Almost half of British people don’t try the local food when on holiday

One of the best parts of travelling is exploring the country you’re visiting.

Unfortunately, for almost half of Brits (46%), that doesn’t extend to trying the local cuisine.

A new study has found that more than two thirds of people (68%) will go looking for a takeaway from a brand they recognise. McDonalds – known for offering similar menus across the globe, with some minor exceptions – topped the list as the most popular option (39%), while Burger King (20%) and Subway (14%) followed.

Additionally, one in 10 British people (9%) might be feeling homesick, as they admit to spending most of their holiday in a pub.

The new study, conducted by the flight-comparison site Jetcost, consisted of a poll among 2,300 people over the age of 18, all of whom had been on holiday at least once in the last two years.

Food remained the main issue when travelling, with just 10% eating local food every day. Meanwhile, one in four (26%) said they try it once (before, presumably, going back to McDonalds).

As for why people are avoiding the local cuisine, the top reasons were because they didn’t like the look or smell of the dishes (28%), are ‘fussy’ when it comes to food (21%) or ‘didn’t want to get ill’ (18%).

By not eating the local cuisine, holiday-goers risk missing out on one of the key experiences of travelling.

But people aren’t just not eating the food, 24% are also avoiding countries where they don’t believe they’d enjoy what’s on the menu. India, Japan and China are most commonly avoided, according to the poll.

Travellers are however more open to trying cultural activities and going sightseeing on holiday, with 74% admitting they do, but only 15% would do so more than twice during their trip.

In an effort to find out more, we asked people on Twitter if they will eat the local cuisine on holiday, and if not – why.

Majority of them said they would try local food, though some have had bad experiences in the past.