Today is the fourth day of our thirty day challenge to travel around Europe whilst maintaining a vegan diet and lifestyle for Veganuary.

Typically Veganuary is done during January, but it seems that we’re a little late to the party so we thought we’d give it a go now whilst we’re still very much on the road, and for the next thirty days we’re going to be leaving our current location that is Franca’s hometown of Alberobello in the south of Italy, heading to Belgium which will be followed by time spent in Holland before a final trip through Germany to reach ‘vegan mecca’ in Berlin.

How To Prepare

We’re been following a vegetarian diet for just over 12 months since our time in Asia convinced us it was a good time to change, and we've had great fun with very few difficulties since (aside from the initial adjustment); but following a vegan diet isn't perhaps as straightforward as some cultures aren’t prepared for the challenges that a vegan diet presents. It’s actually part of the reason that we’ve decided to challenge ourselves over these coming weeks to see how not only we cope, but how the locals we come in to contact with understand and accommodate our dietery choices.

We can prepare the same we in which we did with our vegetarian diet by using great sites like HappyCow to find vegetarian and vegan restaurants and bio-health shops, but veganism presents a differing set of rules and a different set or options.

We decided that just as we did with travelling before we started ourselves, we’d just straight up ask the travelling vegans we know for their own person travel tips. Each one has been fantastic and we’re looking to put them to the test when we fly to Brussels tomorrow, and here are the three standouts.

Three Simple Vegan Travel Tips

Avoid referring to yourself (Don’t: “Hi, I’m a VEGAN, cater to ME!”) and focus on the food (Do: “Does this have x, y, z?” “Can you make it with just A & B?”) Express curiosity, acknowledge the hospitality of your host, keep it fun and light. People are more willing to understand and accommodate your special needs if you show respect, avoid judgement, and assume things will work out. Not feeling it? Move on, with a smile.

— Justin of The Lotus and the Artichoke

Tech up. Apps like Foursquare and Yelp, etc. can be a goldmine for vegans. Search “vegan, soymilk, wifi” etc. to find what you’re looking for.

— Nicole of Vegan Nom Noms

Make sure you learn about the local cuisine for each place you visit, that way you’ll have a better chance at ‘veganising’ non-vegan food or you may come across dishes that are already vegan like delicious Thai khanom krok or Indian masala dosa.

— Caryl of Vegan Food Quest

More Tips For The Journey

These three tips are really going to get us off to the right track when we catch our flight tomorrow, and we’ve already begun to use them by making notes of the already vegan foods in the local cuisine, the vegan restaurants we can stop at in Brussels, and begun to learn the lesson that “things will work out”.

Failing that, we can always use all of the other travel tips from these ten vegan travel bloggers.