Eating well for less, the way locals do

The best meals of a trip are rarely the expensive ones. They are the ones locals queue for at one o'clock, and they follow a few patterns that hold in nearly every country.

Lunch is the deal

Across Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Japan and much of Latin America, restaurants serve a set lunch on weekdays: two or three courses at a fraction of the evening price, often with a drink. Make lunch the big meal and keep dinner light. Travlyo's guides say what the set lunch is called in each city and roughly what it costs.

Walk two blocks

The restaurant on the main square with the pictures on the menu is for people who will never come back. Two streets in, the prices drop by a third and the food improves. A short queue of people who look like they live there is the best review you will get.

Markets feed you twice

A covered market gives you a cheap, excellent lunch at its counters and the makings of a picnic or a hotel-room breakfast. It is also the fastest way to see what the city actually eats.

Small things that add up

• Water: in most of Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand the tap water is fine and asking for it at a restaurant is normal; carry a bottle and refill it. Where the guide says not to drink it, buy the big bottles at a supermarket, not the small ones at a kiosk.
• The local rhythm: in Spain the kitchen may not open for dinner before nine; in Germany or Norway it may close by nine. Arriving at the wrong hour is how travellers end up in a chain restaurant. The guide's "Know before you go" card has the usual meal times.
• Tipping: expected in the US and Canada, a rounded-up bill in most of Europe, none at all in Japan. The guide says which.

Log it as you go

Meals are half of a daily budget. A ten-second note in Money after each one keeps the trip's cost honest without any effort at the end.