Anyone travel with kitchen utensils? lol. I know it sounds ridiculous but I stay in each spot for 6 months, get a local apartment and eat as healthy as possible so cooking is important.
What I have been doing is just buying what’s missing each time, usually around $200-300. Blender, spatula, knife sharpener, non aluminum fry pan, food storage containers, 2 large plastic cups for my smoothies (I make 2 days at a time), stuff like that.
But I also make my own desserts, to avoid white processed sugar and feed my addiction, and this gets a little more complicated. Today I bought 2 metal bowls, measuring spoons/cups and I want to buy a food scale and an oven thermostat. 😁
I usually donate the stuff to friends or the apartment owner when I leave.
But lately I have been thinking out might be easier/better to just bring another bag with me like a rolling suitcase and pack a small but complete kitchen so I don’t have to buy every time. I think an extra bag was $35 each way.
It’s an enormous amount of time finding all these things in a new place as well, although it helps me figure where to get supplies quickly.
Any other people out there living similar and encountering the same struggle?
I usually ask the rental owner first if they have the stuff I need. Usually they do. Also if I book thru airbnb, I ask host if they have the stuff I am looking for. Before the booking they usually comply and have it available.
Thanks for the info!
I tend to not use AirBNB. It’s always more expensive and in the places I travel, it seems to cater to people who are not price conscious over the short term. Although often I can negotiate for longer term, many properties are already rented on the big holidays for extremely high prices and therefor cannot go 6 months without gaps.
I will usually stay at a hostel for the first 2 weeks while I walk the streets and meet people to find a locally priced apartment. I never know what I’m gonna get and if the difference is only a poorly equipped kitchen to save hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars a month, it makes sense to me.
It's really not, but you have to game the system.
Book an AirBnB for a week, if it's nice, check the availability for the next month(s) and if it's not booked up, talk to the host directly. You'll get a massive discount most likely, because they get shafted by AirBnB as much, if not more, than you do, with platform's fees.
That's how I got my flat in CDMX where I've been for majority of this year. I randomly ended up there late December last year because the place I booked didn't work out and I had nowhere to go, I loved it so much and found it so convenient I befriended the host/landlord and just renting directly from him now at a lower rate.
Granted, it's still not a local rate, but unfortunately you have to have a proper visa and local bank account to rent like a local, which I don't have - I'm still technically a tourist here. But it still works out for me, because it's just about what I'd have to pay for a room back home (London), and I get my own flat in a good district for that money here.