Vegan Recipes for Adventure: Meat-Free Vacations
The breakfast buffet on A Taste of Health’s cruise.
Is it possible to be a world traveler and a vegan at the same time? Take it from someone who is: Yes! (Others who I’m sure would agree include famous vegans Bill Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, Carrie Underwood, Mike Tyson, Woody Harrelson, Alicia Silverstone, Lea Michele, Sandra Oh, Tobey Maguire, Carl Lewis, Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu—but I digress.) Limiting yourself to a plant-based diet does not have to mean you are cut off from global culinary adventures. And a growing number of travel companies, from tour guides to vegan or vegetarian hotels, are doing what they can to make sure you can have your vegan cake and eat it too. Below, just a few who have made that their mission:
Veg Voyages is a dedicated vegetarian and vegan tour operator, leading organized trips to South and Southeast Asia. “Ever wonder why people have such a hard time understanding that vegans and vegetarians like to eat too?” asks the company, which is run by two brothers, Zac and Jason Lovas and their friend RK Singhji, who personally oversee the vacations. The company specializes in packaged trips to India, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and Bali. A 12-day trip through India’s “Land of Rajputs” (including Kishangarh, Bhadrajun and Udaipur) includes 32 vegan meals and a vegan cooking class and starts at $1,255 per person (plus airfare).
A Taste of Health aims to challenge the notion that “vegan cruise” is an oxymoron by offering its Holistic Holiday at Sea: A Voyage to Well-Being, run by American Miso Company founders and health-food experts John Belleme and Sandy Pukel. Their next one—the ninth—is scheduled for March 3-10, 2012, and will continue its tradition of offering a groovy, healthy getaway with its crunchy lineup of cooking classes, speakers, meditation, yoga and huge spreads (this is a cruise, after all) of all-vegan food. Scheduled participants include Yogi Desai (founder of Kripalu), Gabriel Cousens, MD (Spiritual Nutrition author), Christina Pirello (host of Christina Cooks), and vegan-recipe goddess Isa Chandra Moskowitz (Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). Rates from $1,299.
The vegan-owned Your Time Travels, billed as “a travel company for animal lovers,” makes humane treatment of animals—and that includes not eating them—its number-one focus. Basically a vegan travel agency, Your Time will create custom trips from penguin glacier treks in Argentina and African safaris to eco-resort stays and volunteer getaways, such as a trip to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand where you’ll bathe, feed and bond with some lovable pachyderms—rather than just take them for a (joyless) joyride.
Green Earth Travel, whose tagline is “destinations that make a difference,” offers Adventure Travel (monarch butterfly bike tour in Mexico, camping and canoeing in Alaska), Volunteer Travel (care for creatures in an animal sanctuary while exploring National Parks) and Vegetarian Travel, for which trip planners “bend over backward to make sure you never have to worry about the food on your vacation being a problem.” Hear, hear. Run by seasoned traveler Donna Zeigfinger, the majority of Green Earth’s veggie-trip options are customized trips for singles, couples or families, to destinations ranging from Mexico and South America to India and Ireland. “Next year we’re planning on an all-vegan cooking trip to Ireland with chef Al Chase of Portland,” Zeigfinger notes. “My love is really Ireland, as I love the people and the beauty of the country. Some people think it is difficult to eat there as a vegan. I have not had that problem. I can always find great salads and veggie burgers, and have located some fabulous restaurants there.”
VegiVentures, a UK-based pioneer in the world of veggie travel, has been offering vegetarian vacations since 1989 thanks to founder Nigel Walker—a former chef, yoga teacher and travel rep. Destinations include Turkey (at the Eco Holiday Centre in Yuva, on the Aegean Sea), the UK countryside (with various walking tours on offer), an eco-lodge in Grenada, Peru (with the next tour scheduled for Dec 17–Jan 2), and Ecuador, with the next trip happening in August 2012. Accommodations tend to be simple, while the food reflects local cultures and is organic whenever possible.
Finally, check in with the following vegan travel blogs for tips on when, where and how to trot the globe as an herbivore:
•Vegan Travel Challenge: A frequent business traveler shares her experiences trying to find decent vegan meals while on the road.
•Vegan Backpacker: A Canadian couple documents their culinary-focused travels.
•Vegan World Trekker: A vegan activist offers advice on travel gear, guidebooks, accommodations and food.
•Vegetarian Guides: Not a blog, but a UK-based website, here’s where you’ll find indie guidebooks, geared toward vegans, to destinations including Britain, France, Spain and Israel. Also available: the clever Vegan Passport, with ways to explain to waiters exactly what vegans do and do not eat in—73 languages!
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