The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
EATING AND DRINKING
14
SKIP BREAKFAST
At least in the hotel restaurant. If you can’t negotiate a decent B&B rate, then you will pay a lot less each morning if you nip out to the nearest café for a coffee and a croissant, rather than queue up at the hotel buffet. You can save even more if you eat at the bar rather than installing yourself at a table.
SAVE: £10s
15
MUNCH AT LUNCH
You are on holiday. You can afford to sleep for the afternoon. So if you are keen to try some special restaurants, but worried about the cost, book for lunchtime not dinner. Menus are always far cheaper than in the evening and you may even drink a little less too, thus keeping the wine bill down.
SAVE: £10s
16
MASTER THE MENU
It is strange how we have adapted the word “menu” to be used as a full list of dishes available in a restaurant. The French would call that the “carte”. The word
menu in Europe – menu del día (Spain), menu fisso (Italy) – means the fixed-price two- or three- course meal and it is nearly always better value than selecting from the carte.
SAVE: £10s
17
CHOOSE LOCAL WINES
This one comes from our wine correspondent, Victoria Moore: “Whether you are in Piedmont or Provence, the best match for traditional local cooking is usually a locally produced wine – they have been developed to complement each other over generations. And in most restau
rants the local list is far better value than wines imported from elsewhere.” Insisting on tap water rather than bottled is also an obvious saver.
SAVE: £1s
18
DRINK DRAUGHT
Draught beer is half the price of bottled beer in many bars. Ask for une pression in French; birra alla spina in Italian; cerveza de barril in Spanish. And, like coffee, it will be cheaper if you drink it standing at the bar.
SAVE: £10s
19
DON’T DOUBLE TIP
I’d hate to do a waiter out of a well-deserved bonus, but it is worth remembering that service charges are now included in most restaurant bills on the Continent.
SAVE: £10s
20
WALK AROUND THE CORNER
Restaurants and cafés away from the big sights or the seafront – those that are more likely to be used by locals – are not only invariably cheaper, but in my experience generally better than those whose main trade comes from tourists. A 10-minute walk can slash your bill and get you a much better meal.
SAVE: £10s