Real Food Snack Ideas When You’re Traveling or On-the-Go

My best advice for eating real food is to be prepared. At home, this looks like prepping ingredients or meals for the week ahead. On the road (away from home), this looks like packing snacks that are made with the best possible ingredients.

Before we left for our family vacation (to Michigan and Chicago) last month, I loaded up on travel-friendly snacks for the plane and our car travels. When we landed in Grand Rapids, we visited a grocery store and a farmer’s market for a few produce items: bananas, grapes, baby carrots, and (local) apples.

We ate out for almost every main meal because we were constantly on the road (or on a plane, bus, or boat) and headed to a new destination. For these meals, I did my best to research the cities we visited, looking for local cafes and restaurants with fresh food. This wasn’t always easy, but even when the choices were limited we did the best we could. Because of this, real food snacks came in handy, especially when we couldn’t find a decent option in between destinations (i.e. on the Amtrak Train trip that ended up lasting five hours instead of two).

Real Food, Travel-Friendly Snack Ideas

Most of the options listed below are prepared, packaged foods. Remember to always read the ingredient list on packaged foods and compare it to your real food guidelines. There are quite a few (real food) snack options on the market. The list, below, highlights my favorite, (somewhat) easy-to-find options at the moment.

Granola/Bars:

Homemade Granola Bars: protein or no-bake
Homemade Granola: Oat-based or Nut and Seed Mix
Homemade Trail-Mix
That’s It Bars: health food stores, Starbucks*, and Amazon Subscribe and Save
Clif Kit’s Organic (just this variety of Clif Bars): health food stores
Two Moms in the Raw Soul Sprout Granola Bars: health food stores
Lara Bars: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
RxBar: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Perfect Bars (refrigeration/cooler required): health food stores, Costco

Chips/Crackers:

Terra Plantain Chips: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Jovial Einkorn Crackers: health food stores
Lundberg Farms Rice Cakes: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Simple Mill’s Almond Flour Crackers or Sprouted Seed Crackers: health food stores
Annie’s Bunnies: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Apple chips (various brands, just dried apples): widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Coconut chips (various brands, just dried coconut): widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Home-popped popcorn: we use an air popper at home
Buddha Bowl Foods Popcorn: health food stores, some major grocery stores

Other:

Nut butter and jelly/jam sandwiches
AlterEco Chocolate: some varieties available in grocery stores, health food stores
Justin’s Peanut Butter Cups: widely available in grocery stores, Starbucks*, health food stores
Applesauce pouches: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores 
Artisan Coconut Butter pouches, Once Again Nut Butter pouches, Justin’s Nut Butter pouches: nut butter packets are widely available in grocery stores, coconut butter is more of a health food store find
Dried nuts, seeds, and/or fruit: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Fresh Produce: apples, bananas, grapes, stone fruit, berries, sliced/baby carrots and celery sticks
Plain whole grain oatmeal: Starbucks*
Plain whole milk yogurt cups: widely available in grocery stores, Starbucks*, health food stores
Sliced fresh fruit cups: widely available in grocery stores, Starbucks*, health food stores
Bare Natural Coconut Chips: Starbucks*, health food stores
Grass-fed, pastured jerky: health food stores, available in some grocery stores
Applegate Lunchmeat: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores
Hummus: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores-pay attention to the ingredients
Guacamole: widely available in grocery stores, health food stores-pay attention to the ingredients

*I’ve included options available at Starbucks on this list because there is usually a Starbucks nearby (whether on the road or in the airport) that may carry some decent snack options compared to other large chains.

What are your favorite (real food) travel-friendly snacks? Do you keep any snacks stashed away in your purse or car?

I shared my tips for eating real food meals on vacation over in this post.

If you want to see our recent trip via a vlog, I’ve uploaded the video below.