Traveling as a Vegan

Being a vegan can be a great thing, you know you're making moral choices, healthier choices (hopefully!) but it can also be made very frustrating by the people you come in contact with. This is never more true than when you're traveling, having to find new suitable foods, restaurants to eat in and having to explain in a language you don't speak what you can and cannot eat. Since the vegan diet is still such a marginal concept around the world, finding food suitable for consumption can make vegan travel a difficult task but with a bit of planning and some tips not an impossible one by anyone's standards.
1)The first thing to do if you're booking into hotels,lodges or even staying with friends is to let them know when you book that you're vegan, explain exactly what this means as not everyone knows (more don't than do), give them some examples of foods you can eat (keep it simple, not sending them hunting for tofu in the middle of Namibia). Even when you do all this you may still end up with a limp plate of lettuce thus leading me onto point 2, bring snacks.
2) Depending where you're traveling to it may be a good idea to bring some healthy snacks. trail mix,larabars, soya jerky, whatever it is that you enjoy and that should one night you find yourself stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothwhere to eat but KFC you have food!
3)Bring a vegan passport (, this handy little thing has vegan (and the definition) written in 56 languages.
4) Look up the places in advance, see if there are any vegetarian/vegan restaurant, health food shops, what the staple food is (is it vegan) and are there any "hidden" ingredients in the local food e.g. ghee butter in India.
Good link: http://veganbackpacker.com/travel-guide/
Category:Culture
Category:Culture