Vegan Travel (2/2): Tips and Experiences

If you are going to spend a day at a zoo, you are not doing another activity during that time. In short, rather than seeing veganism as a limitation, you should see it as a vote, another field of possibilities.

I know, it's not necessarily pleasant to read all of this. So let's move on to the more positive aspect of this article, with the application of veganism in our travels of the past year.

Yes, you can continue to be vegan, even while traveling! It's true that it isn't as easy as when you are at home, with your products and kitchen to prepare vegan dishes. And of course, it's easier to be vegan while traveling in some countries than others, and it's easier in major cities where the options are often more plentiful than in small villages... But nevertheless, it is entirely possible!

In the past year, we traveled to Japan (twice!), Chile (Santiago, Pichilemu, and Patagonia), Antarctica, Polynesia, Spain, France, Ireland, Germany, and Sweden. And this doesn't even count layovers at airports along the way: USA (Los Angeles and Miami), United Kingdom (London), Spain (Madrid), and Switzerland (Zurich). Here is our feedback from these travels.

Eating vegan while traveling, I was worried it would be limited to snacking on the food I brought with me and resorting to international fast food, like vegan burgers. But I was quickly reassured: thankfully, this stereotype did not materialize.

Even though I always take food with me and occasionally we eat internationally-inspired vegan dishes, we also had the pleasure of tasting typical local cuisine. For example, in Japan, we discovered new dishes and flavors during these last two trips-flavors we hadn't tried during our first two.

Of course, there were more complicated moments. For example, on the small roads during our road trip in Germany, at Madrid airport where serrano ham and cheese were ubiquitous, or in a small village in Japan. But even in those cases, we found a solution. Snacking on our reserves, asking for the removal of P.O.A. from certain dishes...

Our travels during the past year were relatively short trips, lasting a maximum of two weeks. In long-term travel, the question of health and thus dietary balance becomes more pressing. And I know it's one of your concerns, based on the comments received under the previous article. We don't have that experience yet, but the testimonies I find online align with my intuitions. In long-term travel, you can visit local markets and stock up on fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts... and occasionally choose accommodations that allow for cooking. Personally, and I've believed this forever, after weeks of eating out, we're always happy to have the option to cook something simple for ourselves and to settle down more in a place we like with a stay that's a bit less ephemeral.

Since veganism goes beyond food, here's a point not to forget before embarking on a trip: what you bring with you! This relates not only to the materials of your gear (clothing, bags, shoes...), but also to the health and beauty products you carry, such as sunscreen or lip balm (I already discussed this in my article traveling as a woman).

It's up to you to do the work of reading labels a little more closely to know exactly what you are buying, what your purchase of gear implies. There are, alongside alternatives without animal components in classic brands, brands labeled as vegan. It's up to you to see where your preference lies according to your criteria.

Ideally, consuming vegan while traveling also applies to accommodation and transportation: no feather pillows, leather seats... This dimension is clearly more difficult to master, and we often demonstrate some letting go in this area. But, good news, there are websites that list > accommodations. I talk about this more below in the tips section.

Choosing your activities with vegan values in mind means asking the question: does this activity respect animals and their environment? Are these animals exploited or mistreated?

Some activities are thus quite obvious to boycott, such as riding elephants. Or participating in activities that involve animals, like fights, circuses, zoos, and other carriage rides. For others, a deeper investigation is needed: is observing this animal in its natural environment harmful for both it and its surroundings?

Before leaving or once on-site (depending on personal style!), it is useful to scout out restaurants, activities, or hotels.

There are more and more resources to help you, such as websites like Veggie Hotels, which lists hotels and guesthouses managed in a vegetarian and/or vegan manner. We were able to try one during our trip to Germany and enjoyed the experience immensely.

And there's also a myriad of smartphone apps, our favorite being Happy Cow. It allows you to search by location and theme: vegetarian or vegan restaurant, store selling veggie products... It's very useful and fairly well-developed in many countries. And when we go to a restaurant listed as vegan-friendly on TripAdvisor but not present on Happy Cow, we always show the app to the staff.

How can you balance scouting, and thus preparation, with improvisation? We always enjoy improvising when we're on the road and often decide on the morning of or the night before what we will do that day. For example, in Kyoto (a true paradise for vegans), we looked in the morning at the sites we wanted to visit and the restaurants we wanted to try to sketch an itinerary.

When booking your flight, you can specify if you would like a specific meal. Don't forget to do this at least 24 hours before departure.

You will then receive meals labeled >. The > is for vegetarians. For the record, many airlines serve these meals first on the plane.

I never travel without a supply of food in my bag, and I've done so for as long as I can remember. I continue with this habit, now adapting my reserves to my vegan diet: nuts, granola bars... and always chocolate!

What I love to do the night before taking the plane is prepare cookies, a cake, or little muffins to eat at the airport and on the plane. Because while airlines now offer vegan menus, they generally forget to adapt the snacks.

Veganism is an important part of our lives, as you can see from these lines. But it has happened, through lack of luck, vigilance, or prevention... that we made a slip, whether intentional or not. In one year and 10 trips, I think the only slips we've made were a pre-buttered sandwich at an airport (unknowingly) and a broth in Japan made with fish (due to a lack of alternatives). When we face the choice of skipping a meal or going against our values, we often preferred to snack or delay the meal (and move the next meal forward).

At the moment, managing these breaches of our choice to be vegan hasn't been easy; a feeling of shame sweeps over us. However, feeling guilty does not help. It is better to put things in perspective and especially to learn lessons to avoid it happening again. Guilt can lead to a vicious cycle of self-deprecation, with the risk of ultimately weakening one's conviction and/or self-confidence to live in accordance with one's values. It's better to focus on your goal and the values that support it than on moments of imperfection.

Before you leave, learn how to say in the language of the country you're visiting >. Or save this phrase somewhere on your phone to show when you're at the restaurant.

There are also ready-made resources to help you daily. Such as the book Vegan Passport (created by The Vegan Society). It contains an explanation of veganism in 79 different languages, as well as drawings at the end of the book for a more visual explanation. Or the site IVU, which provides translations of various useful phrases for restaurants.

And of course, there are smartphone apps to translate or provide a visual basis for conversation, like Veggie Pass.

Other apps can also be useful, whether in the first few weeks of adapting to a vegan lifestyle or when stepping outside your daily life. For example, the Vegan Pocket or Vegan Scanner apps, which allow you to scan a product in a store to know if it's vegan or not.

And finally, don't hesitate to install Google Translate on your smartphone. It was very useful for us in Japan, to analyze texts, whether in restaurant menus or lists of ingredients on packaging in stores. It can translate live from Japanese to English, and also does quite well via a photo when translating into French.

More and more travel agencies and vegan tourism companies are emerging. Don't hesitate to inquire while preparing your trips if you wish to go on an organized tour.

And while on-site, also ask about local agencies with which you will engage for certain activities, like a boat tour or a 4X4 to see animals. Do they feed the animals? Do they pick up their waste? Do they have rules regarding distances to respect and not trying to touch the animals? Even if not all agencies have respect for nature and animals in mind, simply asking these questions to local agencies can initiate a change in mentalities.

We thus had two very different experiences during our trip to French Polynesia, despite both boat tours appearing similar on paper. The first, in Bora Bora, was an ethical horror (due to our lack of preparation before participating in that tour), and the second, in Moorea, was a true pleasure... and a real relief!

Because sometimes images speak louder than words, here's a small selection of our culinary discoveries around the world this past year.

Veganism while traveling is not science fiction nor a restriction that prevents enjoying your trip. Putting aside veganism for the duration of your travels would be like pressing pause on our convictions and values: it wouldn't make sense for us. All the more so since our values, such as compassion and kindness, we enjoy living more intensely while traveling, through our choices and encounters.

I hope this article has answered your questions and/or helped you distance yourself from certain misconceptions. If you still have questions or feedback from your experiences, feel free to share them with me in the comments; I would be happy to respond!