Road trips are fun, but taking a long road trip as a vegan isn’t easy at all. Traveling is hard to begin with, but if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you are bound to have more problems than usual.
If vegan is the only box you have to check then it might be a lot easier for you to find restaurants anywhere you go (I mean these days vegan restaurants are everywhere!). But if you are looking for anything more like organic or sustainable, you might spend most of your traveling time on hunting for places to eat.
Vegan Road Trip Tips
Vegan doesn’t mean healthy unless you do it the right way. It has to be combined well and in whole-food form to get the most benefits out of it. Also, people who support veganism don’t realize how many land animals and sea creatures are killed due to micro-plastic pollution. These micro-plastics don’t degrade easily either, making it hard on our planet. There are plenty of articles online and on this site you can read to enlighten yourself on these topics. You can’t do vegan and use plastic; they go hand in hand (a quote by a good vegan friend of mine :))
That said, I am going to start off by leaving a few tips on how to travel as an organic and sustainable vegan, and cover some cool restaurants we found on our trip to Grand Canyon in my next upcoming post. I’m going to break it down to two posts so it won’t be too long and easier to digest 🙂
General Road Trip Tips For a Vegan
Road Trip Tips For Vegans
Pack Your Own Food – Driving during weekends and after hours can be a challenge food-wise. Most specialty restaurants, juice shops, and specialty groceries that carry vegan and organic food are closed or close early during weekends or after hours so you might have to pack your own food.
Carry a Lot of Dry Ingredients – Carry as much as dry based food as you can: fresh spun greens, nuts, seeds, dry cooked quinoa, dry brown or red rice, baked tempeh, dry cooked chick peas, carrots, cabbage, olives, dry fruits, dark chocolates, kale chips, protein bites, crackers, bread, wraps etc. Dressings, kimchi, pickles, salsa etc. can be carried in glass mason jars. These stay fresh all day so you can travel without worrying about food if you don’t find restaurants to eat on your way or if restaurant hours prevents you from eating there.
Make a List of All the Whole Foods on Your Way –
Road Trip isn’t the time to find and test new restaurants on your way, especially when you are traveling through small towns where specialty restaurants like healthy vegan restaurants are limited. If the food you’ve packed runs out, you can always shop at Whole Foods salad bar. It’s easier to locate Whole Foods in any place than local vegan restaurants, considering Whole Foods is everywhere. And, you don’t have to worry if the restaurants are good enough. It’s easier to experiment after you have reached your destination and have some time to scour the place for new places to eat.
Carry a Lot of Mason Jars – Carry water in mason jars which can be used later for takeout smoothies, breakfast like açaí bowl or oatmeal pudding or salad. Mason jars come in handy during travel and are multitasking.
Pack Extra Take-out Food – When restaurants are open and available, pack extra takeout food so if you don’t see restaurants on your way, you still have something to fall back on.
Take a Break – Road trips can be really hard on us, especially if it’s a long one. It’s good to stop for the nights, especially after 9-12 hours so you can take a break from driving, get some sleep (extremely important while going on a long road trip), and extend the freshness state of your food. Food that’s mostly in its dry form stays fresh for about 9-12 hours and after that, you might need to refrigerate to extend the freshness.
Get Fresh Air –After every few hours of being on the road, get out of the car at rest areas to get some fresh air. Also, walk a few minutes and drink tons of water which helps with digestion and circulation so you don’t feel stagnant after you reach your destination.
Take It Easy – When you’re on a road trip, you might not always get what you want and being a little flexible can make the road trip a lot easier on you (and people traveling with you :)). Traveling low waste was so much easier for us until Denver but not after that. We had to cave in and buy a few packaged organic food for our road trip from Denver to Grand Canyon because there was literally no sustainable vegan or vegetarian restaurant on our way. Doing the best we could was our motto and it made our journey a lot more easier on us.
Road Trip Tips For Grand Canyon Travelers
If you’re going on a road trip to Grand Canyon, it’s better to stay in Flagstaff and make sight-seeing trips to Grand Canyon or you’ll be driving to flagstaff frequently for food and spending hours searching for restaurants. Grand Canyon is pretty much useless for vegans and vegetarians who are into organic food and sustainability. I wish we knew this!
Restaurant Hunting and Screening For Vegan Travelers
Before calling, learn about the restaurants – their concept and philosophy. Take a look at their about page which gives you a good idea about who they are, what they stand for and what they believe in. Check their website for information about – how they source their ingredients, how they cook their food, their views on sustainability and health, their knowledge when it comes to nutrition etc. Also, take a look at their working hours so when you reach the place, the restaurants will still be open. If you like what you see, if their philosophy fits in with your philosophy, and hours fit into your travel schedule then call them to ask more detailed questions. Here are some questions that helped us find good places to eat –
How much of their ingredients are organic? Not many can make it 100 % so it’s good to know how hard they try to keep their menu organic.
How many vegan / vegetarian dishes do they have on their menu? More they have on their menu, it reflects on who they are and what they believe in.
Ask if they have prepackaged food? Many organic vegan / vegetarian whole food juice shops serve prepackaged food so ask before going there.
Ask if they package takeouts in compostable boxes or plastics. Many restaurants and juice shops offer food and freshly made juices in plastics so ask before going. You can take your own containers if possible.
Do they need reservations to eat there? Most don’t have reservations for takeouts but might require reservations to eat there so ask before going there.
Ask if they are flexible when it comes to substituting ingredients and modifying the recipe for customers. Some restaurants don’t mind customizing so ask if they are flexible enough to customize the recipe for you.
Hope this post is informative and helps make your road trips as a vegan / vegetarian much more enjoyable. If you have anything to add to this, leave your comments below 🙂
“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.”
