If you travel for business, more than likely you spend your fair share of time eating out alone. While some people are comfortable with this type of situation, most are not. The good news is that you have options to make dining alone while on a business trip easier.
Travel Tips for Dining Alone
- Conduct Research – Before heading out on your next business trip, spend a little time conducting research online on restaurants. In particular, look for restaurants that cater to businesspeople. With this, there is a good chance that you will not be the only person dining alone.
- Be Productive – Instead of sitting awkwardly alone at the table, use this alone time to be productive. For instance, you can take a cellphone or tablet to run reports, do research, catch up on meeting minutes, schedule appointments, answer emails, and more. If you have no business to catch up on, your mobile devices are great for playing games, reading articles, and listening to music with an earbud.
- Take a Cuisine Adventure – Look at your time dining alone as an adventure. The best way to accomplish this is by choosing a restaurant known for serving a regional specialty. You might even ask to speak to the chef to learn more about the dish and restaurant itself.
- Be Confident – Although you might be tempted, do not let what other people do affect you when dining alone on a business trip. After all, other patrons do not know you or anything about you, so enjoy your meal with complete confidence. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity to do a little bit of people watching of your own.
- Choose a Bar Seat – For extremely busy restaurants or if you do feel uncomfortable, you can always choose a bar seat as opposed to a dining room table. You will find that many businesspeople do this because it offers more privacy, comfort, and the chance to visit with other people.
- Get Food to Go – If you have your heart set on trying food from one particular restaurant, call ahead and get your order to go. That way, you still get to enjoy an amazing meal without the awkwardness of sitting alone in the restaurant.
Top-Rated Transportation
You can arrange to have the same chauffeur who picked you up at the airport take you to your restaurant destination. In fact, there is a good chance the chauffeur can recommend a great restaurant, one that other businesspeople typically frequent.
