One of the more common questions asked as a vegan but also someone who grew up traveling the world and living in Hong Kong is; " Is it hard to be vegan outside the UK?" The simple answer is that Yes it is indeed slightly difficult at times. The longer and more honest answer is, yes and no, England especially is an easy place to be vegan, people understand your language which is often a barrier when traveling, vegans are more and more common in the UK and there are more and more vegan or vegan friendly restaurants. However the same can be said of much of the world, if you look on happycow.net (a website that lists vegan, vegetarian and vegan friendly eateries and shops) you will find that places for vegans to eat and shop in are popping up all over the world at quite a pace!
What I do before we go to a new place either in the UK or not is go on Happy Cow and type in the place, write down where caters for vegans and where I can buy food etc. This is exactly what i've done for my time in Spain. My parents and sister are omnivores and dont really eat in vegan only places, this has made it slightly more difficult. However what I have done is eaten a salad when they go for dinner and then if a vegetarian or vegan place is nearby gone to get a proper meal (not to say salads aren't but some lettuce and tomato doesnt fill me!). Here's where I ate, what helped, how I planned etc. Don't forget i'm also coeliac (gluten intolerant), this makes it 100000x more difficult.
Packed for Spain (food wise): powdered almond milk (turned out not to be necessary), 24 trek bars, some chocolate, gluten free noodles, vegan kallo stock cubes, protein powder sachets (not necessary unless exercising) and stevia
VITAL IN NON ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES: Vegan Passport! Explains what vegan is in most languages. Been very,very helpful as I don't speak Spanish (never learned although I always try when visiting a country) http://www.vegansociety.com/hubpage.aspx?id=678443#!/~/product/category=5011020&id=21268205
Day 1: Travel to Gatwick
Packed fruit, trek banana bars (high protein) and bag of popped popcorn for drive down. Ended up stuck on M6 for 4 hours at standstill after an accident. Was thankful for food.
Evening of day 1: Went into an M & S and bought two salads, a mixed bean one and soya bean and pea one. Both labeled vegan. Also had with me chocolate. Bought a fruit salad for next morning which I ended up eating at 3am as couldnt sleep!
Day 2: Travel to Malaga by plane (dont shoot me I know it's not environmental).
Went to Gatwick early for breakfast, had baked beans, tomatoes and mushrooms.
Snack: Trek bar and fruit
Lunch: HUGE salad with avocodo, olives etc
Dinner: Went shopping in supersol and found beans, vita soy milk, corn flakes with no vitamin D and fruit and veg. Made a meal as we stayed in a villa for a week. Really recommend self catering. Very easy.
Day 3 and 4:
Ate salads if eating out and made dinner and breakfast in the villas. Went to Macadonna a big supermarket with my list of animal products in spanish, you need this. Found soya yoghurt, loads of beans and pulses, grains, great fruit and veg.
Went to a vegetarian cafe in Estepona for lunch day 3 called Elemi http://www.elemiwellbeing.eu/elemi-cafe-bar-bistro-vegetariano.html. They knew exactly what vegan meant and had a lovely Moroccan dish with potato wedges instead of couscous (wheat!) and good coffee with soya milk.
Day 5: Marbella
Was looking forward to this as I knew there was a loving hut here and anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Loving Huts and have been to about 7 across the world. For those who haven't heard of them they are a chain of vegan restaurants, reasonably priced, run as franchises. Never been let down by one and this was no different. Located by the waterfront, just 80m up a street from the sea, it's a small shop with a buffet and a la carte menu. My Mum (an omnivore) came with me and agreed the buffet was delicious!! http://marbella.lovinghut.es/es-marbella-en/home/
Day 6, 7 and 8
Continued cooking in villa. Found an animal rescue whilst hiking in Sierra Berjmas, article to come soon on that experience. Was active or working out every day and had no problem fueling myself. Found little treats like vegan suitable chocolate in supermarkets.
Day 9:
Left villa for Gibraltar, took salad with beans in it with me for lunch. No longer in a villa but in a hotel. Evening meal wasnt great, they had a ratatouille but it had cheese which I asked if they could do it without it and they forgot until it came out so ended up with a trek bar and side salad.
Day 10:
Found a pure vegetarian indian place as we arrived in Gibralta and went there for dinner. Brilliant food, 99% vegan! Understand totally what vegan means. Very cheap too, had dahl and onion bahjis for 3.50 pounds.
Found a "health shop" with a few things, cant say what as they're presents for Marcus :)
Day 11: Today! In hotel in Jerez. Researched which sherrys are vegan (harvey's and a few others) and had a trek bar and fruit for lunch as didnt fancy much it's soo hot!!
Off for a swim!
My view as I type this below :)
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