Why it’s Good to Travel as a Vegan
Being a vegan is already pretty cool but when you hit the road and go travelling, whether it’s backpacking in Asia, going on a weekend mini-break or checking into a 5 star hotel for some high-end vegan luxury; you become a vegan traveller and that’s even better.
Here are 3 reasons why it’s good to travel as a vegan:
1 – You Get To Eat Really Tasty Vegan Food
When you are on the road there are loads of exciting opportunities to eat the best vegan food that you won’t find easily at home. Think Balinese tempe satay, Southern Indian dosas, Thai curries, noodles and salads that are so fresh and delicious it’ll make you want to cry.
Vegan ‘laab tofu’ in Thailand: spicy salad of chopped tofu, fresh chillies, red onion, roasted rice, lime and coriander
In every country we’ve travelled to we’ve always managed to find the best vegan food. Sometimes local food is naturally vegan like sweet Malaysian ‘kuih’ made from rice flour and coconut, other times it can be ‘veganised’ with a little bit of effort. Plus, there are always vegan and vegetarian restaurants to discover which is our all-time favourite form of sightseeing.
Slightly chewy on the outside with an explosion of runny, treacly like palm sugar in the middle; we can’t resist eating ‘ondeh-ondeh’ when we find them
Imagine being in Spain sitting in the local town square, sipping a teeny-tiny strong black coffee accompanied by some fresh ‘pan con tomate’ drizzled in olive oil for your breakfast as you watch the world go by.
‘Pan con tomate’: simple but wonderful – crispy fresh bread topped with ripe tomatoes, olive oil and salt
Or discover the delights of vegan street food in a lively local Thai night market where the smells, sounds and sights will swallow you up.
Imagine a huge feast of curry served on a banana leaf where they keep topping up your leaf from stainless steel buckets until you’re full.
Every vegan’s friend in Malaysia – a banana leaf piled high with tasty, spicy curries which is topped up until you’re full
And when the executive chef of a 5 star hotel makes you a personalised vegan menu so you get to sample vegan fine dining your travels?
Delicious quinoa salad with barley, herbs and citrus fruits
These are things our vegan travel dreams are made of.
2 – You Get To Spread The Word About Being Vegan
We’re not talking about getting on your soapbox here, let’s face it, that tends to put most people off considering the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. The fact is, when you take up the opportunity to travel you will come into contact with a lot of new people and by a lot, we mean loads; the majority of whom will not be vegans.
In fact, the longer you travel, the more people you’ll meet. Just by being yourself with all these new people, you’ll be spreading the word about being vegan. Being a happy, healthy and just downright nice person is the greatest advert for veganism that we have ever come across.
Vegan travel is delightful!
How good is that? Just by being yourself and getting out there meeting new people, you are also demonstrating that it would be easy for everyone to live a more compassionate lifestyle. You can show people it’s possible and that being a vegan doesn’t turn you into a complete idiot (unless you are an idiot already of course and then even going travelling won’t save you).
3 – It’s A Real Achievement
When you travel you get to have the most amazing experiences and adventures. When you travel as a vegan, you have extra obstacles to overcome. If you want to eat well you’ll have to navigate your way through language barriers and across new cultural landscapes.
You’ll have to survive the times when you’re hungry and tired from travelling and there is no vegan food to be found. You’ll have to hone your planning skills to make sure you eat well and stay healthy when you’re in all these new environments.
It can be hard to turn down home cooked food from the family you’re staying with or decline the offer of something to eat from someone who wants to share a bit of their culture with you but if you can do this without offending anyone and convey appreciation for their offer then you’re on your way to success.
When you do this all of this as a vegan traveller it’s a real achievement and you should reward yourself with a big slice of vegan cake whenever you can.
Delicious and divine raw lemon cake found in Thailand.
Great post! We have been travelling as vegans for almost 3 years now and although at times (especially when we are tired from a long travel day) it can be hard to travel as vegans, we embrace the challenges. It also makes for some funny stories, especially where communication is involved.
As you mentioned in your post, one of the nice things about travelling as a vegan is showing others that it can be done. Locals in some areas of the world have never heard of veganism and it’s great to expose them to that. We are used to be the odd ducks in the crowd too because we are lesbian and often find ourselves facing surprised people, who again, have never heard of lesbianism, which of course also makes for some great conversations.
Thank you so much for this post and for your blog, which makes it even easier to travel as vegans. 🙂
Aw thanks you two! Your words of support and thanks mean a lot coming from two fellow vegan travellers! Keep embracing those challenges and letting us know about them so we can take inspiration from you too. I was looking at your blog the other day – reading a post about the Philippines – now that seems like a trip that was a challenge, but you did it! Proving, just like us, that vegan travel is not only possible but also a whole lot of fun.
Happy Vegan Travels 🙂
These reasons are all valid! We’ve been celebrating one year of being vegan and travelling at the same time only few days ago, I’ve never thought I could have manged to do so, but it’s incredible to see that it can be done and it’s not that difficult at all! 🙂
Oh Happy 1 Year Vegan Birthday! Not only have you done it, but you’ve done it in style Franca – I love reading about all the vegan food discoveries you’ve made as you travelled. Sure there are some challenges but on the whole I find it’s really enhanced our travel experience. It’s given us a new reason to meet up with people too which is great, we’re making vegan friends all around the world now 🙂