Just a curiosity question, and not sure if this has been posted before.....
Any time I go on vacation I prefer to eat at a local restaurant or an out of the way place to sample the food there. Especially for those that live in a big city, (I live in New York) why go to a chain restaurant, when chances are you can do the same at home? My take on a vacation is to get away to do the things you can't do in your daily routine (ie rock climbing, snorkeling, etc.)so I usually apply this to food as well. Unless you have kids screaming for McDonalds, I can't see any other reason for doing this....am I the only one who thinks like this?

This depends on a lot and chain-food eating can have it's place on an extended vacation. Have you extended your day too long and find yourself starving? Have you been looking for that perfect restaurant and you are in an out-of-the-way location and have come across nothing BUT chains? Do you just want to grab and quick bite and hit the road? Chain restaurants (and I don't just mean McDonald's), but Au Bon Pain or Panera, for example, can offer something in the way of consistent, maybe even quality fare. Let's say, for breakfast--how about a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel w/Hazelnut cream cheese at Panera or a triple-berry muffin at Au Bon Pain or a smoked turkey on Rosemary Foccocia for a quick lunch also at ABP. For a good sit down meal, I like to try to the local restaurants, too, but there are times when the chains also have their place.

Chain restaurants are good if you travel with some one who is, for lack of a better term, picky or finicky eater. When I travel with my mother, we often seek out chains because she knows ahead of time that she will like it and be able to eat something. She will attempt to try new things, but sometimes she just can't find anything on a menu (in a new place) that appeals to her or that she can eat. She's a good sport about it, and will usually have just a simple salad. However, part of the concession made is to go to a chain restaurant so she can really eat.

I'll eat at a chain restaurant that is exclusive to the area I am in. For instance, at one time The Cheesecake Factory was at one time only in the west. Same goes for a chain named Coco's. Otherwise, I prefer to explore the various neighborhood restaurants and eat there.

In Hawaii we don't have most of the chains so they can be a treat.

I should also add that my daughter will only eat chicken strips. Those can be hard to find in local ethnic type places.

I was happy to eat at McDonalds in Mexico, as it had the normal english menu, and I do not habla espanol, and was concerned about getting Montezuma's revenge. Also ate at a McDonalds in Rome, it was also neat to see the large numbers of lira (and pesos) required for the meals.

I'm with you, missjanna. Since you just came back from South Beach, I'm sure you noticed the TGI Friday's at the corner of 5th and Ocean Drive. When I'd walk by on the way to the great record store around the corner (Spec's), I'd see tourists just a-chowin' down and I'd think: All the great restaurants in the area and you eat HERE?!? A place you probably frequent back home?! Don't you want to try the places the locals eat? Like Puerto Sagua (Cuban home cookin'!!) or La Sandwichérie or even A Fish Called Avalon? Expand your horizons, Cletus and Bowdine!!

Having said that, what happens when the local restaurants lack variety and get old? I love mom-and-pop Italian restaurants, but when I'm in certain neighborhoods in Pittsburgh (for example), that's your only choice in local eateries, and "noodles and red sauce" gets boring after a while for me. If you can't get away to more varied cuisine (and I may slam Pittsburgh for other reasons, but their restaurant scene is actually quite good), but you have a better-quality chain restaurant, I'd go there just to escape. A PF Chang, for example. Or a Houston's. Sometimes it's good to have a known winner in your back pocket when you just need food.

By the same token why eat at them at all? I resort to chains when I travel on business because I may have few options in proximity to the hotel and am too tired to figure out what might be a great local place. I don't like to eat at them while at home as I find them boring. While on vacation I avoid them if at all possible. We don't eat out that often so we like to have something from a good local place that a chain couldn't offer - like really good fried clams or lobsters etc.

I spent an entire summer with my husband and preteen daughter hitting every fast food place from coast to coast. They were too afraid to try the local cuisine. In fact when we were in New Orleans, I was the only one to demand gumbo!

We do it to keep costs down. I'd much rather eat at a nice place, but with 4 of us, it really gets expensive. We do try to eat the "healthy" choices at certain chains.

Hey RJ! great post but i must add that trying NEW fast food can be great fun! For example, thanks to YOU RJ, we tried Baja Fresh and In N Out on our recent west / CA road-trip. YUM YUM, wish we had both around here, especially Baja Fresh!

Also tried Culvers in St. Louis after reading about it here - again, new to us and deliciously different!

Ok even though I initiated this I will admit to trying new chains, especially if they are not in my area. Like I wish we had Fat Tuesdays here. But we do have now an Outback Steakhouse, Boulder Creek, Hooters, Olive Garden and a few others that opened recently. And when I was in Cancun for a week, there was one day I had Burger King for lunch simply because I was craving a burger & wanted it fast....

I'll get "chain" fast food when we don't have time to stop for a real meal, but I would never go to one of these sit-down nationwide chains unless I had no other choice. The food just tends to be over-processed, mediocre, and expensive. And there are typically long lines of people waiting to get in! No, thanks.

Of course there are some local (i.e., not nationwide) chains that have really good food. Because their food isn't made in one place, frozen, and shipped around the nation, it's better quality. Baluchi's in NYC (Indian food), for example, is quite good.

The ?chain snobs? on this board always make me laugh! Little do they realize that there is a reason why these restaurants became so successful ? enough people liked their food to make them successful.

I know that when I go to Europe, I?ll occasionally go to a Mc Donalds for a drink, because the Europeans don?t like ice in their drinks, and on a hot day, this can get pretty annoying. Additionally, there?s a wide range of chains, from White Castle and Taco Bell on the extreme low end of the scale, to Morton?s and P.F. Chang?s at the other end of the spectrum. Lumping them all together in one batch simply doesn?t reflect reality. As some have mentioned, the convenience, price, and general dependability of the food is why many choose a chain. I like a certain amount of variety in my dining options ? sometimes I like a chain; sometimes I want to go to a local joint.

Hey rjw! Didn?t know that you had recommended Baja Fresh to someone. Did you know it?s an Ohio company . . . . ???

I'm with Island Mom. We don't have chains except for McDonalds, KFC and Subway, so we give them a try when in the states. We had a pretty good lunch at Olive Garden last year, and my other half always insists we stop at White Castle on the drive from Newark airport to central New Jersey. The appeal there escapes me, but it's his vacation too.

I am ususally anti-chain restaurants, especially on vacation.

However, in some cases, they take on a lot of the local charm. Off the top of my head, McCormick & Schmick have great locations in Chicago (overlooking the river) and Baltimore, in a great hotel overlooking the water. Also, China Grill in NY and Vegas are great.

Best meal I had in 10 days in Portugal was at a Burger King. And I hate Burger King.

I prefer to eat in local restaurants anywhere I go, here or abroad. However, my usual travel companion is Irish and a very very picky eater, so oftentimes he is only satisfied in chains he knows well and won't venture otherwise.

I eat at chain restaurants during business travel for the consistency. I know that if I'm at Fridays having a burger that it will be the same as at home. Unless I'm on vacation, I try not to eat at mom and pop places because I can't afford to get this shits when I'm out on business.