If you plan to use your vacation condo for cooking, grilling outdoors or just eating prepared foods, here are some things to consider when making an Airbnb grocery haul.
When we booked our birthday trip, we knew we wanted to stay somewhere with a kitchen so we could make our own food.
So many times in Hawaii, we have been out and about, gotten ourselves starved and either could not find something to eat or ate really unhealthy and not-very-tasty meals.
Okay, to be honest, Hawaiian foods are not my favorite.
But we knew that there are a lot of grocery shopping options such as Safeway, Walmart and Costco, so our first stop off the plane was to Costco.
And the Honolulu Costco? Here we found a fantastic surprise. The prices at the Honolulu Costco are EXACTLY THE SAME as the prices at home. Not the big mark-up we would have expected. Wow!
So, we ended up buying some bigger bulkier items than we normally would have because we knew the prices were still better than we would pay at the local grocery store.
Meat
If you are familiar with Costco, you know that the meat comes in really big packages. That is fine to purchase at home. Hub separates it, seals it and freezes in our tiny portions.
We didn’t want to do that on vacation, so we opted for some prepared meats and one package of four New Yorks that we grilled out on two separate nights.
- Costco’s famous rotisserie chicken (we ate four meals off this!)
- Kevin’s Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry
- Brisket Burnt Ends
- Canadian bacon (for breakfast)
- Fresh steaks
We did need to purchase a bag of charcoal from a local store and use the grill at the pool area outside our front door.
Aside: The Kevin’s is okay, but not nearly as good as the easy Skinnytaste beef & broccoli we make in our normal meal rotation. We brought some nuts with us, so I topped this with chopped cashews which don’t come in the package.
Produce
From the veggie section, we got more than we could eat, but everything was pretty good.
- Green beans
- Brussels sprouts
- Local tomatoes
- Local baby cukes
- Premade salad
- Strawberries
Dairy/Eggs
A stop at the nearby Walmart supplemented our dairy purchases with two sticks of butter and a small tub of sour cream.
The huge block of cheddar we purchased at Costco was still less money than a smaller one, so we got it and ate cheese at breakfast, happy hour with crackers and one grilled cheese.
The two-dozen carton of Costco eggs meant that we had eggs every morning for breakfast and we boiled some for snacks and salad topping.
Again, the gallon of milk was overkill, but much cheaper so that’s what we got.
Drinks
I picked up enough wine for the week, but we brought coffee and tea from home. Hub stopped at the local store for his Coke.
Wrap Up
It’s a really good thing we had so many options in our kitchen, because we ended up eating every meal in! We stopped at a famous local joint but it was packed with a long wait, not too clean and the menu was not our cup o’ tea. So we left and came home. And ate well.
Just to be clear here, I am not bragging on good eating choices during my vacation. There were chips and crackers and popcorn and a handful (or so!) of peanut M&Ms.
I will need to do a big reset when I get home.
But, for us, a grocery haul is the best way to go on vacation!
I hope this information is helpful if you are planning an Airbnb stay and want to eat in.
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