Travel Adventures: Exploring New Flavors

foodie mobile apps to download when traveling via genpink.com

One of the things I love most about traveling is experiencing new restaurants. Although my husband and I are both quite food afficienados we tend to fall into a routine at home, visiting our usual spots over and over. Whether I’m a car ride away or across several state lines, I make it a point to try at least one restaurant that’s not available in my area. Ideally, when I’m traveling I try to skip all chains (well, except Starbucks). But finding places to try can be a shot in the dark if you don’t do a bit of research. Fortunately, there are numerous apps and websites to help!

Let’s start with traveling day. If you’re traveling via airplane, the first app I recommend is GateGuru. Although there isn’t always a fabulous selection of restaurants in airports, an app like GateGuru can help you see all of the choices that are in the airport (and even terminal) that you’re traveling from. During one of my trips to Boston, that app helped me discover several food choices that were only five gates away from mine. If you have a long layover, this app also shows you shops and services you can visit in neighboring terminals.

lunch break via genpink.com

One of the most popular recommendation apps (Foursquare) just split into two. But since I use them together, I’ll count them as 2A & 2B. Foursquare is my favorite app for discovering local eats, in addition to a great resource for knowing what to order once you get there. I’ve used Foursquare for years, so it has great historical data about me. It app allows itself to guess how well I’ll like a particular place, based on my past preferences. You can also connect with your friends to have their tips and recommendations highlighted specifically. When I’m in a new city, I often check the feature in Foursquare to show only places my friends have visited. Because I have a pretty large online network, I’ll usually get a few recommendations even in the most random cities.

Yelp is a similar alternative to Foursquare, and I find I like the brevity in Foursquare tips over the wordy reviews that often live on Yelp. I have friends who use TripAdvisor and some of the other travel-related sites to visit the top-rated restaurants during their travels. I’d recommend picking 1 or 2 resources to make your decision. Having all of the information at your finger tips can be a blessing and curse, so it’s helpful to narrow down your choices without going into analysis paralysis.

welcome in! via genpink.com

This week my husband and I are visiting Reno and the Lake Tahoe area. We’re lucky to be a guest of a tourism company, so they’ve mapped out their recommendations! Having the restaurants picked for us certainly doesn’t mean I won’t be using my app nerdery to assist my dining choices. Whether you have decided on your restaurant choice thanks to an app, website or a personal recommendation, here are the apps I use to determine the best dish to order.

foodie mobile apps to download when traveling via genpink.com

Foodspotting: if you’re a visual person, this can be a great resource and a quick way to get a visual menu. The only downside of this app is its adoption rate. I’ve found it’s pretty hit or miss in smaller areas or less popular restaurants.

Instagram: Instagram is also a great way to get a view of what you can expect. The plus being, sooo many people use Instagram. The biggest downside I’ve found is not everyone tags the location with their photos, so you may have to search variations of the restaurant name. Geek girl trick: when you get to a new place, take a picture of the sign our front or your drink and then tag the location so you can easily scroll through the other items posted there. If the restaurant has an official Instagram account that’s a huge bonus!

Foursquare & Yelp tips/reviews: I usually read through these tips and reviews in the car while we’re on the way to our destination. If I’m super prepared I’ll save Foursquare tips during my wait at the airport or from my hotel room. You can save tips to a To-Do list and then mark them as done if you’re super nerdy.

Consult the Internet: A quick Twitter search may give you a flood of ideas, but you might also find a random food blogger in the area you’re visiting that has just the recommendation you were looking for. If you’re a blogger ask your fellow blogger friends familiar with at town for recommendations. When I visited Seattle a few years ago I emailed a few blogger friends who I knew in the area and asked for their top 5 choices. I think it’s important to have a specific ask if you’re going to reach out to an internet friend. Funny enough, I’ve had a few Twitter buddies tweet me suggestions when I share that I just landed in a city. If you’re a real planner type, perhaps you may want to create a Pinterest board with all of the ideas you find around the web.

Ask a friend: Seems kind of obvious, ehh? Any number of apps can be used to accomplish this, even the Phone app.

We are nearing the end of the Carefree Challenge. Since August 12th, Carefree and several amazing bloggers have been sharing tips and resources for refreshing your life. In case you missed it, my first post for the Carefree Challenge was about finding the perfect Little Black Dress.

Each day during the challenge Carefree is giving away great prizes! Today you can enter to win a $100 restaurant gift card! If you’ve been to Reno and the Lake Tahoe area, what were you favorite eats? Also, if you’re traveling to the Dallas area any time soon, ping me and I’d be happy to send you my recommendations!

23 thoughts on “Travel Adventures: Exploring New Flavors

  1. What an awesome, helpful post! As
    someone that does not travel often I always feel at a loss when I do. We are
    the people on the road trying to figure out where to eat and settling for the
    same ole same ole because we have had some bad experiences by “trying something
    new.” We are hoping to take a few long weekend trips this fall so these apps
    should come in handy most definitely. Thank you for the pointers!

  2. I really could have used Gate Guru when I was stuck a few months ago in the airport with 5 hungry and cranky kids lol. I will definitely remember that for next time! And analysis paralysis is my new favorite phrase! :) <3

  3. Great post! I have never heard of Foodspotting  or the Gate Guru app before now. We do a lot of traveling during the summer and these look like some very useful apps. Thanks for sharing this.

  4. Elysa — Traveling is always my excuse to eat my weight in local cuisine. Thanks for this comprehensive story. xo S

  5. I love GateGuru too and need to look at Foodspotting! Yelp reviews are great – I like reading them even if I’m not even looking for anything in particular – some of them are just hysterical! Thanks for the great tips & post! Gigi

  6. This post is very informational! I’m in California and ski Northstar in Lake Tahoe quite often, If you haven’t been before you’ll love all the quaint mom & pop restaurants in  the area.

  7. I so love trying new restaurants and new foods. Thanks for the great tips and apps to check out.

  8. Thanks for sharing about Gate Guru.  I love the idea of knowing what is at other gates.  I hate wandering far in one direction just to discover there’s nothing down there I want anyway!

  9. I like exploring new flavors myself and that got me into some hilarious troubles at times. Traveling make it all much easier and fun.

  10. Great post! You’re right about foodspotting. Not enough people know about it or how to use it properly. Foursquare is unfortunately off my list now that it’s changed drastically and they’re forcing you to use Swarm but the next time I’m at the airport, I’ll definitely try GateGuru. So convenient!

  11. Love using Yelp to find new places to try and break out of the rut that we tend to fall into.

  12. patranila I have a feeling Foursquare may end up re-combining the apps. Basing that on an announcement today about them adding leaderboard (mayors) back into Swarm

  13. daydream_beauty oh no, I can not imagine dealing with 5 hungry kiddos in an airport. Do you know Staci from http://7onashoestring.com/? She has 5 kids and shares about their travel adventures.

  14. HeatherPfingsten fun feature of Foursquare that I didn’t mention is their map function. You can slide the map over to the area where you’re heading to see what’s on your way if you’re roadtripping. I use that function quite a bit.

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