Feeding a family of 6 three times a day is one of the highest-variable costs in any large-family trip. Get the eating strategy wrong and you blow $1,500–2,000 that could have funded another trip entirely. Get it right and you barely notice food in your budget.
The Restaurant Bill Reality for 6 People
Let us be specific. A mid-range sit-down restaurant in a European tourist city:
2 adult mains at $22 each = $44
4 kids mains at $12–16 each = $52
2 glasses of wine/beer = $14
4 soft drinks = $16
Bread/cover charge (common in Italy, Portugal) = $12
Tip (where applicable) = $13
Total: $151 for one dinner
Do that twice a day (lunch and dinner) for 12 days and food alone costs $3,600. A family without a kitchen often spends $2,800–4,000 on food for a two-week European trip.
The Rental Kitchen Math
Now compare a pasta night cooked in the rental apartment. Pasta, jarred sauce, salad, bread, and sparkling water for 6 from a local supermarket: $22–28. A full breakfast (eggs, toast, fruit, juice) for 6: $12–16. A picnic lunch from the morning market (cheese, charcuterie, bread, fruit): $18–25.
A realistic week with a kitchen, cooking 5 dinners and 6 breakfasts in the rental, eating out twice and doing 5 picnic lunches:
Groceries: $140
2 restaurant dinners: $220
5 picnic lunches: $110
Total food for 7 days: $470 — or $67/day for 6 people
Versus all-restaurant for 7 days: $1,400–1,750. The kitchen saves $900–1,280 per week.
When Eating Out Is Worth It
Eating out is worth it when it is the experience itself — a proper Portuguese seafood lunch at a harbor restaurant, a Florence trattoria where the pasta is made in front of you, a Thai street-food market night. Budget for 3–4 genuine restaurant meals per week and make them count. The other 17 meals? Cook or picnic. This hybrid approach gives you the cultural food experiences without the budget carnage of eating out at every meal.
Also worth noting: in Southeast Asia and Mexico, the economics invert. Street food for 6 in Chiang Mai costs $15–22 per meal. Cooking in a rental in Thailand is not much cheaper than eating locally, and the cultural experience of street food is irreplaceable. Know your destination before defaulting to the kitchen strategy.
