The Traveling Vegan

Eating Around the World

By Louise Harmon

We recently enjoyed a wonderful 23-day vacation visiting Norway, Scotland, Ireland, England and Iceland. Our travel group included my husband (an omnivore), my son and his partner, Beth (both vegetarians), and me, a vegan. My son and I are also gluten-intolerant. We traveled by plane, cruise ship, car and foot. During the 11 days we were aboard our cruise ship, breakfasts and dinners aligning with our dietary needs were provided for us. However, when we were in port and needed something to eat, or traveling through countries on our own, how did we manage to find food that worked with all our specific dietary needs? In one word: Beth!

Beth has traveled extensively both for work and for pleasure, and is the consummate planner when it comes to finding great places to eat. Although I knew from a previous trip that Beth researched places where we could all enjoy a good meal before we left, I had no real idea of just how much work she put into planning. Beth always made it look so simple. She would whip out her phone, pull up Google Maps and bingo…there was one of her flags indicating a great place to eat.

I asked Beth for some pointers. What were her secrets to successfully finding such good food that worked for everyone? Here are some of her tips:

1. Start planning early. Make a list of all the cities and towns you are planning to visit. Then, methodically, one by one, look for places to eat. Beth starts with Happy Cow—a website/mobile app which lists vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants around the globe.

Make sure to choose several options, as restaurants sometimes change management and menus, or go out of business.

2. After making a list of places to eat, check each one of them thoroughly using other online sources. Beth looks for reviews by Yelp and Google to ensure that the restaurants truly do have vegan/gluten-free options. I was disappointed earlier this year when a restaurant listed on Happy Cow with vegan options didn’t have anything I could eat. We discovered this after driving a long time and I was ready to face-plant from hunger. Lesson learned: Do your homework by checking, then checking again, then… check one more time.

3. Beth keeps track of all of her restaurant finds by placing pins on Google Maps in the towns she will be visiting. The great part about vetting multiple eating places is that you always have options if a place is unexpectedly closed or inaccessible for other reasons.

4. Don’t overlook local grocery stores. We stayed in several Airbnbs which had kitchens (Note: Not all Airbnbs in Europe have microwaves, so read the description of where you will be staying carefully). To save time and money, we usually ate breakfast where we stayed. We were able to find fruit and yogurt (both dairy and plant-based varieties) in every city we visited. Some had prepackaged ready-to-heat meals in the freezer section, but this was less common. Unable to read the language? Google Translate was great at helping us decipher ingredients. Simply choose the language you are translating from at the bottom of the screen, then choose ‘camera,’ hold your phone up to what you would like translated, and voila!

Some of the small local coffee shops also had tasty vegan and gluten-free breakfast options.

5. Keep an open mind and have fun. Did you have a meal that was disappointing? It happens. Don’t dwell on it. Never tasted food from a certain culture or country before, but the restaurant lists vegan options? Go for it! You never know what you will discover. My husband never had Ethiopian food, but was amazed at how good it was, and is now looking forward to trying it again.

6. Pack a small supply of snacks with you. Think of foods high in protein with good carbs which will sustain you in a pinch. My favorites are LÄRABARs (they are vegan and gluten-free) and roasted soy nuts (high in protein). Beth packs an assortment of nuts. All these snacks travel well.

7. Do your part. Did you find a gem of a restaurant not listed on Happy Cow? Did one of the listed restaurants not offer the vegan or vegetarian options supposedly available? Add a review so other travelers can benefit from your experience. Also consider writing reviews for Yelp and Google. Spread the word!

Thanks to all of Beth’s hard work, we enjoyed a great eating experience while traveling.

Thank you so much, Beth!