefer the Marriott Residence Inn over the Courtyard. The Residence Inn is like a small apartment versus a hotel room. Downside is only 5 points/dollar versus 10 for the Courtyard.

I think that most of us who travel most of the time are jadded / board with eating out.

Like jakuda I also prefer extended stay hotels even if I give up some points doing so. But I do like to cook. A few people even subscirbe to my channel on you tube.

Phew, thought this was a misplaced OMNI thread.

Agreed. I will also typically go the salad and chicken route. I've come to enjoy being able to benchmark some of the grocery store food prices in comparison to "home". Oddly enough, I've gotten to the point now where I typically let the sale ad for the grocery store dictate my menu to some extent. In the end, I feel alot better about the quality of food I'm eating in the hotel than eating out for every meal.

I enjoy eating out. I think there are so many great restaurants out there.

LOL, I could have written that myself!

The only exception for me is Chinese food since there are not any decent places where I live. I’ve never been able make it at home (I’m convinced you need commercial rangetop to get those big woks hot enough). Even then, I prefer ordering in and eating in my room.

That, and increase the 'one tablespoon' of oil called for in most home recipes to 4 or 5, like they do. Seriously.

There is nothing quite so unpleasant as eating alone in a restaurant. I'm never quite sure what to do to occupy myself, so I generally bring my lappy and work until my food comes.

I usually opt for the take-away or delivery route, and grab a 12-pack of beer. Admittedly, I'm getting sick of pizza...

A lot of upscale supermarkets have soup/salad/hot food bars, I often go to those and have dinner there or take it back to my room. Wegman's are good where they have them. Whole Foods has locations scattered around the country too.

If the customer I am visiting has a break room with a fridge and a microwave, I generally buy lunch stuff at the supermarket and take my lunches in too.

I've heard many people say the same thing, brendog. I actually quite enjoy eating alone in restaurants. Though I prefer the type of place where I can eat at the bar, a table or booth is fine too. What I really dislike is eating out in groups of more than 3 or 4 people.

It doesn't bother me to eat alone, I usually take a book or magazine to read. The real annoyance for me is spending an hour plus every night to eat out. When traveling, I usually eat at a sit down restaurant 1 night out of 3 or so, and the rest is take-away or a quick place like Panera. Since I also enjoy a beer or few, eating/drinking in the hotel room eliminates the possibility of any unpleasant misunderstandings with the local law enforcement regarding their DUI laws. And with many stores now stocking a better variety of microbrews than most bars, it gives me more chance to sample that great variety.

Hotdogs usually are my telling sign I am eating out too much. When I find a hotdog in my hand, it is time to take corrective action. And I am a sucker for a good hotdog. ;)