When I started the New Year of 2020 in Peru I was so sick of all the meat dishes that we got served in the past weeks that I decided I want to seriously try a vegan lifestyle for a longer period. Even though I cooked more and more vegetarian dishes in the last few years, I´ve never been totally vegan before for longer than a 30-day challenge and never on travel. But 2020 was supposed to be the year of my big world trip and I wanted to give it a try. I asked myself which preparations I could do to make it easier and if it would be even possible to stick with it for a long period of time.
Is it possible to stay vegan on a world trip? Share on XStaying vegan while travelling can be pretty tough and depending on where you are travelling to it´s sometimes even hard to find a vegetarian alternative. As I couldn’t find much help myself, when I was looking for vegan travel tips, I decided to share my new knowledge with you guys.
It Starts On The Plane
When you are travelling by train you can obviously take a prepared home meal with you, the same goes for a car trip, but when it comes to taking a plane it starts getting trickier. Depending on how long your plane ride is, I highly recommend you plan ahead and coordinate a vegan menu in advance. Most airlines allow you to choose a vegan meal option for free and you can choose it on their website or app in just a few minutes. Give it a try! I did this a couple of times, always had good meals and even got my meal before everyone else, which is also nice.
Take A Snack
Never leave anywhere without some vegan snacks. Even when you planned the vegan meal on your plane, better take one or two snacks for the ride anyway, as you never know how good the meals are. When you are exploring a new place you will also be thankful for your little snacks when you get hungry, but don’t have any plant-based restaurants nearby.
So be prepared for little hunger attacks and buy some snacks before your journey. I mainly take cereal bars, as they don’t take up much space and fit in every little purse. But there are so many other great options. I also recommend you to check out the local supermarkets. They often have some great little packages, but depending on the country they might be more expensive and are often packed in a ton of unnecessary plastic.
Plan Your Meals Ahead
The more you plan your meals ahead the easier it will be for you to stick to your plant-based diet. Let’s look at the different difficulties of meal planning.
Breakfast
Might be the easiest, there are often lots of choices on a buffet and in a restaurant you can ask if they do a little change to the dish you want, to make it vegan. From what I experienced restaurants have always been really friendly when I asked them to leave one ingredient out to make it vegan.
Lunch and Dinner
On Tripadivisor you can filter for vegan / vegetarian restaurants and often you can even look at the menus (which I highly recommend making sure you will not end up with three falafel burgers in just one week like me). Another amazing way to find vegan restaurants is the page Happy Cow, which recommends lots of vegan restaurants and also gives some other great vegan travel tips. And lastly, I recommend you get some vegan food inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram before your travel. You can look for a destination there and find lots of pictures of the dishes, which will make it easier for you to decide if you will like to go there.
Book Wisely
If you prefer a plant-based diet you might feel more comfortable in a hostel or airbnb apartment, where you have a kitchen and can prepare your own meals.
If you are looking for a hotel I can really recommend Veggie Hotels.
Connect With Locals And Share Your Experiences
If you know that you will spend a longer while in a place than connect with some vegan locals. You can write them in advance over Instagram or you can meet up when you are there. You could write vegan travellers, that you know have been to the place and ask for their recommendations. The best is if you share your own experiences on the pages I recommended to you like HappyCow and Tripadvisor to make it easier for others to find good vegan options.
Make Sure There Is No Language Barrier
Even though most people speak English nowadays, it is better to not expect everyone to know what „vegan“ means. Better learn some phrases in advance like „I am not eating meat, fish, eggs, cheese, butter“ / „no animal products“ / „plant-based only“. If you learn some easy phrases it will be easier for you to communicate with locals and they also often react way more friendlier, when they see that you try to connect with them
My Travel Experiences
Last but not least I want to share some of my own experiences. Because of our current pandemic, I only travelled for a few weeks instead of half a year that I planned originally. Nevertheless, even in those few weeks, I struggled way more than I thought on finding vegan options. We often looked up vegan/vegetarian restaurants in advance, but there were not so many options in the places we visited (Central America). Finding a vegetarian option was not hard, but vegan didn’t really exist. One thing that really started to bother me was that in almost every single restaurant the only vegetarian option was a falafel burger. I mean they tasted good, but you don’t want to eat a burger every single day right? And for all of you who say: Hey just eat a salad. Just because I want to eat vegan doesn’t mean that I’m on a diet, okay?
I’m just as hungry as you are and especially on a travel journey I need energy. We were travelling with a backpack and hiking in national parks, so when it finally came to lunch or dinner time I was starving for food. Vegan dishes can be so delicious, but on our trip, the plates have been tiny and didn’t fill me up enough. I found it pretty hard to only eat vegan and had mainly vegetarian dishes. I guess that’s also good, as I’ve not been completely vegetarian before our trip. So my eating habits changed for the better, but I wish I could have accomplished my own challenge. I still hope that in the new future it will be easier to find vegan options so that more people can see the benefits of them and try them out.
Now let me know: Are you eating vegan?
Which struggles did you experience travelling and most importantly which tips can you give me for my next trip so that I can really stick to a plant-based diet?
77 comments
I’ve been vegan for five years 🙂 These are super helpful tips too, I know that when I first went vegan I didn’t realize that I could bring food on the airplane, but luckily my first year I didn’t travel much so it made it that when I did need to.
Wow 5 years – congratulation that is amazing!! 🙂
Oh yes it is so good to bring your own foods!
Planning ahead is very important. But’s it’s also hard during a holiday because you want to try new cuisines.
I really want to go on a food tour once the world is corona free.
Love this post!
xxx
http://ooomaye.com
Oh I love food tours!! Have fun 🙂
Thanks for this! It’s so hard for me to eat out. Normally, I will premake smoothies for breakfast and store them in my hotel’s fridge/freezer and bring fruits and veggies for snacks and then only eat out for dinner.
Thank Jennifer and by the way I LOVED your newest post!! 🙂
Liebe Tiziana, da wir eine Veganerin in der Familie haben und diese sehr viel im Ausland unterwegs sind, hat mich dieser Beitrag von dir natürlich besonders interessiert. In Wien haben wir ja eine richtige Hochburg an veganen Lokalen, sodass hier die Versorgung einfach ist – das sieht in anderen Städten oder Ländern ganz anders aus. In den meisten Punkten ist die Vorgehensweise ident mit deinen Beschreibungen, angefangen von der Vorabbuchung des Menüs für einen Flug bis zur Übernachtung in einem Appartement. Happy Cow haben wir mittlerweile alle als App auf den Handys installiert, um dann in der Fremde auch mal spontan im Umkreis eine veganes Lokal ermitteln zu können. Eigentlich war mein ursprünglicher Gedanke vor ihrem nun schon längeren Aufenthalt in Japan, dass es dort sicher ein Leichtes mit der Verpflegung sein wird. Ja, es gibt es eher weniger Fleischgerichte als bei uns, aber das Gemüse und selbst der Tofu werden dort vielfach in einem Fischsud zubereitet, sodass diese dann meist ausscheiden und wie du auch bereits angeführt hast, ist der Begriff „Vegan“ nicht überall bekannt, sodass man besser immer eine Erklärung dazu parat hat.
Hab einen wunderbaren Tag und alles Liebe
Hallo meine Liebe, oh ja du hast Recht in Wien gibt es so viele gute vegane Möglichkeiten. Ich habe auch das Gefühl, dass ich überwiegend österreichische Veganer/innen kenne 🙂
Das mit dem Fischsud wusste ich gar nicht, hätte auch vermutet, dass es in Japan leichter ist. Danke für den Tipp!! 🙂
I love this list! You are such a smart traveler!
-Ashley
Le Stylo Rouge
Thanks Ash!!!
Ich finde es super, dass du das so durchziehst! Ich esse selbst seit etwa 3 Wochen vegetarisch, also noch ganz „frisch“. Bisher vermisse ich Fleisch nicht, die vegetarischen Alternativen schmecken ganz genauso gut 🙂
Komplett vegan könnte ich glaube ich nicht, da ich Käse einfach liebe. Wobei es mittlerweile ja auch super leckeren veganen Käse gibt. Ich esse zwar Käse, trinke ab und zu Kuhmilch (wobei ich die auch ab und zu mit Mandel- oder Sojamilch ersetze), etc.- allerdings achten wir bei uns zuhause darauf, dass es Bioqualität ist bzw. aus bester Haltung. Da war meine Mutter schon immer dahinter, zum Glück! 🙂
Viele liebe Grüße,
Krissi von the marquise diamond
https://www.themarquisediamond.de/
Na das klingt doch klasse Krissi 🙂
Finde es gut sich da langsam ranzutasten und ich selbst bin auch nicht komplett vegan. Ich versuche einfach mich so gut und bewusst es geht zu ernähren. Wenn es mal nicht so klappt, dann verteufle ich mich aber auch nicht dafür. Kleine Schritte, machen auch schon einen entscheidenden Unterschied 🙂
Hi Tiziana,
toller Beitrag! Ich finde es super, dass du diese Tipps teilst. Tatsächlich esse ich ja erst seit Anfang diesen Jahres überwiegend vegan und hatte daher noch keine Möglichkeit, das auf Reisen zu „testen“ – obwohl ich mir durchaus denken kann, dass es je nach Reiseland sehr schwierig sein kann. Snack und eigene Verpflegung im Flugzeug war für mich schon immer Standard, weil ich das Essen oft eher so naja finde. Da mag ich meine eigenen Sachen lieber! Meine Meals habe ich immer Urlaub immer schon irgendwie mehr oder weniger im Voraus geplant, weil ich bei den Rundreisen, die ich ja meist machen, keine Lust hatte, noch soviel Zeit zu verplempern auf der Suche nach einem guten Bistro/Café/Restaurant.
Da meine erste Reise dieses Jahr vermutlich, wenn alle aktuellen Pläne gelingen, im September sein wird, werde ich mal schauen, wie ich das dann handhabe. Ich bin ja nicht strikt vegan und werde daher sicherlich ggf. auf vegetarisch umschwenken oder auch mal hier und da Fleisch essen. Allerdings jetzt, wo du das Wort „Challenge“ eingebracht hast, wäre es auch für mich eine Überlegung wert, mir selbst vorzunehmen, vielleicht max. 1-2 Mal Fleisch zu essen. Das ist definitiv etwas, worüber ich nachdenken werde.
Ganz viele Grüße!
Hi Vanessa, ja ich handhabe das wie du. Auf dem Weg zu einem vegane(re)n Leben, aber noch lange nicht perfekt! 🙂
Aber es muss ja auch gar nicht Fleischesser oder komplett vegan sein, auch erste Schritte zu einer bewussteren pflanzlichen Ernährung machen schon so einen Unterschied – sowohl für einen selbst, als auch für die Umwelt. Bin gespannt, wie du die Herausforderung im Urlaub wahrnimmst. Berichte mal 🙂
These sound like really great tips for those that are vegan, and are worrying about vegan choices when travelling xo
Makeup Muddle
Thanks!! 🙂
Hi Tiziana
What lovely tips you have compiled. True, finding vegan/vegetarian can be a hassle especially when we are travelling/hopping and jumping in and out with no much plan or preparation. These days planning a holiday itself is stressful with all the bookings/itinerary and food tops the priority as always. I appreciate your helpful tips, they can come handy. Thanks
Oh thank you yo much for your visit and your comment!! I totally agree 🙂
This is super interesting.
Such great types for any vegans.
Not everywhere but more and more restaurants add some vegan options and this is really nice.
xx
Margot
https://troughthepasturesofthesky.com
Hi Margot yes it’s so good to have the option to choose 🙂
What a great tip about Tripadvisor, I didn’t know you could filter that way! Thanks for sharing xx
Violethollow.com
Oh that`s cool!! 🙂
Planning ahead is very important, thanks for sharing you are a great trip advisor.
http://www.rakhshanda-chamberofbeauty.com/
Oh thank you so much!!
These tips are super useful! And I can totally see how vegan/vegetarian options can be scarce in places where the culture doesn’t widely practice then. I’m not vegetarian myself but I have travelled with vegetarians before, so I can only imagine how much more difficult it can be for vegans!
Thanks for your comment 🙂
These are such good tips 🙂 xx
Aww thank you! So sweet of you
SO impressive and organized. Vegan doesn’t look so bad.
XX Angelica
https://eraenvogue.com
Haha thanks 🙂
These are great tips! I am not vegan, but my friends are so I know how they struggle! When we went to Paris they struggled!
https://www.emilyclareskinner.com
Hi Emily oh thanks so much for your comment 🙂
I loved your tip about using the airlines website or app to pre-select a vegan option. Planning ahead really does pay off!
So true and thank you 🙂
These are some very good suggestions… thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much!! 🙂
A very interesting post. I am not a vegan, but I do care about the food I eat, balance all food groups in an almost keto diet. But when traveling I mostly encounter refined carbs everywhere. So your tips are really helpful for me too, as I need to plan in advance to avoid headaches and bloating.
Lindifique
Hi Natalia oh so cool I had some new tips for you 🙂
That really makes me happy!
When I was a vegan it was so difficult to travel anywhere. In those years it was hard to find any vegan places.
http://www.fashionradi.com
Hi Radi yes that’s exactly why I wanted to share my tips with you guys 🙂
Thanks for sharing these great tips! I am not vegan but trying to eat a more plant-based diet especially because I have a can who HAS to eat meat. Want to help keep that good balance in the world. I’ve been eating no-meat salad for dinner during this pandemic and I’m hooked! 🙂
Hi Lena, oh that sounds amazing!! I`m also not a complete vegan, but try to improve my eating habits as good as I can. I think even slow progress is a good one 🙂
All of these options look delicious! Also, I love the idea of planning beforehand and being prepared. That is key!! I find this with everything in life.
So true 🙂
Ah yes being a vegan is not easy. I could never pull this off I have too many health issues but I have had friends that are vegan and it can be challenging normally let alone traveling. Great tips here and good luck with this challenge!
Thanks Allie!! 🙂
Je nach Land ist es ganz schön schwierig sich ausschliesslich vegan zu ernähren. Eine gute Planung ist da wirklich wichtig. Obwohl ich die vegane Küche gerne mag, kann ich doch nicht ganz auf Fleisch, Fisch etc. verzichten. Liebste Grüsse
xx Simone
Little Glittery Box
Hi Simone das stimmt, in manchen Ländern findet man bislang nur sehr wenige vegane Optionen 🙂
These are great suggestions. Especially about communicating what vegan means to you. Everyone has different definitions!!
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Oh thank you Jodie!! 🙂
These are wonderful suggestions for vegans!
xoxo
Lovely
http://mynameislovely.com
Thanks!! 🙂
Great tips! As someone with a dairy allergy I have learned how to travel with restrictions to food. You’re so right about bringing your own snacks, especially on a plane. I also like to learn how to say dairy words like milk and butter in the native language I am traveling to.
https://honeycombee.com/
Yes that is really helpful 🙂
Thank you!
These traveling tips and tricks are amazing!
Nice Post! Have a great day!
Rampdiary
Beautyandfashionfreaks
Thanks so much!!
I really plan to go vegan but it’s kind of hard. Especially for lover of food as myself. I’m not saying vegan food isn’t delicious, in fact it is really yummy, but it is kind of expensive if you really want to experiment with meals. Anyhow, lovely post xx
http://www.beautiliciousd.blogspot.com
Maybe start with one vegan day per week, than when it feels normal go up to 3 days and so on. This can help to cut it down to one meat-day per week, whcih would already be a good progress 🙂
Don’t be too hard to yourself. It’s not about all or nothing, nor about being perfect. Little steps are already great
I’m not a vegan but I did find this post interesting. For months now I’ve told myself that one day I’ll cut meat out of my diet for a week to see how I feel after hearing such good feedback from others who have done it. Erm, I haven’t done it yet but posts like this are encouraging, Xo
Hi Biki haha so cool to encourage you to maybe try it for a couple of days 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing!
I‘m vegan since almost a year and this is so helpful!
Have a nice sunday
Juli
https://julispiration.com/
Oh that is great Juli!! 🙂
Such great tips! Thanks for sharing them
Gemma x
https://www.jacquardflower.uk
Thank you Gemma 🙂
It’s good you were able to find some ways to cater for your dietary requirements and that you could share that advice with others 🙂 it’s a shame it’s so hard to travel now!
Hope that you had a lovely weekend! 🙂 We had a nice day yesterday at the photo studio picking out some photos after our family photo shoot last week!
Hi Mica oh that sounds great 🙂
These are great tips for vegans! Eating is a huge part of traveling, and these tips make sure you can enjoy the trip to the fullest!
https://sundaydahlias.com
Oh yes trying out different foods is one of my fav things to do on a travel adventure 🙂
Liebe Tiziana, ich lebe schon mein halbes Leben lang vegetarisch und kann mir nicht vorstellen, jemals wieder Fleisch oder Fisch zu essen. Diese Überzeugung hat bei mir schon sehr früh begonnen. Eine rein vegane Lebensweise funktioniert bei mir aus gesundheitlichen Gründen nicht, aber ich bewundere jeden, der es schafft, das umzusetzen und reisen ist bestimmt nochmal eine besondere Challenge, deshalb sind deine Tipps bestimmt hilfreich. Tatsächlich setze ich einige dieser selbst für mich um. Da ich Flugzeugessen nicht besonders gut vertrage, habe ich sowieso immer meine eigene Verpflegung mit und ich liebe es, als Reisevorbereitung, mir vorher schon Restaurants rauszusuchen und diese dann zu testen. Ein wirklich toller Beitrag, der Lust aufs Reisen macht und ich kann es nicht mehr erwarten, endlich wieder einmal in einem Flugzeug zu sitzen. Liebe Tiziana, ich wünsche dir eine ganz fantastische Sommerwoche, alles, alles Liebe, x S.Mirli
https://www.mirlime.at
Hallo meine Liebe, vielen Dank für deine lieben Worte. Ich kann es auch gar nicht erwarten, bis wir endlich wieder reisen dürfen 🙂
Liebe Tiziana,
ich denke, in vielen Ländern wird es mittlerweile immer leichter, vegan oder zumindest vegetarisch zu essen, weil es inzwischen gerade unter jungen Menschen viele gibt, die ihre Ernährungsgewohnheiten auf „tierfrei“ umgestellt haben. Mein Mann und ich sind keine Veganer, auch keine Vegetarier, aber auch wenn mein Mann von der Fraktion „Fleisch ist mein Gemüse“ ist und ganz viele Gemüsesorten rundweg ablehnt, bauen immer wieder fleischlose oder vegane Gerichte in unseren Alltag ein. (Unser Hit dabei: veganes Süßkartoffelchili). Wobei ich mir über puren Veganismus durchaus so meine kritischen Gedanken mache: Für die vegane Partnerin eines Freundes haben wir versucht, Kekse zu finden. Es gab keine, die ohne Palmöl waren – und Palmöl (selbst „greengewashtes“ sogenanntes zertifiziertes) ist für die Zerstörung von so viel natürlichem Lebensraum verantwortlich… In den meisten veganen Margarinen, in veganer Wurst etc. – überall ist Palmöl drin. Alternativen zu Honig, Milchprodukten etc. kommen für gewöhnlich von weit her etc. Deshalb (und auch, weil wir veganen „Käse“ einfach furchtbar finden ;-)) werden mein Mann und ich wohl nie zu einer gänzlich veganen Lebensweise finden. Aber wir leben fast ausschließlich bio – und allein schon ds Einschieben von fleischlosen Tagen soll ja einiges bringen.
Komm gut in den September!
Alles Liebe,
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2020/08/aufregender-august.html
PS: Ich musste meinen Kommentar hier als „Antwort“ einsetzen, denn unten ist es mir nicht gelungen, die Fotos wegzubekommen, die über den Zeilen mit Name, E-Mail & co. liegen…
Thanks for this post. You wrote some really very important things that will help me plan my trip.
Hi Angelina oh that`s amazing!! 🙂
Oh, look so delicious!! Thank you for sharing<3
Have a great day dear.
https://www.rakhshanda-chamberofbeauty.com/
thanks for sharing!!
cool post!
http://www.itzytrendy.com/2020/08/femme-luxe-daniela-vela-makeup.html
Amazing! I know nothing about traveling all over the country, what a wonderful looking place to explore.