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As a vegetarian or a vegan, you might be wondering how you can continue your plant-based lifestyle while travelling. Even though this lifestyle is definitely becoming more and more known (and popular!) around the world, there are still lots of places where plant-based options are limited. Especially in far-off destinations they aren’t always there for the taking.
Luckily, there are easy ways to make the process of finding plant-based offers a whole lot smoother. In this article we’ll set you up with 9 free apps that will help you find vegan/vegetarian restaurants, vegan (and cruelty-free) products or simply guide you with determining whether something is indeed vegan.
The most vegan-friendly cities around the world
If you’re still in doubt where to travel to next, this top 10 of the most vegan-friendly cities around the world might help you decide. HappyCow (an app we’ll talk about in-depth later on!) publishes a top 10 rating of the best cities to travel to as a vegan every year. The list is determined by four main factors: the number of vegan restaurants in a five-mile radius in the most vegan restaurant-dense area in each city, the number of restaurants in the same five-mile radius, the plant-based restaurant count in comparison to population density, and an impression of the over-all vegan-friendliness of the city (availability of festivals, meetups and community).
At the end of 2019, they rated London as the best city for the second time in a row. The entire top 10 of the most vegan-friendly cities in 2019 looked like this:
- London, United Kingdom
- New York City, United States
- Berlin, Germany
- Los Angeles, United States,
- Toronto, Canada,
- Warsaw, Poland
- Portland, United States
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Tel Aviv, Israel
- Prague, Czech Republic
TIP: Living a vegan lifestyle is already a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Still, there is a lot more you can do! Check out this in-depth blog if you want to know more about banning plastic while travelling, including useful tips & tricks.
The 9 best travel apps for vegans
1. HappyCow
HappyCow is definitely one of the best recommendations we can give you when it comes to travel apps for vegans. This app lists all plant-based/vegetarian restaurants near you in over 180 countries, but also restaurants that offer some veggie options. It also includes reviews from customers, recipes and natural food stores and farmers markets nearby. The app is available for iOS and Android and is free to use.
2. Vanilla Bean
Vanilla Bean is quite the same as Happy Cow, but doesn’t operate worldwide. It lists more than 35.000 completely vegan restaurants in the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. You can even look for restaurants based on whether they source their ingredients locally, are fair-trade/organic or offer raw-, lactose-free and gluten-free food and beverages. Vanilla Bean is available for iOS and Android and is free to use.
3. Is It Vegan?
If you ever feel unsure about whether a product is vegan, you can use Is It Vegan? to find out. By simply scanning the UPC barcode on the package of a food or beverage product, you’ll see the entire list of ingredients and which ingredients are suitable for your lifestyle. The database consists of hundreds of thousands of products, and new products are being added every day. Is It Vegan? is available for iOS and Android and is free to use.
4. Cruelty-Free
If you exclusively consume products that are not tested on animals, this app is for you. Cruelty-Free allows you to scan products, browse over 200 brands and create personalized shopping lists. Whether you’re looking for a new perfume, dish washer detergent or selftanner – this app will help you out. Cruelty-Free is available for iOS and Android and is free to use.
5. Air Vegan
Air Vegan is a must-have for frequent travellers. If you’re ever stuck at an airport and you’re hungry for some food, this app shows you if there are vegan options available. The app uses a colour-coded system, with green, orange and red, to show you whether airports are vegan-friendly. Green means there is plenty of choice, orange means there are some options and red means the options are very limited or non-existent. Be sure to check in advance, so you can prepare your own snacks if the airport is coded red. Air Vegan is available for iOS and Android and is free to use.
6. Vegaholic
Vegaholic is for all those travellers who love to enjoy a nice drink after a full day of exploring. But since not all alcoholic beverages are vegan, it’s always good to check if you can actually drink it. With Vegaholic you can either search for a brand or scroll through their database to find out which beverages are free of animal products. Vegaholic is only available for iOS and is free to use.
7. Foodmonster
Looking for vegan recipes to cook during a camping trip or while on the road? Look no further! Foodmonster is one of the largest apps when it comes to vegan recipes. The app has more than 8.000 recipes, with ten more coming in every day. You can browse recipes by diet, cuisine, meal type, occasion, ingredient, season, cooking method and theme. All recipes include step-by-step instructions and can be bookmarked for later. Foodmonster is only available for iOS and is free to use. There are many similar apps available for Android, such as Tasteful Vegan Recipes.
8. V-Cards: Vegan Abroad
If you’re in a country where veganism isn’t really known yet, it comes in handy to be able to explain what it means in the local language. V-Cards: Vegan Abroad allows you to explain what you can and can’t eat in more than 100 languages. The apps works both online and offline, and in addition you can even download a PDF with all translations that you can print. V-Cards: Vegan Abroad is only available for iOS and is free to use.
9. Vegsafe
Inside Vegsafe you’ll find an extensive list of e-numbers which states whether they’re vegan or not. It’s easy to use and definitely uncomplicates grocery shopping with more than 400 e-numbers listed. It also applies to clothing and cosmetics, with 130 clothing materials and 100 beauty product ingredients in their database. Vegsafe is only available for iOS and is free to use.
If you have any questions regarding the listed apps for vegan travellers (or if you have a great addition to the list), please drop a comment in the comment section below!
