This post is by contributing author Lauren Fritsky of The Life that Broke.
As a proud Iowan, I’m a lover of red meat; so, when I’m on the road backpacking, my biggest challenge is finding a steak that can compare with good, Iowa beef. Contributing author Lauren Fritsky has a different problem: finding vegetarian food while traveling the world. Check out these five tips for finding veg-friendly food on your next backpacking adventure.
“Do you have a vegetarian option?”
As someone who doesn’t eat red meat or pork and dates a straight-up vegetarian, I’ve heard a range of laughable responses to this question — everything from:
“Yes, we have fish” to “Just take the ham off.”
Sigh.
If you’re tired of dealing with similar confusion from servers who think that vegetarian means that if the meat’s white, it’s alright, try these tips for actually finding food you can eat on the road.
1. Find restaurants online
Anyone who has stood on a street corner in Asia and watched a shop owner kill a live animal might seriously doubt that vegetarian cuisine is possible in all parts of the world. But it is! Sites like Happy Cow let you plug in your destination and eating preferences to find restaurants around the world.
Veggies on the Road is another resource listing eateries across the globe that offer at least three vegetarian dishes. If you have some semblance of an itinerary, look up your next destination and print out the list of vegetarian and/or vegan restaurants these sites. Don’t forget to smile as you walk away from the cleaver-wielding shop owner to your plate of mock chicken with veggies.
2. Say it right
Some people are unsure of what vegetarian really means. The same goes in foreign lands where definitions for the practice may differ and language barriers can make it difficult to find what you want. This resource from the International Vegetarian Union supplies key phrases in many languages to help you find veggo on the road.
You can also use the Veggie Passport iPhone app to translate your food preferences into 33 languages.
So the next time you’re in the Czech Republic, you can confidently ask “Mate take nejaka vegetarianska jidla?”
3. Get aPPetizing
Speaking of apps, you’ll never go hungry looking for vegetarian or vegan food again if you have an iPhone. Apps like VegOut and VeganSteven let you find restaurants near you and even pull up the menus.
4. Don’t eat at local restaurants
Weird tip, huh?
If you’re having trouble eating meatless at the local restaurants, try hotel dining areas — even if you’re not staying there — and pubs.
Many people don’t think to try and dine at accommodations they haven’t booked into, but the public is free to eat at places like Marriot. Hotel menus often have a wider variety of options than some of the local eateries, including vegetarian, depending where you are in the world.
Pubs might also have bar menus full of non-meat fare. Even if you have to build your dinner by ordering a baked potato, side salad and hummus with bread, it’s better than nothing.
5. Eat what you want, where you want
Did you know that Minnesota actually has a law allowing anyone on a restricted diet to take their own food into any restaurant and eat it right there? Individuals can also ask the wait staff to heat up their food in the oven or microwave.
It’s worth checking if areas you’re traveling to have similar laws.
Even if they don’t, other vegetarian travelers have had success asking restaurants to heat up or cook their tofu, rice or veggies. Sweetness will take you a long way here, so be polite and overly thankful if you’re accommodated. Convenience store microwaves are another option for heating up your homemade or store-bought vegetarian meal if you find an obliging clerk.
Depending on where your travels lead you, you might always have to stay on your toes to find vegetarian. But a little Internet and iPhone savvy plus some local know-how should keep you up to your elbows in tofu from Tampa to Tokyo.
What are your tips for finding vegetarian on the road?
Backpacking Matt 
Just want I needed to read today! I’m vegetarian, and planning on traveling to the land of steak, steak and more steak (Argentina), so this guide definitely helps! I also didn’t know that Minnesota had a law where you can bring your own food into a restaurant, that’s really badass!
@Sheryll Glad it was helpful! Enjoy Argentina! Maybe you can send me some steak? 🙂
I also like to check out restaurants online first and HappyCow is a great resource. If there’s no place featured on HappyCow where I am, asking locals for suggestions is not a bad idea. Or if a restaurant has no veggie options, ask the chef to prepare something meat-free with whatever they have that day. Can be fun to see what they cook up for you! Hotel restaurants is also an option – not ideal for budget travelers though.
As I’ve only seen Europe and North America so far, I haven’t met as many challenges as vegetarian travelers in Asia but am looking forward to the experience! And since I’m now vegan it will be interesting to see how explaining no meat, no diary and no egg will go.
Good comments and tips Sheryll and Erika! Here in Australia, it’s often harder to find vegetarian than you’d think — it’s a big meat and potatoes country. But you’re right about asking a restaurant to prepare a meat dish meatless — we did that just the other night at a Korean place that advertised a dish as tofu and veg, but that had meat in it!
Happy Cow is my GO-TO resource! However, it gets a little difficult in places like China where (on many occasions) meatless dishes contains seafood. :((
Hotels yeah they do carry vegetarian dishes, but if you’re on a budget travel it just pains to go seek high end restaurants. Sigh!
And I wanna try local fare, so I end up pushing my luck and my minimum language abilities (depending on locations) to ask for the same meal without meat. Or seafood. lol.
Great article. 🙂 Cheers!
Great read and tips!
The US just put out what might be a helpful link for those that might cook for themselves while traveling: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/tipsresources/vegetarian_diets.html
Travelling as a vegetarian can be a challenge. After 14 months in Latin America it was so good for us to get to the US recently and have access to amazing vegetarian food in San Francisco.
Happy Cow is my go to website, and Yelp is useful in the US. I agree that learning key phrases in the local language is essential and I find it’s better to say “I don’t eat meat, fish, pork, and chicken” rather than “I’m vegetarian” as many people don’t understand what that means.
It’s also a good idea to ask a local if there are any local foods that don’t have meat in them and search them out – it gives you the opportunity to try local cuisine without having to resort to a touristy restaurant again.
Wish I had seen this a few years ago when I was vegetarian and backpacking around Europe. I pretty much ate pasta and plain pizza the whole time I was there, except for this divine vegetarian restaurant in Florence that I practically lived at while in the city. 🙂 Now there are things like apps you can use!
I always double on Happycow to see if anybody recommends anything in the cities I go to.
It’s too bad that most traditional food in countries contain meat, I always end up trying all their traditional desserts instead!
Oh, Happy Cow. I don’t know where I’d be without it. Wait, yes I do. I would be hungry and miserable on some street corner in Beijing.
I appreciate your tip about trying out hotels and pubs. But as a somewhat strict veg, these places can also be a risky gamble. More often than not, the food isn’t prepared in house. If it comes to the place frozen or pre-made, the cook may only be involved in heating or plating. And this means that they may not even know the exact ingredients let alone be able to eliminate that pesky meat from a dish.
But when food is collected, cooked, and prepared at a local restaurant, they may have a better idea of the ingredients involved and at the same time, can cater to your own dietary/ eating freedoms.
Oh man, this is way lengthier than intended. ANYWAYS, “just taking the ham off” also gets me every time!
The names of those websites and apps are so key, I’m glad I caught this post! I’ve always gone the low-tech way- I go to a concierge at a nice hotel (whether I’m staying there or not, they usually can’t tell the difference) and find someone who speaks english, and ask them to write down the sentence “I am a vegetarian, please do not put meat in my meal.” When I spent a few weeks in China I had a chinese friend type it and I made it a laminated business card for my wallet- but did get a lot of grief from my meat eating friends every time I pulled it out 🙂
I’m not a vegetarian, but my sister, who just got back from australia probably could have used this article about a year ago haha. she made out just fine, but i know that it’s hard for her even in the states to get a good variety of vegetarian options unless she’s at home cooking it herself. it’s funny. at one point she tried going on to eat raw foods only, and i recall her saying how alienating it is because you can’t go to a restaurant with friends because there’s nothing available for raw foodists. as a meat eater though, i’m becoming more aware of the health risks associated with eating meat. i’m not saying i’m going to stop, i’m just going to be a little more choosy about it. nice banana pic btw.
some good tips…it’s a mission with the misses being a veggie sometimes – which inevitably results in my diet following suit!
i lost count of the amount of falafel’s i ate in oz! south america should be a chuckle with the language barrier!
This is an awesome list! As a vegetarian, I know how hard it can be to find food…and even when I do find it, often it’s not the cultural experience I’m looking for, because many times the places that cater to vegetarians also cater to tourists. I would also recommend going to farmer’s markets or food shops and picking up different items to make a picnic lunch. That way, you can have a cheap meal you know is vegetarian, and have fun doing it! I also wrote a list of tips for vegetarians (http://bit.ly/r3KPnW) and that’s the only other thing I included. Thanks for the tips!
I love the app suggestions! I’m definitely going to try those out on my next trip!
Standard answer on question “do you have something for vegetarians” is “yes, we have fish” 🙂 once I heard “maybe chicken?” 🙂
Best place for me was Istanbul in Turkey. A lot of delicious vegetarian food in good prices.