Poll coming up. Inspired by a discussion in another thread, this is my first poll and I am not an expert but I tried to make the questions non-leading and unbiased. 
It’s pretty important, sure - food is a huge part of culture, and I travel to learn about other cultures. It’s probably the most direct way one experiences culture, for one thing.
It’s the best and most important part for me.
Me, I travel for art, music, landscapes, language, and architecture. Food is a distant third, if at all; I’d be perfectly happy eating what I normally eat. Doesn’t mean I won’t try new things or anything, but it’s not the reason I travel.
It’s hard to answer this one, given the poll options. I don’t travel for food, but when I have a destination picked out, I will do extensive research about local yummies so I can try to hit some great restaurants or try local specialties while I’m there.
Difficult to answer. If I’m traveling to a ski slope or to the beach, then no. If I’m headed to Mexico or France? Hell yes.
This. So I went for the middle option. It’s part of being where you are & it’s very exciting, but not really one of the most important things. Funny really, as food is very important to me.
Someone in the other thread said they loved travelling but not the food. I don’t see how that can work at all: it’s just part of travelling. Like saying you like travelling, but you don’t like different people or different scenery. Also, many places I have been to didn’t have any options when it came to food, so picky eaters would just starve.
ETA: And as Labrador Deceiver says, the location (and type of travel) is a pretty big factor in how important food is going to be.
When I travel, I’m all about the sights. Good food is a welcome bonus, though, and I will spend time beforehand to see if there’s anything good nearby.
It’s all about the food. The first thing I do when I plan a trip is research the food.
I see it differently. Food is a really great side-effect of traveling, but I’d never plan my trip because of it. I can seek out a great number of extremely authentic places to eat exotic food within driving distance. Truly authentic is certainly an upgrade, but I’m planning my trip based on activities, location and other experiences.
Really important. the food is a big part of the attraction.
I really enjoy food and love to try new things; however, I don’t really enjoy travel that much.
Small day trips (to cool restaraunts!) are more my thing, and I love to go to Vancouver and eat my body weight in seafood. However, I would never plan a big trip somewhere for food - I would dislike the trip portion too much to really enjoy the food portion.
Link to the inspiring thread?
I love to travel, but food is just fuel. After about four days, I become very cranky about having to eat in restaurants.
Food is a big one for me- not just checking off the local specialities or famous restaurants or whatever, but the whole experience of eating. I agree that it is one of the most accessible ways to have an actual local experience and share a part of everyday life where you are. I like to travel solo, and eating is a great way to open conversation with people.
Mmmmm. Sharing weak beer with tears running down my face at Chongqing hotpot as I eat with a half dozen of my new best friends. Singing Hotel California with a toothless Indian guy while huddled over chai waiting out a monsoon shower. Picking out cheese, fruit and wine at the efficient little supermarche for a Parisian picnic. Sitting knee to knee with school kids on break eating noodles at a Thai street stall. Enjoying fresh grilled fish at an African beach night market with music and street vendors everywhere…
Voted: Trying new foods is part of why I travel, but not a very important one
But really it depends on the destination. Travelling abroad, I am much more likely to care about trying foods and having new food experiences. While I am aware of regional differences in food across the US, the food experience isn’t even on my radar for domestic travel.
Food is the whole point for me in a lot of cases.
But not all - I’ve definitely planned vacations around activities (mountain biking/diving/hiking/etc) and in those cases, food often has to be a minor part of it. A lot of destinations that are great for the activity only have so-so food, and I’m OK with that.
Other than that, though, it’s all about the food. Heck, I just got back from a business trip, and I did my damned best to make it about the food when I wasn’t working.
Put it this way: if I were in a place where really great food options existed, and I found myself eating at an Applebee’s or fast food, I’d be majorly bummed. It’d be the same as going on vacation, finding a hotel room, and just sitting in it instead of going out and exploring the new place. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Really? Why not? That just seems bizarre to me - why would you want to seek out “new food experiences” (as you put it) when you’re abroad, but not domestically? As you pointed out, there’s a pretty big regional difference between, say, food in Louisiana and food in the middle of the US Southwest.
This is my reason for answering. Everyone has to eat, and all cultures eat differently…what a culture eats says a lot about that culture: What is important to that culture, what the vegetation and climate are like, etc etc. I would say you cannot say you’ve “experienced” a culture unless you’ve eaten at least some of their food, even if you’ve been there and seen the sights.
I would use the second option then.
Thanks for this anecdote. My contention is that people who are NOT adventurous eaters are more likely to NOT be adventurous travelers/enjoy traveling as much as adventurous eaters, so this is good to note.
Starts with my assertion here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14755495&postcount=167
Love to travel, love seeing new things, generally couldn’t care less about the food. It’s just generally not very important to me. If it comes down to two hours trying the local cuisine in detail for lunch or grabbing something from a street vendor and eating it quickly on my way to the next destination, I always pick the latter. That’s mostly how I traveled across Italy last March. When I was in Iceland in August, I was with a friend so I had to sit down for lunch roughly 50-75% of the days when I was there. I would have preferred otherwise.