It's impossible to eat vegan when travelling
Short answer: Rarely. Most of the world's traditional food is plant-heavy by necessity, airlines carry vegan meals on request, and a small kit of snacks covers the gaps.
One free app, in your pocket, in almost every country you might land in. The side-salad era is over.
HappyCow (2026)
The objection
“You can manage at home, but travelling? Different countries, airports, language barriers, you’d starve or end up eating nothing but chips.”
The answer
The fear assumes the rest of the world eats like a steakhouse. It mostly doesn’t.
Look at where you’re actually going. Across India, the Middle East, much of Asia, Mediterranean Europe, Mexico, Ethiopia, traditional cooking leans heavily on grains, pulses, vegetables and bread, because meat was historically expensive. Dal, falafel, dosa, hummus, beans and rice, vegetable curries, fresh produce markets: you’re often in a better position abroad than at home. Meat-centric eating is more a Western default than a global rule.
The logistics that worry you are mostly solved. Airlines carry a vegan meal (VGML) if you request it when booking; set the preference and it’s waiting on your seat. Apps like HappyCow map vegan and veg-friendly spots in almost any city. Supermarkets exist everywhere, so a hotel breakfast of fruit, bread and peanut butter is always available. And a phrase saved in the local language (“no meat, no fish, no dairy, no egg”) closes the language gap (The Vegan Society; PETA).
There are still gaps. The odd long transit with only a meat sandwich on offer, and a handful of countries where it’s genuinely fiddly. Both are handled the way every traveller handles food risk: pack a few bars, nuts and a tin or two, and you’re never actually stuck.
The “impossible” holiday is one nobody takes. The real one just needs a bit more planning.