Author: Charlie Marchant

Vegan Travel Breakfast in Macedonia

Our Vegan Travel Challenge Has Ended, Here’s What We Learned

This January, we took up a 31-day vegan travel challenge as part of Veganuary. We kicked off our vegan challenge in Luke’s home town of Brighton before travelling vegan in Bulgaria and then Macedonia.

True to our word, we didn’t change our travel plans to fit in with our new vegan lifestyle, but instead took unplanned trips to wherever we chose. While Bulgaria and Macedonia certainly aren’t the most vegan friendly countries in the world, we learned a lot from our vegan travel experiences there.

6 mins read
Vegetarian cooking at Thai Farm Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

Never Try, Never Know! Thai Farm Cooking Class in Chiang Mai (+ Vegetarian Green Thai Curry Recipe)

“Never try, never know,” rang out the cheery voice of our Thai farm cooking class teacher Benny. She was waving around fresh herbs and spicy roots from the organic garden attached to the cooking school and encouraging us to bite into galangal roots, lemongrass stalks and strong smelling leaves. Luke and I did so without protest, though not everyone in our cooking class was so adventurous – and with good reason, some of those raw roots packed a real punch.

6 mins read
Vegan in Plovdiv at BeFresh Bio

Where to Eat Vegan in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

There was only one place to eat vegan in Plovdiv listed on HappyCow, but after a less than satisfying time being vegan in Bansko for almost a week, I was so excited to be heading to somewhere where eating vegan just might be even slightly better for our third week of Veganuary.

Travelling vegan in Plovdiv turned out to be quite a delight! After a lot of research and some false leads, it turns out that Plovdiv has not one but three vegan restaurants and a number of places with vegetarian and vegan options and even whole vegan menus.

8 mins read

Breaking Through & Travelling Vegan in Macedonia (Vegan Travel Challenge Week #4)

After a trying week #3 of Veganuary, you might be expecting me to say that week #4 was even more dire. It wasn’t. It was better, because we’ve just got used to it.

It feels like we’ve broken through a wall to a stage of indifference about dairy products this week. We’re not bothered that there’s no cheese, yoghurt, or eggs in our diet. Physically we feel very much the same as we did as when we were vegetarians.

We’re still travelling, hiking, exploring cities and working remotely with just as much energy.

6 mins read

Vegetarian and Vegan in Bansko, Bulgaria

Travelling vegan in Bansko was the most difficult part of our 31-day vegan travel challenge while we were in Bulgaria. We loved our escapades as vegans in Sofia, which turned out to be a much more vegetarian and vegan-friendly city than we had expected, but just 170km away in Bansko things were very different.

Bansko is a Bulgarian mountain town and a popular ski destination. It’s not known for being a veg-friendly travel destination — because it’s just not, but there was no way that our veganism was going to stop us from learning to ski in Bansko this trip. So we braved the cold and snow in search of places to eat vegan in Bansko.

6 mins read

A Very Hungry Veganuary (Vegan Travel Challenge Week #3)

I’d like to say that week #3 of our vegan travel challenge was as veggieful and exciting as weeks #1 and #2 of Veganuary, but it wouldn’t be true. Week #3 has been rammed with challenges, from trying to be more confident about saying we’re vegan to crazy cheese cravings. Actually, I was craving cheese like it was the end of the world.

6 mins read
Banitsas Vegan in Bulgaria

Vegan in Bulgaria (Vegan Travel Challenge Week #2)

We’re halfway through our 31-day vegan travel challenge this Veganuary, and still going! Last weekend we flew out to Bulgaria, not a country known for it’s vegan cuisine, but so far we’ve been pleasantly surprised about how well being vegan in Bulgaria has gone.

Our second week of travelling vegan has been… more challenging. After an easy transition into veganism in Luke’s home town of Brighton during week 1, finally getting on the road and travelling in Bulgaria has meant that being vegan hasn’t been such smooth sailing.

7 mins read

Vegan Travel Bloggers Share their Favourite Travel Destinations

As our 30 day vegan travel challenge has gotten well under way, I decided to ask a bunch of my favourite vegan travel bloggers to share their favourite vegan travel destinations with me. I was surprised to find their top vegan travel destinations span all over, from Kuala Lumpur to Iceland, and Texas to Rome.

Luke and I never pick the countries we travel to based on our dietary requirements because if we’ve learned anything from travelling, it’s that there’s always something awesome to be discovered. But there’s no arguing that being vegan means that food is much harder to play by ear, so I was interested to hear about all the places that really shone our to vegan travellers as the best.

Careful, your stomach is about to start growling…

11 mins read

Granada, Spain – Travel Guide

Arabic architecture, Middle Eastern food, cave houses, snow-capped mountains, free tapas with every glass of wine… The more we heard, the more irresistible the idea of visiting Granada became. So we abandoned our winter sun chasing in Seville and booked ourselves a cheap ticket on board the next bus to the mountainous town of Granada.

6 mins read

Why We’re Travelling Vegan This January (and Where We’re Going)

As someone who would gladly eat cheese and eggs three times a day, Luke is going to find veganism tough – but never one to turn down a challenge and an admirable boyfriend as ever, he’s committed to joining me for 30 days of vegan travel.

Inspired by fellow vegan travel bloggers Dale and Franca who went vegan last year for “Veganuary,” Luke and I are making the switch and will be travelling vegan for the month of January.

Are we going to make it? We’re pretty determined that we will. Will a life of vegan travel be for us? We don’t know.

5 mins read

Teaching in Taiwan: An Interview with Teacher Tanya

Teaching in Taiwan is something I often get asked about by people who are thinking about making the move and starting a new career on the island. What I always emphasise is that everyone’s experience of teaching in Taiwan is different – variables such as school and branch, workload, location, personality and whether you’re going solo or as a couple can be make or break. I’m interviewing different teachers in Taiwan to find out their thoughts on island life, ESL teaching and travelling. This interview is part of the Teaching in Taiwan series.

11 mins read