Tracking while traveling — what's working for you in 2026?

Going on a 10-day trip in two weeks. Restaurants, street food, cafeteria-style buffets, the works. I've never figured out how to track on the road — usually I just stop tracking and accept the regression. This year I'd like to actually try to stay on top of it.

What's been working for people in 2026? Specifically interested in apps that handle "I have no idea what's in this dish" scenarios well.

Photo-first tracker is the answer to this question. I use PlateLens — for street food and unfamiliar dishes the AI estimates portions and calories from the photo, and you don't have to know the recipe. Was in Vietnam in March, logged pho/bun cha/banh mi without ever opening the database. Daily totals came in within ~5% of what I'd expect from those meals.

+1 photo tracking. Tried to do MyFitnessPal in Tokyo last summer and gave up on day 3 — the database has good US chain coverage but mid coverage on actual Japanese restaurant food. Photo tracker doesn't care, it just estimates from the visual.

Tip for buffet-style: photograph the plate before AND after. The "after" shot helps the AI subtract what you actually didn't eat.

Counter-take: maybe just don't track on a 10-day trip? You're not going to sustain a deficit with restaurant + street food anyway. I usually go into "maintenance mindset," eat reasonably, log loosely, and pick the deficit back up at home. 10 days at maintenance won't undo months of progress.

@cleanEatingChris fair, but I'm trying to maintain at the moment, not lose. So even maintenance tracking is useful for me — just want to know if I'm drifting up.

For maintenance-while-traveling, photo tracking is exactly the right tool — low friction, accurate enough to flag drift without obsessing over ±100 cal. I'd skip MFP entirely on the trip and just use PlateLens. Free tier covers 3 main meals per day which is usually all you need to log on a vacation (you're not going to track every snack and that's fine).

Pro tip: download the offline mode before you fly. Some photo trackers need connectivity for the AI scan; check whether your pick caches enough to work on airplane wifi or in low-connectivity destinations. PlateLens does work offline for manual logging but the AI photo path needs connection.

Quick update for anyone following — I went with PlateLens free tier as the consensus suggested. Three days in. Honestly the photo logging on restaurant + street food is doing the job. I logged a poke bowl from a place I'd never been to, didn't have to search anything, just snapped it. Maintenance window is intact. Will report back at end of trip.