Vegan Parenting Archives - Page 3 of 3

You’ve picked your destination. You’ve searched endlessly for flights and hotels. You’re ready to pack your bags. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, doing so as a vegan might seem a little intimidating. Inevitably, the questions start scrolling through your head. Is there anything you can eat or drink in the airports during your layovers?Are there plant-based selections when ordering meals for your flight?Should you pack your own snacks and drinks?What about personal items? Are the accommodations at the hotel vegan-friendly? What cruelty-free products and services are available in the surrounding areas for vegans where you will be staying/exploring? Where do you find the hospitable travel information you need? Vegan travel has come a long way. The days of starving at the airports with no vegan options are just an ugly faded memory. You can take advantage of these vegan offerings, from food to shopping, at airports all over the world.Times have changed and it’s never been a better time to take flight and travel the world vegan style. You just need a few tips to make your vegan traveling a bit easier. #1 RESEARCH SOCIAL MEDIA The vegan online world is full of tips, discounts, bloggers, advice, ideas, and you name it. There are people, groups, and lots of influencers for helpful vegan travel guidance. Type in #vegantravel on any social media platform from Twitter to Instagram and everyone in between and you will get to where you need to go. You will be blown away by all the great vegan avenues to explore with vegan travel from where to eat, how to shop, and the best of the best vegan offerings all around the world. Ask, ask, and ask! The travel blogs want to give you all the advice you need to make your vegan travel easy, safe, and cruelty-free. That is exactly what they are there for. Take full advantage of their services. #2 PLAN AHEAD Check with your airlines ahead of time to request vegan meals and snacks. Baked chicken and meatloaf aren’t your only two choices on your flights anymore. If you haven’t traveled in a while, you will be pleasantly surprised at how tasty your airline vegan dinner can be. There are tons of options now on most flights. The food can be brilliant. We’ve had fantastic vegan Indian curries, healthy wraps, and even plant-based snacks. Look up the airport shops and restaurants long before your flight date. Vegan food options are cropping up in airports all over the world. Yes, we’ve been stuck with just French fries as a limited choice while waiting for our flight, but we’ve also become savvier and investigated the airports we would be stuck in at times and found lovely places to eat some delicious vegan food. Last time we jetted off out of the country, we researched the airport we were flying out from ahead of time and ended up have a nice vegan spread to share before our flight. The vegan travel world is at your fingertips. Many hotels offer vegan meals and snacks. Once again, calling ahead and creating your own vegan travel study guide can be your best friend when traveling. Look around at places to eat and shop located near your hotel and wherever you are exploring.More and more, big names in the travel industry are coming out with vegan cruises, vegan hotel suites, and complete vegan vacations. #3 STUDY THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE If you’re traveling from one English speaking country to another, the odds of good communication are in your favor. If you are traveling to a country that doesn’t speak English, communication can be tricky. When attending a business dinner, you don’t want to be trying to figure out how to tell the wait staff that you don’t eat dairy while other conference attendees are trying to order their dinners after a long day. Honey, milk, butter, cheese, beef, pork, eggs, and chicken should all be easy and comfortably understood words for anyone you are trying to convey them to, even if you’re just laying on a tropical beach for a week to soak up some sun and relaxation. Having a communication barrier just causes stress for all involved and can cause miscommunication and mistakes. Take the language obstacle out of the realm of your travel plans. #4 SNACKS AND PERSONAL ITEMS Bring vegan snacks and a few personal items like deodorant and toothpaste. It’s really that simple. You never know where you might want/need them. Having to search for an unfamiliar store, a new area, shop out of state or across the globe in an unexplored shopping venue, can be daunting. Being stuck in a place with no vegan options while you are traveling the world can be eased when you’ve packed some vegan food and a few personal items ahead of time just in case you need them. Nuts, seeds, crisps, sandwiches, and a variety of "keep you going" vegan foodstuffs are always a good take along just in case. You just never know when you might need to break these out. See more below for the who, what, when, why, and where! #5 EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED This one is a BIGGY; bigger than all the other tips combined and yet a collaboration of all of them. We’ve flown for personal and business reasons on numerous occasions. We’ve flown domestically and abroad. We’ve hit just about all the unexpected. This is why you need to be prepared ahead of time for anything and everything! • Lost Luggage• Delayed Flights• Bad Food• No Vegan Options• Accommodations Where They Could Care Less That You’re Vegan• Starving on a Plane Because the Cheese Ravioli They Threw at You Was All They Had The time for vegan travel is now. No matter who you are, what your beliefs entail, your cultural differences, and what you eat, travel can be like a chess game. You think you make all the right moves, but you win some and you lose some. Many of the travel setbacks you face are simply out of your hands and you need to learn to just go with the flow to travel positively. We all just want to get to the places we want to go safely, happily, and to explore on our own terms. Research, plan ahead, study, bring lots of snacks, a few personal items, and expect the unexpected! Last, but not least………PLAN A TRIP, TAKE OFF, BREATHE!