Whether I am at home base or travelling with the family, there are a couple of apps that I check consistently before we go out to eat:
- Groupon: I check for local Groupon restaurant offers. They are listed under Local Food & Drink. Sometimes you get national chains and other times there are some awesome, local, undiscovered spots that are just working on getting their name out there.
- Restaurant.com: For some reason, many years ago, I ended up with some Restaurant.com credit and have been checking it regularly ever since. This website tends to have more options than the other two apps (probably because it focuses just on restaurants) and boasts a wide variety of cuisines. There are definitely some “lesser known”, family restaurants on this one if you would rather check those out than the big chain restaurants.
- RetailMeNot: I used to use this to get all the best discount codes when shopping online, but then noticed that they added restaurant deals too! You can search by restaurant (if you have one in mind) or find one near your location. This one includes mostly large, chain restaurants.
*Bonus tip: I also check with the various mystery shopping platforms that I use for restaurant ideas in the area so I can get the meal cost reimbursed AND get paid for reporting on it, stay tuned to future posts for more information on this!
** Do you have any other tips for finding deals on meals for family travel on a budget? Share them with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.