Four Faster Ways To Locate Restaurants When You Are On Vacation

When you go on vacation, you are often stuck eating at the hotel restaurants or inquiring about the nearest fast food joints. This gets old after a couple of days, not to mention expensive. If you want to experience dining outside your hotel and you do not want to eat burgers and fries ad nauseum, then here are four faster ways to locate a restaurant when you are on vacation.

Automobile Association Guides

Before you leave town, visit an automobile association, like AAA, and request hotel and dining guides for your destinations. If you are a member of the association, the guides are free. If you are not, you can either sign up on the spot for added perks like roadside assistance and maps, or you can pay the fees charged on each guide as they are sold to the public. Every guide lists several hotels and restaurants, what they typically serve, their ratings (one, two, three, four or five "stars"), and how much you can expect to pay for a meal.

Rent a Car with Onboard Navigation

Rental cars with on-board navigation devices cost a little bit more per day, but you can request directions to restaurants and a listing of the nearest ones. Luxury rentals have in-dash computers that will list restaurants by food preferences, if you have enough money built into your vacation budget for that. At any rate, you should be able to find exactly what you want to eat for every meal and get turn-by-turn directions to get there too.

Restaurant Locator Apps on Your Smartphone

Restaurant locator apps on your smartphone or other mobile device work in conjunction with your device's GPS location signals. When you download an app and turn on your GPS location for the app, it will tell you all the restaurants that are within a five-mile, ten-mile, or twenty-mile radius of you. Other apps, such as Yelp, may also list restaurants based on zip code, but you would have to find out what the local zip code is first.

Using Your Own Eyes

Part of being on vacation is exploring and making discoveries. As you come into a new city or town, check out the road signs. They usually tell you where to find food and lodgings. Then watch both sides of the road as you roll through town. Places like strip malls and mega malls have lots of places to eat, some of which might be out of the norm, if that is what you are looking for.