Road trips, airline travel, foreign cuisines–vegan living isn’t always easy when you’re traveling. It can be tough to find places, stores and restaurants to accommodate the vegan lifestyle, even though plant-powered eating is on the rise globally. But there’s no need to get caught miles away from home between a rock and a hangry place.
Here are some simple hacks to making traveling at home and abroad easier as a vegan. For starters…
Do your research.
If you don’t want to get stuck eating Mcdonald’s french fries the majority of the trip, use the internet to your advantage. Find out ahead of time what the food scene looks like at your destination with a little Googling. Take note of promising restaurants and, with any luck, you’ll find a couple vegan/vegetarian eateries. There are a handful of really great apps, like Happy Cow, Vanilla Bean and AirVegan that can show you the path to the nearest plant-power practically anywhere in the world.
Pack lots of snacks.
If you’re headed somewhere where you know veggies and vegan staples will be hard to come by, pack a hefty snack stash. And I mean hefty. On my recent flight to Paris, I burned through my entire snack stash during the flight! Be sure to keep snacks specifically for when you arrive. That way, if you are traveling with non-vegans and the only vegan thing you can find on a menu is a side salad, you’ll be set up with all the seeds, seaweed, dried chickpeas and carrots you need to keep you well-fed and satisfied.
Grow food on the road.
Every time I travel I grow my own food. I have this indestructible little hemp sprout bag that I fill with sprouting-specific seeds and start growing once I am en route/off the plane. Sprouts take anywhere between 3 and 6 days to grow, meaning you can have garden-fresh veggies literally while you’re on the road. I’m currently at a hotel in Berlin with 3 big bags of broccoli sprouts drip-drying in my shower. Take that, bratwurst.
Know potential problem foods.
Every cuisine has potential problem foods to be aware of. In Italian restaurants, it’s important to ask about hidden dairy or anchovies. In Thai restaurants, you have to be on the lookout for hidden fish sauce. The best way to keep things vegan is to know how to ask for what you need.If you are traveling to a foreign location, learn a few key phrases to make sure your food is vegan/vegetarian when dining out. Wish there were an app for that? There is! You can now buy the Vegan Passport as a physical book or an app, which contains vegan phrases and photos in 79 languages to make sure you are able to communicate your dietary needs all over the globe.
If traveling on your home turf, politely let your host or hotel know your dietary restrictions in advance, or ask them where the nearest health store can be found to buy ingredients. It’s better that everyone knows to prepare vegan options in advance so that there aren’t any impromptu pulled pork sandwich feasts planned without alternatives. However, if you don’t want to make a fuss, vegan alternatives are pretty widespread. There is no need to stress.
Opt for AirBnB over a hotel.
The upside of AirBnBs? They come with a functioning kitchen. Not only does this mean you can save some cash by preparing a meal or two at home each day, but this means you can prepare vegan meals to nourish your body without stress. Any basic grocery store will have an assortment of basic veggies, so making a stir-fry at the very least should be easy to accomplish.
Pack vegan toiletries.
Don’t assume that cruelty-free toiletries will be easy to come by. Pack a travel-size kit of all your necessities so that you can feel good about supporting companies who care.
Traveling as a vegan doesn’t have to be a challenge or a source of stress. It takes a little extra awareness, but being vegan doesn’t have to burden your vacations.
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