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.
Luke and I have been vegetarian travellers for almost four years now. I’ve been vegetarian for the past 12 years and Luke for 8 years. Being vegetarian is second nature to us and when we decided to move to Taiwan and embark on a life of slow travel, we never even considered reverting from our vegetarian lifestyle to fit in with our travel plans – something which we’ve heard other travellers have done for fear of missing out on local foods or to make life easier.
There have been some tough times finding vegetarian food while travelling, especially when you’re stuck in some random halfway town on a long bus journey, up a mountain in the middle of nowhere or a little bit picky about not just eating processed crap like me, but even in a beef-eating nation like Taiwan we found out about local veggie foods reasonably quickly and eventually found our way to incredible vegetarian places.
Now though, we want to really challenge ourselves.
We’ve been avid readers of vegan travel bloggers like Dale and Franca from AngloItalian, Sam and Zab from Indefinite Adventure and Amelia from Plant Powered Nomad since we started travel blogging, not to mention all of the awesome vegan and raw vegan travel bloggers who shared details of what they eat on the road with me earlier this year.
We know from these guys that vegan travel is not only possible but can also be healthy and delicious. In cities like Chiang Mai, eating vegan is an absolute breeze and loads of vegan expats radiate in that direction. The trouble is, Luke and I don’t want to pick out places or change our travel plans to fit in with our diet, so we want to know just how straightforward (or not) travelling as a vegan really is.
Our Vegan Travel Challenge
We are going to be vegan travellers for 31 days starting on 1st January 2016.
In 2015, 12,800 people took part in Veganuary and it’s expected that an incredible 50,000 are switching to vegan for Veganuary 2016. That means we’re not going to be eating any animal products whatsoever – no meat, fish, milk, yoghurt, cheese, eggs or honey.
We’ll be documenting and blogging about our vegan travel challenge along the way. During January, we’re going to:
- Post weekly blogs about how vegan travel is going (the struggles and the successes!)
- Keep everyone updated on our social media channels, including Facebook
- Highlighting any vegan places we discover on our travels
- Share vegan travel tips from our favourite vegan travel bloggers
What is it that we hope to find out on our vegan travel challenge? Here it is:
- How easy is it to travel as a vegan?
- Does travelling as a vegan affect your health?
- Is travelling as a vegan more expensive?
- Does being vegan mean you miss out on aspects of local culture?
- Does eating vegan negatively impact your experience of some countries?
We’re not total strangers to the vegan diet. While we do still maintain a vegetarian diet and eat a whole lot of yoghurt, a large portion of the food we cook is actually vegan. We love cooking mixed bean chilli, lentil bolognese, vegetable curries, chickpea tagines and a whole bunch of meals that just happen to be vegan anyway.
The biggest change for us isn’t going to be what we cook at home or at our accommodation, it’s going to be when we’re actually on the road. When we’re out exploring new cities we love to seek out veggie joints, but a lot of the time we just eat whatever vegetarian foods the locals are eating – and that nearly always means eating cheese and eggs.
We’re big believers in eating locally-sourced food while travelling and that’s not something that we want to sacrifice when travelling as vegans either. Is it possible? We hope so, but we won’t know for sure until we try it.
Where We’re Going
As slow travellers with very few time restraints to worry about and digital nomads who can work from anywhere in the world that has a decent internet connection, we don’t exactly know where we’re going to be during our month of vegan travel.
What we do know is that we’ll be starting off at our current home base in Brighton and then heading to mainland Europe. Luke has his heart set on skiing in Bulgaria but when we last checked there wasn’t enough snow, so maybe we’ll end up in Berlin, a city we’ve always wanted to see and one that is actually tipped to be a great vegan destination.
Got Any Advice for Us?
We’re excited to start our month of vegan travel and have read up on vegan travel tips, but we definitely have a lot to learn (and we know it!) and some reservations about the practicalities of travelling as vegans. If you’ve got any vegan travel tips or articles that you love about vegan travel, then we’d love to hear them so please leave a comment below and let us know.
Wendy@TheNomadicVegan
Yay!!! That’s so awesome Charlie. I’m being honest when I say that, for me, becoming vegan made travel better, not worse. Like, 100 times better! I have so many tips on vegan travel it’s hard to know where to start. Perhaps you’d like to check out my free ebook, 8 Steps for Fun and Easy Vegan Travel: http://www.thenomadicvegan.com/free-offer/
And as for whether vegans miss out on local food and culture, I address that question in this post on my blog: http://www.thenomadicvegan.com/why-vegan-travellers-arent-missing-out/
If you’re staying in Europe, then vegan travel should be a breeze. And if you really are going to Berlin, it will be a vegan culinary extravaganza. I went vegan while travelling in Greece, which turned out to be full of naturally vegan local dishes. I’m currently in southern Italy and am discovering new vegan local specialties every single day. If there’s anything you want to know, don’t hesitate to ask!
Charlie on Travel
Thanks for the support, Wendy! That’s really interesting to hear actually and definitely not something I’ve heard so much.
Amazing, thanks so much for linking your resources. The debate on whether vegans miss out on local food/culture is one that interests me a lot. I enjoyed your article and interestingly, as a vegetarian I have absolutely no qualms about it and I don’t think that it ever negatively impacts my experiences of local food/culture — but I also don’t have any desire to eat meat at all, so maybe that’s an influencing factor there.
However, I do feel that veganism might potentially the experience. Not because of the local food, which I think won’t be as issue really. But because I’m concerned that when we share meals with Couchsurfing / Airbnb hosts that we’ve only just met or meet new people anywhere when travelling, that we’d be putting them out and that might make it awkward? Perhaps you have some thoughts on this, or maybe it’s something I’m just overthinking?
Wendy@TheNomadicVegan
Hi Charlie, great questions! I’m sure that your lack of any desire to eat meat IS an influencing factor, and I’m also confident that, after a month of being vegan, and educating yourself (if you haven’t already done so) about the harm caused by eating animal secretions, you will be similarly turned off by eggs and dairy products.
The fear of hurting people’s feelings or making them feel awkward is something that holds a lot of people back from going fully vegan, so you’re not alone there. While I certainly don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them uncomfortable, when the choice is between hurt feelings vs. unnecessary torture, pain and killing, I’ll choose the former without hesitation. In practice, I find that most people we eat with are curious about our vegan lifestyle and ask lots of questions about what we eat, where we get our protein, etc. This provides great opportunities to spread awareness and influence others. I know it’s not always easy to stick out and be the one who’s different from everyone else, but if we want to make a difference, we have to do something different!
Charlie on Travel
Hi Wendy, thanks for coming back to me on them — really appreciate it!
I’ve read/watched a reasonable amount about it already, but I’m sure I’ll end up reading much more during January as well.
Yes, I certainly understand the comparison you’re making there, although I’m still more on the side that vegetarianism plus eating ethically/locally produced dairy and eggs already does a lot of alleviate that situation, though I realise that there are still people who would claim that’s not enough. It’s very difficult to be 100% sure where any animal products are coming from and how those animals are treated.
I like you’re end sentiment and definitely think you’re right about that.
Wendy@TheNomadicVegan
Yes, it is very difficult to know how the animals are really treated, and in most cases labels like “cage-free”, “free range” etc. mean next to nothing. I guess it depends on how you define “ethically produced” dairy and eggs, but I would go so far as to say there is no such thing. Certainly there is no such thing as slaughter-free animal agriculture, as all the cows and hens involved are sent to the slaughterhouse once their production drops to the point where keeping them alive is no longer profitable for the farmer. Not to mention all the male calves and chicks who are worthless to the industry and are therefore killed shortly after their birth.
I’m glad you like the line about making a difference; it’s actually a quote from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I highly recommend her podcast, Vegetarian Food for Thought. The Bite Size Vegan channel on You Tube is another great resource. This video, for example, provides great insight into the dairy industry: https://youtu.be/Xjbt3SV5ek8 There’s no graphic footage, but it’s heartbreaking nonetheless. And lastly, be sure to watch the film Cowspiracy if you haven’t already. Best of luck with the challenge!
Charlie on Travel
Thanks for the resources! I’m definitely going to check out that podcast.
I’m very aware of the points that you’re raising, which are particularly true of the UK’s animal agriculture system I know — and which has been a hugely influential factor in me deciding to go vegan this January. I do think that there is some differentiation to be made between dairy and eggs which are “farmed” / part of the industry and in other places where families have their own chickens for example – particularly thinking of a rural town where we house sat in Costa Rica where the chickens ran free with the dogs, cats and other animals and weren’t put to slaughter. If they laid eggs, then there were eggs and if there didn’t, then there weren’t. Admittedly, these cases are few and far between.
I enjoyed Cowspiracy, particularly as the environment is a very big reason why I decided to go vegan this January and why I already am vegetarian and limit my dairy consumption.
Emily
Great idea Charlie!
Like you, a lot of the meals I cooked in the UK were vegan by accident, but since travelling in Latin America, significantly more eggs, cheese and butter have been added to the mix – I even started eating a small amount of fish again, just so Andrew wouldn’t want to strangle every single time we wanted to eat out together.
I’ll definitely be following along with you from January to find out just how easy or difficult you find it!
Whilst I’m not looking forward to going home, I’m definitely looking forward to more food choices and a healthier way of life.
Charlie on Travel
Thanks Emily! I think it’s good to have a challenge.
Oh my, yes. In Central America the amount of eggs and cheese we ate was huge compared to when we’re in Asia, Europe or home in the UK. I think that without eggs and cheese, Central America would’ve been a nightmare and actually we would have ended up being really quite unhealthy. I think that being in Europe will probably make it an easier challenge, though I’m not sure about Eastern Europe (as we’re thinking about Bulgaria….)
When are you heading home? I felt the same about coming home — it’s lame not to be travelling and in the sunshine and seeing awesome new things, but food choices, deliciousness and healthy options are incredibly lovely.
Sam
Yay, congratulations! Thanks for the mention. If you guys do end up in Berlin (and we’re back from Asia by then) it’d be great to meet up! This month for me marks 2 years as a vegan, and I actually went form being an omnivore (who admittedly ate very little meat and no red meat at all) to being vegan, and didn’t find it hard at all, because, like you, I was pretty accidentally cooking vegan at home already. Anyway, enough about me. Looking forward to following your vegan journey and seeing how you get on!
Charlie on Travel
Thanks Sam! When are you back from Asia? I will definitely send you a message if we do end up in Berlin :)
Congratulations of 2 years of veganism! Yes, I think that home cooking isn’t at all going to phase me — actually what I’m worried about is the feeling of putting other people out or making it awkward for people we eat dinner / go out to dinner with. Our good friends from home of course won’t mind in the slightest but maybe with new people we meet abroad I wonder.
Katie Featherstone
Good luck guys!
Charlie on Travel
Thanks, Katie! :)
Katie @worldwidevegetarian.com
Great! I look forward to watching your journey. I am vegan, but ended up getting a bit back into dairy in India, mostly to accept the hospitality of my hosts, but it’s very possible to travel vegan, even in countries you think might not be so easy. I thought Greece was going to be a challenge when I first arrived, but I soon found many amazing vegan options and ate so many fresh, tasty meals. As for advice, use google. I always check out other blog posts or articles about vegan food before I go somewhere so I have an idea what to look for, and tricky hidden ingredients to watch out for. South East Asia is amazing for vegan food so you won’t have any problem. I can’t wait to see you future posts.
Katie
Charlie on Travel
Hey Katie, thanks! You’re the second person to say about Greece being a good country for vegans in the comments here — definitely not something that I expected to hear. Unfortunately we’re not in South East Asia (I wish we were!) but I’m sure that we’ll do okay in Europe too.
Sharon
Hi Charlie & Luke,
I love the comment from Wendy. ‘ if we want to make a difference, we have to do something different!’ This is so true.
Being Vegan for the month would certainly be easier when cooking from home, especially from scratch as you do.
I wish you luck and look forward to hearing about your experiences while travelling ……
Charlie on Travel
Yes, very true. We’re looking forward to the challenge!
vegansfirst
Thank you very much for this excellent post. I think it’s very possible to travel vegan, even in countries you think might not be so easy.