Elijah posted:This upcoming year will be our first year of tournaments out of state, so I am making a list of expenses to create a budget. Especially interested in how others handle food, eating somewhat healthy.
Concerning rooms, do you book rooms with kitchenettes or do you find yourself eating out most of the time? I know this depends on the team, but in your experience, do teams try and eat together often on these trips?
Would love advice on how you plan for out of state tourneys and what you learned along the way. Thanks!
My son and I stayed in hotels like https://www.woodspring.com/ for about $60 a night. They are different hotel model. There is no lobby. A lot of construction workers stayed in them, they also rent by the week. There is no room service, they don't clean the rooms, if you want clean towels, you take them your dirty ones. Same with linens. Each room had a fridge and a two burner stove. They worked just fine. Drove at night a lot to avoid a hotel room, if game wasn't early, would drive early morning to the games if within 4/5 hours. Used the Hotel.com app to find them.
For healthier food, we tried this, it was part way successful. I would pre-make and vacuum seal the meat part of a meal, then make pasta or rice to put it over. Steak and gravy, chicken with alfredo sauce, etc. We would eat a lot of Subway sandwiches. Tried to stay away from the fast food places. Again, partially successful. I would also have an ice chest and waters, gatorade and milk (to mix up protein shakes). Couple snacks, protein bars etc. A lot of what you spend is stopping at gas stations, grabbing sodas/chips etc. Tried to avoid that also.
If you have someone near who can split the ride and hotel rooms, that can help. Or if there are parent's that can't go, offer to take another kid or two for some help with gas/hotels.
Sorry if I repeated anyone else's advice. I didn't read the whole thread.