Food to Bring for a Hotel Picnic
These hotel picnic recipes are perfect for saving money on the dining budget for your next family vacation.
Our family loves to travel using reward points for hotels, frequent flier points for plane tickets, and any other membership or discount plan we can think of to save money on everything else.
The one area that we really seem to struggle with is the dining portion of the travel budget.
Tim and I both really enjoy having a nice sit-down meal at least once a day.
Fast food & quick service are nice easy fixes once in a while, but without at least one higher quality meal a day, we get cranky.
When you’re traveling for several days or a week, especially with kids, that can really add up quickly!
I know that all bets are off once we leave the hotel room so the best way for me to keep the family budget in check is to save money on breakfast by eating things I’ve brought from home.
At the same time, it is still a vacation. I look for special treat type breakfasts so we still feel like we’re doing something fun and different than our routines at home.
To sell this idea to the children who may be disappointed they don’t get to the hotel’s pancake buffet, I dub these “Hotel Picnics.”
We camp out on towels on the floor and make it memorable.
What to Pack for a Hotel Picnic
It’s just breakfast so you don’t need a kitchen arsenal but these items do come in handy!
Portable Dishware and Picnic Supplies
A lightweight set including a small bowl, plate, utensils & cup for each person.
You can make individual picnic kits and store them in lunch totes for each member of the family or have one big tote bag filled with all the supplies you need.
You can read more about my favorite hotel picnic supplies here.
But generally you’ll want:
- Utensils
- Cups
- A plate and/or bowls
Travel Bottle of Dish Soap & Scrubbie
Washing these dishes is no big deal, they mostly just need a quick rinse!
Forget the towel and let them air dry. You’re on vacation too!
Easy Breakfast Treats
These breakfast suggestions are filling, portable, and low mess.
Best of all, you can make them far in advance of your trip and they will keep well in the freezer.
You don’t need to feel pressure to make them the day before you go when your hands are going to be full with packing.
Peanut Butter Granola Bars
These homemade granola bars have a great dose of protein and the oats help make them quite filling for busy mornings.
Homemade Granola for Yogurt
My easy classic homemade granola is so easy to pack in a foldable gallon ziptop bag. Buy fresh yogurt and fruit at your destination for easy parfaits.
For a special upgrade, try my carrot cake granola. It has white chocolate chips that make it feel decadent.
Quick Breads
I love my pumpkin bread recipe because it makes 3 loaves from one bowl of batter. You can freeze them and just bring as much as you need.
My almond poppy seed quick bread is perfect year-round and if you’re travelling in the summer maybe consider this fresh peach bread.
Breakfast Burritos
If you’re staying in a hotel with a mini kitchen that offers a freezer, you could bring a cooler of breakfast burritos that heat up in the microwave.
Homemade Trail Mix
If you’re going to be getting up and running out the hotel door and just want something to tide you over till lunch, prep ahead some bags of homemade trail mix. These flavors are very kid-friendly and you can customize them easily for their preferences.
Homemade Scones
Scones are a perfect travel treat, these are delicious with fresh fruit and coffee in the morning. My blueberry scones are my kids’ favorite but for an extra-special treat, you could make these chocolate chip scones.
Homemade Muffins
Vacation deserves something special. Opening up a container of homemade muffins will definitely help breakfast feel fun. My sourdough discard blueberry muffins are a nice hearty choice for travel.
Fresh Items to Buy at Your Destination
To round out your simple hotel picnic breakfast, you just need to get a few items at your destination and keep them in the hotel fridge.
If you plan ahead, you may be able to even order grocery delivery to your hotel through Instacart or pick up the groceries through the specific grocery chain’s online ordering.
All you need to buy is:
- A large container of your family’s favorite yogurt
- Fresh milk
- Fresh fruit of choice: splurge on the pre-cut fruit salad from the store or get travel-friendly fruits like apples, bananas, or oranges
For less than the price of one hotel breakfast for a family of 4, you’ll have breakfasts for your entire trip!
More Recipes to Cook on Vacation
If you’re renting a condo with a kitchen or another longer term rental, you may be interested in my entire meal plan for a week at the beach over on my travel blog, Don’t Just Fly.
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About Tiffany
Tiffany is a home-cooking enthusiast, three-time cookbook author, and creator of the sites Peanut Blossom, Peanut Blossom Book Club, and Don’t Just Fly. She believes that family dinner can be manageable, fun, and — most importantly — tasty. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and two daughters and can often be found baking a loaf of bread with her beloved bread machine, reading a good book, or planning her family’s next adventure.
One way my hubby and I travel and save is by using airbnb.com and/or homeaway.com.
It’s basically a way to rent an entire house or apartment. This gives the opportunity to bring our own groceries and have all of the conveniences of home. We absolutely love it! We even bring our tabletop grill. we have the option to go out for dinner or dine at home and it has been a HUGE blessing to our family. We’ve stayed at lakefront resorts for as little as $55 a night! I highly suggest this travel option for future trips!
If a hotel offers breakfast, we always take advantage of it 😉
But we also pack a cooler with lunch fixin’s: tortillas, cheeses, deli meats, bagged spinach, fruit salad, pasta salad, and broccoli salad are favorite standbys. Then we find a park or rest stop and have a picnic table lunch.
On really long road trips we bring their razor scooters in case we don’t find a park- that way they get to go play and expend some energy before the next leg in the car.
We do this even still!! As we travel for Liv’s dance competition, time and $ are factors in going out to eat, hence we carry along. While she’s almost 14, I’m thinking she would still LOVE this picnic set in place of the costco paper that we bring.
A little planning, a cooler and lots of ice can go a long way to saving a few dollars.