No matter where you travel, you’re sure to come across McDonald’s and KFC.

But you don’t REALLY want to eat there, do you?

The Internet offers some great resources for hungry travelers. From the high-budget to the low-budget, there’s no excuse for not going 100% local when you eat.

Chowhound, one of the web’s oldest and most popular food guides, has a home page that’s organized by region, both U.S. and international. With stories, blogs, videos, and unflinching praise and criticism by the site’s hounds, few corners of the Earth have been left untouched by Chowhound’s foodies.

Road tripping across the USA? Check out Traveling USA, which is comprehensive in its coverage of all types of culinary sites: from candy shops to roadside stands. You can search by state, too!

If you want to plan a trip around travel, check out Epicurious’s Dining & Travel blog. While many of the itineraries tend to focus on US destinations and on higher-end restaurants, the articles on this blog are delicious enough to savor as an armchair traveler. My favorite recent article is The Top 10 Farm-to-Table Restaurants. What’s nice about this article is that it overlooks predictable locavore restaurants like Chez Panisse, for lesser known restaurants in less frequented cities and towns.

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Hungry for more? Check out Matador’s menu of food-related articles: 8 Surefire Ways to Spice Up Your Travels, What Every Backpacker Should Know About Cooking for Themselves, and The Ultimate Vegan’s Guide to Finding Food on the Road.

And food, of course, is great fodder for blogs. Check out some of my Matador favorites: An informative blog about eating in Japan by Matador member lizardlee; Common Denominators: Soy Sauce and Chilies by noellejt; and Hechizo: Culinary Enchantment in Tulum by Michelle in Playa.

Feature photo: dfinnecy (creative commons)
Photo: hazy jenius (creative commons)

Julie Schwietert

Julie Schwietert Collazo is a writer, editor, researcher, and translator who lives in New York and Mexico City. She is the managing editor of the Matador Network.