Restaurant Deals

Before you even leave home, it’s worth checking a restaurant’s website or social media page for current specials, weekday offers, and dining promotions. Many restaurants post their happy hour times, prix-fixe menus, or limited-time deals online. A quick search before your trip can save you from paying full price once you’re there.

Local tourism sites and hotel front desks sometimes know about deals too, especially during slower weeks when restaurants are trying to fill tables. Looking for restaurant picks in a specific destination? Check our guides for Marco Island and Naples, FL, or browse our full list of travel deals for more ways to save.

Take advantage of happy hour, which isn’t just about discounted drinks anymore. Many restaurants offer reduced-price appetizers, small plates, pizzas, burgers, tacos, and other menu items during certain hours. If you’re flexible about when you eat, a late lunch or early dinner during happy hour can save you money. It often costs considerably less than ordering from the regular dinner menu.

Before going, check the restaurant’s website or social media page for current happy-hour times. Specials can change depending on the day of the week. Some restaurants only offer them in the bar or lounge area. Also look closely at what’s included: a discounted appetizer that’s large enough to share may be a better deal than ordering two full entrées.

Vacation destinations often have restaurants competing for diners before the busiest dinner hours. That competition can mean special pricing if you’re willing to eat a little earlier. Early dining menus may be available from around 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. and can include an entrée, side, salad, or even dessert for one set price. This can be especially helpful for families, retirees, or anyone who doesn’t mind having dinner before the evening rush. There’s another benefit too: restaurants are often less crowded earlier, so you may spend less time waiting for a table.

Prix-fixe menus are worth checking as well. A prix-fixe menu gives you several courses for one set price. Depending on the restaurant, you might get an appetizer or salad, entrée, and dessert. These aren’t automatically a bargain, so compare the prix-fixe price with what you’d actually order from the regular menu. Early-bird and prix-fixe deals tend to be especially useful in tourist destinations, where restaurants are competing hard for the early dinner crowd.

Feeding a family while traveling adds up fast, especially since kids don’t always finish what they order. Some restaurants offset that with kids-eat-free nights or discounted children’s meals on certain days. Always check the details first. The offer may require the purchase of an adult entrée, be limited to certain hours, or allow only one free child’s meal per paying adult. Days, age limits, and purchase requirements vary a lot by restaurant. For a family traveling with several children, planning even one or two dinners around these specials can make a noticeable difference.

It’s also worth joining restaurant rewards programs if you’re going somewhere you already like. Restaurants may offer a welcome reward, birthday offer, free appetizer, dessert, or points toward a future purchase through their email club or loyalty program. Some national chains and restaurant groups also run app-only specials, deals you can only unlock by downloading their app. That’s worth doing if you know you’ll be eating there more than once on your trip.

It’s not worth signing up for every restaurant email list just to save a dollar or two. But if it’s a restaurant you visit regularly at home, or tend to choose when traveling, joining the rewards program may be worthwhile. If you’re traveling for a birthday or anniversary, check for special offers before the trip rather than waiting until you’re already there.

Restaurants directly in the busiest tourist areas almost always charge more for the same food you’d find a few blocks away. Walking even five or ten minutes away from the main strip often turns up local restaurants with better prices and smaller crowds. The food is often just as good, sometimes even better, since they’re cooking for locals rather than just visitors passing through. It’s worth asking a hotel employee or someone who lives there where they’d actually go to eat, rather than picking the first restaurant you see when you step outside.

Most restaurants post their current menu and prices online, so it’s worth a quick look before you decide where to eat. This helps you avoid surprises on the bill. It also lets you compare a few options ahead of time, instead of choosing based on which restaurant has the best sign or the friendliest host out front. It only takes a minute, and it can save you from committing to a restaurant that turns out to be more expensive than you expected.

I like good food when I travel, but I don’t like paying more than I have to. I usually check menus and prices before we go, look for happy hours or specials, and decide ahead of time which meals are worth spending more on. If I know we’re doing one special dinner during the trip, I’m fine keeping the rest of our meals simple.

It’s not about cutting corners on every meal. It’s about being intentional, so the money goes toward the food and experiences that actually matter to us.

A few other things help too. Restaurant portions can be huge, particularly in some vacation areas, so sharing an entrée and adding an appetizer or side is often plenty of food for two people. Just check whether the restaurant charges a plate-sharing fee first.

When comparing restaurant deals, don’t forget the extras. Look at the entire bill rather than just the advertised price. Drinks, appetizers, desserts, resort-area surcharges, taxes, and gratuities can quickly turn what looked like an inexpensive meal into an expensive one.

A vacation should still feel like a vacation. The goal isn’t to spend as little as possible. It’s to avoid spending more than you need to, so you have more money available for the experiences you really want.

If you’re trying to decide where to eat, how to find good local restaurants, or how to avoid overpriced tourist spots, our dining guide has more on that.