Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.

It should come as no surprise that when I'm on vacation I enjoy eating well, especially in beautiful places. I've found that many times the best way to enjoy an upscale establishment is to go there for lunch (or sometimes brunch).

I'm not going to pretend I came up with the idea - I've read it as a travel tip several times - but I do strongly endorse it. Over the last several years I've had a number of amazing experiences at places that I probably would have skipped if I'd only considered them for dinner. Many of them have been at destination places where the scenery is a big part of the experience, and this way I've gotten that experience in a less formal setting and usually at half the price or less.

Here are some examples:

Hotel del Coronado

Shortly after I moved to Arizona, my friends Alexandra and Erik came to visit and we went on a road trip to San Diego. While there, we visited the iconic Hotel del Coronado and had brunch on the patio with a beautiful view of the ocean. It was a great way to experience the hotel without staying there or doing a formal dinner.

Hotel del Coronado - from the front

Pebble Beach

In order to get a tee time at the legendary golf course you generally need to book a room at the resort for a minimum of two nights. Rooms start at $695/night and the golf is $495, so you're looking at close to two grand to do it on the cheap. Needless to say, I haven't done that. Instead, my friend Petter and I got a Sunday brunch reservation at the restaurant overlooking the 18th green. No golf, but we got a nice meal in a gorgeous setting and spent a couple of hours enjoying the atmosphere.

Petter looking out over the 18th green

Me in front of the 18th fairway

L'Auberge de Sedona

L'Auberge is one of the premier resorts in Sedona, Arizona, a couple of hours north of Scottsdale. During my family road trip last summer, we enjoyed a nice lunch and tranquility alongside Oak Creek at the bottom of the valley, surrounded by the famous red rocks.

The family and I at L'Auberge, Sedona

Ahwahnee Hotel

On the same road trip, a few days a several hundred miles later, we visited the landmark Ahwahnee Hotel in the middle of Yosemite, California.

The Ahwahnee Hotel from the outside

The dining room

Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn

Post Ranch Inn is a high-end boutique hotel situated on the cliffs of Big Sur, along the Pacific Coast Highway about two hours south of San Francisco, with an amazing ocean view. The rooms range from $550 for a regular room with a "forest view" to $2,800/night for one of the larger freestanding tree house structures.

The restaurant, Sierra Mar, features floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the 1,000 foot (300 m) drop down to the ocean. I was fortunate enough to eat there twice last year; first with the family on the same road trip and then a second time a few months later with Alexandra and a group of other attendees from the Oracle OpenWorld convention in SF. Highly recommended.

The family with the ocean view in the background...

...and looking down through the window

All of these were truly memorable experiences and I'm pretty sure none of them cost more than $20 per person. Not counting the trips there, of course.