Vegan travel

For vegan travelers, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, India, and Germany are among the best countries to visit. That is not necessarily because they have the largest vegan populations, but because they combine strong local food traditions, good vegan restaurant scenes, and places where finding plant-based food while traveling is relatively straightforward.

Anecdotally, we would put Berlin and Mexico City at the top. HappyCow’s latest global ranking is a little different, placing London #1, Paris #2, Berlin #3, Barcelona #4, and Tokyo #5 among the world’s most vegan-friendly cities. The ranking considers vegan venue numbers, ratings, review volume, and density rather than restaurant count alone.

Mexico City ranks #14 globally, but for us it remains one of the best cities for vegans because of the sheer variety of dedicated vegan restaurants, excellent Mexican food, and strong international dining scene.

Chiang Mai and Hội An are also notable.

There is no single definitive answer, because different rankings measure different things. For vegan travel, Thailand is one of the strongest contenders thanks to its dense vegan scene, Buddhist jay food traditions, and the ease of finding plant-based meals in places like Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

India is another obvious contender because of its enormous vegetarian food culture, while Germany stands out for modern vegan infrastructure.

Learn a few food words in the local language. Even knowing how to say vegan, milk, egg, fish, meat, butter, and lard can make it much easier to explain what you do and do not eat, especially in places where the word “vegan” is not widely understood.

It also helps to research how the country’s most common dishes are traditionally prepared. Knowing which animal products regularly appear in a cuisine gives you a much better sense of what to avoid, what questions to ask, and which dishes can usually be modified. Fish sauce, shrimp paste, ghee, butter, meat-based broth, and lard are all good examples of ingredients that may not be obvious from the menu.

We usually start with HappyCow, then cross-check Google Maps and search in the local language if the English results are limited. Looking for terms such as vegan, vegetarian, plant-based, or the local equivalent can surface places that never appear in English-language guides.

It also helps to look beyond dedicated vegan restaurants. Markets, traditional dishes, bakeries, street food, and mixed-menu restaurants often have excellent vegan options once you understand how the local cuisine is prepared. Saving a few reliable places before you arrive gives you a useful baseline, especially for late arrivals or travel days.

Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Mexican, and parts of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine are often among the easiest for vegans to navigate. They already make heavy use of vegetables, legumes, rice, noodles, herbs, tofu, grains, and other plant-based staples, so there are usually plenty of dishes that are naturally vegan or can be adapted without much trouble.

The main thing is knowing where animal products tend to hide. Thai dishes may contain fish sauce or shrimp paste, Indian food often uses ghee or dairy, and Mexican dishes can sometimes be cooked with lard or meat-based stock. Familiarity with those patterns makes it much easier to order confidently.

The main things to watch for are animal products that are used as seasonings, cooking fats, or bases rather than obvious ingredients. Depending on the cuisine, that might mean fish sauce, shrimp paste, meat-based broth, ghee, butter, lard, dairy, egg, or gelatin.

The useful habit is to learn which of these are common in the place you are visiting. A dish can look completely plant-based and still contain an animal product in the sauce, stock, or cooking oil, so a little local knowledge goes a long way.

For us, HappyCow is still the most useful vegan travel app. We use it to find fully vegan restaurants, vegetarian places, and restaurants with clearly marked vegan options, especially when arriving somewhere new.

Google Maps is useful alongside it, particularly for recent reviews and local-language searches, but HappyCow is usually our first stop because the listings are built specifically around vegan and vegetarian food rather than general restaurant discovery.

Most major airlines let you request a vegan meal in advance, usually under the special-meal code VGML. Add it to your booking as early as possible and check the airline’s deadline, which is often 24 to 48 hours before departure.

We would not rely on finding a suitable meal onboard without requesting one first. Even when an airline offers vegan food, availability can vary by route, airport, and cabin, so pre-ordering is usually the safest option.

Fully vegan hotels are still relatively rare, but they now exist across destinations including Thailand, Bali, Sri Lanka, Japan, India, Greece, Italy, Costa Rica, and the UK. Thailand and Bali have particularly strong clusters, while Europe has several well-established plant-based hotels and resorts. 

Southeast Asia is one of the easiest and most rewarding regions for vegan travel because many local cuisines already rely heavily on rice, noodles, tofu, vegetables, herbs, coconut milk, and fermented ingredients. Thailand’s jay food and Vietnam’s chay traditions are especially helpful, and cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Hội An, and Da Nang have strong dedicated vegan scenes too.

The main thing to watch for is hidden animal products such as fish sauce, shrimp paste, egg, or meat-based broth. Once you know what is commonly used, eating vegan in Southeast Asia becomes much easier.

In bigger cities, vegan meetups, supper clubs, cooking classes, food tours, festivals, and plant-based events can be an easy way to meet people while traveling. We especially like cooking classes because they combine the social side with actually learning something about the local cuisine.

Apps like Veggly can also help you connect with nearby vegans and vegetarians, whether for dating, friendship, or simply finding people with similar interests. For longer stays, local Meetup groups, Facebook communities, vegan retreats, and community events can make it much easier to find a social circle.

Look for dishes that are already part of the local food culture rather than only seeking out vegan versions of familiar international food. Markets, street stalls, traditional restaurants, and cooking classes can all be useful ways to understand how a cuisine actually works.

For us, cooking classes have been especially memorable because they create a direct connection to ingredients, techniques, and the people preparing the food. Learning to make fresh rice paper in Vietnam, salsa in Mexico, or vegan gözleme in Turkey gave us much more context than simply eating the finished dish.

Among the cities in HappyCow’s latest global ranking, London has the highest number of fully vegan venues, with more than 200 listed. Berlin follows closely, with Paris, New York, and Tokyo also having especially large vegan restaurant scenes.

Restaurant count is only one measure, though. A city can be excellent for vegan travelers because of quality, density, local plant-based food, and how easy it is to find options across different neighborhoods, not just because it has the largest number of dedicated vegan restaurants.

For us, yes. We use HappyCow regularly while traveling because it makes it much easier to find fully vegan restaurants, vegetarian places, and restaurants with clearly marked vegan options in unfamiliar cities. It is especially useful when Google Maps results are vague or when you want recommendations from other vegan travelers rather than general diners.

Eating plant-based can reduce the food-related impact of a trip, but sustainable vegan travel goes beyond what is on the plate. Staying longer, flying less often, using public transport, supporting locally owned businesses, and choosing accommodation with responsible environmental practices can all make a bigger difference.

We also try to think about where money flows. Vegan travel can still be extractive if it relies on imported products, high-consumption resorts, or businesses disconnected from the local community. The more useful question is not only whether something is vegan, but whether the way we move, eat, and spend supports the place we are in.