Maybe, if you are reading this you are vegetarian or vegan yourself and you struggle while traveling to eat healthy or even eat something at all, and it depends on where you are in the world but is often a hard task as a veggie to eat outside your comfort zone.
I am in Spain right now, in a small city, visiting my parents, and I am at the same time happy and sad because here the quality and variety of fresh food is in general better than in Germany, but if I want to eat anything that is not fresh food, like tofu or other sources of protein for vegans it will cost me half kidney. "Vegan food" in this part of Spain at least is very expensive and scarce. This change of ambient lead me to think about the plant based diet while traveling and how hard can be to adapt to this changes.
But I have a few tips for you, very easy to follow even in the strangest of countries.
1. Go simple and be healthier.
If you like me come from a country where plant based substitutes are very common you may be used to eat those basically every day, and by substitutes I mean tofu, seitan, plant based milk, and all of the dubious plant based alternatives for meat in the market. (Heura, Beyond meat, etc). So some times it can be hard to imagine our diet without them, we need to change our approach, eat fresh foods and look for new protein sources.
I have seen that in countries with a vast variety of fresh foods, vegetables, fruits and also legumes there is lesser variety of this plant based substitutes, but as I am saying, you have plenty of what you need already as fresh foods, you only need to research a little bit about the new ingredients and new recipes. For example, when I was in Peru, there were not plenty of this substitutes, but like other south American countries is rich in fresh vegetables and fruits of all kinds, and also other protein sources.
Before you go to a new country research a little bit about the diet there, what kind of alternatives you can find in the market and plan posible recipes ahead.
Pro tip: bring your own fork and Swiss knife to peel vegetables or eat other dishes.
2. Fast food is your Frenemy
Everyday more and more fast food restaurants are offering plant based alternatives. I am not going to dig into ethical things here, you can either take the advice or ditch it, that's your is call.
The truth is that famous fast food restaurants (we all know which ones) are now offering this alternatives, and the good thing is that this restaurants are almost all over the globe and very easy to find especially in city centers, comercial areas and can be also handy out of normal eating hours, because they are open 12 hours a day.
That being said I think this places can be used in case of an emergency, the meals are not super nutritious, and long term is not a healthy solution. Just keep them in mind if you find yourself in a situation where option A and B are not available.
3. Option A and B.
Now you are curious what are options A and B.
Well it depends on your kind of trip, maybe you are lucky and you can cook yourself during your trip, that is ideal because you control what you can eat, then this is your option A, option B would be to eat in a restaurant with nutritious plant based dishes. You can do some research before hand about the plant based culture in that area and find some restaurants you would like to try.
Pro tip: some kind of cuisines are more vegan friendly than others: asian in general has more plant based dishes, especially Indian cuisine. Look for this kind of restaurants if local cuisine fails.
Alt restaurants, like I like to call them, offer sometimes also alternative diet options. this one in Porto, Portugal.
4. Supermarket lunch
Find a local decent supermarket and buy some bread, (cheese if vegetarian) humus or peanut butter and add some vegetables of your choice or pair it with some fruit of natural smoothie. now you have a decent lunch or snack to keep up with your day.
pro tip: for food on the go, some supermarkets have a plant based section where you can find bread spreads to make quick sandwiches.
5. Don't always look for the vegan/vegetarian symbol.
I know that this symbols are very handy, more even in a country where you don't understand the language but sometimes you can overlook plant based products that don't have this symbol, like Oreos and some brands of margarine for example. Even in restaurants this symbol is sometimes overlooked.
Pro tip: use google translator camera tool to translate labels/menus in real time.
6. Always bring snacks with you.
Because sometimes is hard to find a place to eat, and you can spend a lot of time looking in menu restaurants it is a good idea to bring with you some dried fruit, peanuts, almonds, etc or even a sandwich if you can prepare something ahead of time.
7. Be flexible and ask for flexibility.
I think the key is to be flexible and have options, because let's just say what is obvious: a vegan diet can be sometimes very restrictive, more when you travel. But you don't have always to make the sacrifice, there is no harm in asking in restaurants if they can adapt some dishes to be veggie. In very touristy places with a lot of concurrence they will be most of the times ok with that, for them it means only to avoid some ingredients.
8. Bring your supplements or start using one.
Supplements are very common amidst vegans and vegetarians, especially woman and people into sports or fitness, multivitamin tablets are very common and easy to take and have no side effects, just choose a brand you can trust (I use Solgar) supplements will help you in a long trip where you may not reach the minimum daily required of some vitamins and minerals, especially iron and B12.
9. Research the local cuisines.
Research the ingredients of the local dishes of your destination, maybe you find some main dishes or deserts that are plant based, this will be very easy to find in local restaurants.
tortilla de patata (potato omelet) is a vegetarian dish with no dairy. Just go for the traditional version (potato, eggs, and onions)
Berlin offers its traditional currywursts in a vegan option.
