Vegan Food and Travel
(includes vegan travel maps)
We have eaten a plant-based diet for 4 years and love every second of it! We made the decision to eat plant-based after realising how much we love animals, researching the food industry and reading about the benefits of a vegan diet.
We are not “militant” vegans and never question our friends and families’ dietary choices, but we are always open to a discussion about the benefits of our food choices. If we are on a trip with meat eaters or vegetarians, we will always aim to find a place where we can all be catered for. However, we wouldn’t stop them from eating somewhere they wanted to try that didn't have vegan options. We will always find another place to go!
Contrary to popular belief, vegan options are not “rabbit food” and boring and bland, and not all “mock meat”. In our day-to-day diet, we cook varied meals and get the occasional takeaway. When we are travelling, we look to cheap eateries, perhaps a nice restaurant or two as a treat, as well as looking in local supermarkets for food we can cook at our place of stay.
Plant-based options are becoming more prevalent and easy to find but that doesn’t mean you will find them on every street when travelling. This guide aims to help you plan vegan options for your future trips (whether you are vegan or just fancy some plant-based options!)
Contents:
Ibiza
Corfu
Sri Lanka (South & Colombo)
Lincoln, UK
Nottingham, UK
Birmingham, UK
Our Favourite Country for Vegan Food
Whilst vegan food is on the rise and there are options almost everywhere, there are some locations where it comes naturally - quite literally.
Sri Lanka:
70% of the island's population is Buddhist. Buddhism teaches us to love and respect animals and prohibits killing and eating them. As a result, Sri Lankan food is vegetarian by default, especially the delicious curries they offer. You may have to check whether the dish contains milk or eggs for it to be plant-based, but we never had issues finding fully vegan food in Sri Lanka.
3 different curries, bhaji, rice and poppadoms in traditional Sri Lankan cooking restaurant (featured on our Sri Lanka map)
Our favourite “go-to” meal is a Dhal. It consists of lentils, coconut milk and various spices and herbs (don’t worry if you don’t like coconut flavour, the spices will overpower it). Here is an easy recipe if you want to try it yourself.
Sri Lanka also has an abundance of fresh fruit, some of the highest quality we have ever tasted due to the climate. A quick and cheap refreshment is a King Coconut! They are sold everywhere- on the side of the street, in restaurants, bars and markets. We can only describe the taste as the freshest fruit juice you’ve ever tasted… it tastes nothing like coconut. It has many nutritional values, it’s super hydrating in the heat and can even be used to treat wounds due to its sterile nature.
Carl with a King Coconut!
How do we find vegan restaurants?
It’s not always easy to stumble across vegan restaurants. You can't walk into a restaurant expecting plant-based options on the menu - yet! You know that feeling when you are on holiday/vacation and have been exploring for hours, or you’ve spent the day at the beach, and you don’t fancy walking around for ages trying to find somewhere to eat? That’s where the Happy Cow app comes in handy.
Happy Cow is a fantastic app for vegans and vegetarians. It works the same way as Google maps: put in your location and it will bring up a selection of restaurants in the area with colour coding for whether they are “fully vegan” “vegetarian” or “options available”. From here you can click on each restaurant and find more information, including reviews from others. Make a travel map of a place you are planning to visit and add restaurants to your favourites.
That leads us to the next section…
Food Maps
Whilst Happy Cow is an ideal option for pre-travel and during travelling, we still use Google maps to create lists where we can annotate restaurants specific to our trips. Happy Cow doesn’t always show every option in the area as someone has to try the restaurant first before adding it to the app.
Whilst our method can be long-winded for some, we really enjoy browsing through the different restaurants on Google maps and figuring out where we can and can’t eat. As previously mentioned, this is very helpful when travelling with non-vegan friends or family as you can check out some places they might want to try too. Most restaurants on Google maps have a menu uploaded, or someone may have taken a picture of their menu. If neither of these are available, the company's website will be available for you to look at their menu.
Check out our pre-made food maps where we have tried and tested the food- so we know it’s delicious!!
Ibiza: We were only in Ibiza for 3 days, so we can’t say we tried much food. The 3 on this map are the most memorable places we ate. Check out our quick guide to Ibiza
Corfu: this stunning Greek island has some delicious vegan options, including traditional Greek dishes made vegan. Visit our Corfu blog posts
Sri Lanka: we stayed in the south and the capital city, so the map focuses on those areas. When we travel back there, we will check out other areas of the island and add them to the map! Check out our other Sri Lanka blog posts
Lincoln, UK: Our current home, this historic cathedral city is packed with delicious eateries. Vegan options are amazing and tasty!
Nottingham, UK: One of the smaller cities in the UK with a wealth of culture and quirkiness. There are some awesome vegan eateries here.
Next place to add to our maps: We are visiting Malta in 2 weeks and already have a large list of vegan places we can’t wait to try! We will update this blog post with a revised map once we’ve tested Malta out…
Thank you for reading our vegan food & travel guide. If you have queries, don’t hesitate to contact us. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on our latest trips and blog posts!
