Being Vegan Abroad

Dana Roberts studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain in the fall of 2010 through the CIEE Advanced Liberal Arts program. After her time in Barcelona, she co-founded Plant Based Traveler, an online travel series dedicated to showcasing a vegan travel lifestyle. Dana created Plant Based Traveler with her partner, Lou, who she met during her CIEE program. Dana has this advice to share for any vegans or vegetarians who are travelling abroad:

Cusco, Peru, was the first place my partner, Lou and I traveled to as vegans. I have to admit we were a bit intimidated. Up until that point, so much of our travel experiences had been centered on seeing a city through the cuisine. The off-the-beaten-path guide books always tell you to eat where the locals eat and then you’ll really understand the culture—whether it’s the finest steak in Buenos Aires or a hot dog in NYC, food is completely interconnected with a city’s identity. Travel was actually what brought us together in the first place. We met back in 2010 on a CIEE program in Barcelona. One of my favorite memories from our time in Spain was traveling to Mallorca together and eating seafood paella at a beachside restaurant. So after we changed our lifestyle drastically by watching a documentary called “Earthlings,” we needed to figure out a way to alter the way we travel while still hopefully feeling connected to the local culture. Luckily for us, as we began to explore Cusco, we realized that going vegan not only changed our day to day life for the better, but it also made traveling so much more interesting! 

Start up a conversation with your waiter; get to know the owners of the store; ask the chef about his/her favorite places in the city.

So this is where I want to start my advice for someone who is vegan/vegetarian and looking to go abroad. Firstly, it is going to be a little tricky and takes the patience to do a little research before you land – maybe even brush up on your language skills (even just the key food words) if you’re going a place where you are not a native speaker. The easiest place to start your research is happycow.net, which is a site that is basically the veg version of Yelp. But hands down the best advice is when you go to these newfound restaurants and stores you must make friends. Start up a conversation with your waiter; get to know the owners of the store; ask the chef about his/her favorite places in the city. Whether it’s restaurant advice, where to get the best groceries, or their favorite hiking spot, interacting with locals is truly the best way to get to know a city quickly. 

For Episode 1 of Plant Based Traveler, Dana and Lou head to Cusco, Peru to discover Peruvian cuisine and culture.

I have to be honest the only reason that I got the nerve to start chatting with all these strangers was because we were filming the first episode of our new, self-produced travel show, “Plant Based Traveler.” This forced me to be brave enough to use my Spanish and make friends, so that we could share their stories with the world. Once I got over my initial hesitations, I quickly realized that talking to local business owners is something everyone should do. The outcome from those simple conversations was so much more than I ever expected. We’ve gained lifelong friendships with the people we worked with while in Cusco—one of which is a chef who runs GreenPoint, the only 100% vegan restaurant in all of Cusco. GreenPoint also happens to be one of the highest rated vegan restaurants in the world! Fabi showed us the best markets to go to and his restaurant turned into a second home for us. We even learned some amazing cooking techniques – did you know that you can make vegan parmesan cheese by just grating brazil nuts and adding a little salt?

A Vegan Love Story: Sana Vegan Café in Lima, Peru. A feature produced by Plant Based Traveler. 

My other piece of advice is to buy a paper map of the place you’re visiting as soon as you get there. Paper maps get a bad rep because tourists often block the sidewalk while trying to find their way around, but if you’re discreet a paper map will enhance your travel experience. First, because you can find your way around without a smartphone using wifi or expensive data, and second, because the people you meet can use the map to show you exactly where their favorite places are located—sometimes the best things can’t be found online! I also find that a map which has all the highlights from my trip marked all over is one of my most precious travel mementos because when you look back even if you forgot to journal or take photos at a certain place seeing it on a map immediately brings up all the amazing memories from that day.

It’s hard to explain in words how amazing traveling as a vegan can be, so please check out our show to see for yourself!

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Watch all Plant Based Traveler videos on their YouTube channel here.