In the rapidly evolving landscape of remote work, the freedom to travel and work from anywhere has become a tantalizing reality for many. Yet, for those adhering to a vegan lifestyle, navigating the culinary terrain while on the move presents unique challenges.
Whether you’re a seasoned remote worker or a curious newcomer to the digital nomad lifestyle, this blog serves as your compass, guiding you through the diverse culinary landscapes of cities around the globe while staying true to your vegan principles.
From discovering hidden vegan gems in bustling metropolises to deciphering menu options at coworking space cafes, we delve into strategies for thriving as a vegan remote worker on the move. Join us on this journey as we share practical advice to empower you to embrace the freedom of remote work without compromising your commitment to a compassionate and sustainable way of living.
1. Map Your Routes
Whether you’re driving, riding a train or flying to your next remote working destination, map out your route. You’ll need to know how long the trip will take to estimate when you can pick up your schedule, so see how long it will take to reach your hotel room or rental property. Once you know how you’ll get there, you can determine how much vegan travel food you’ll need along the way.
Someone embarking on a three-hour flight could bring a few baggies of dry snacks to fight hunger while above the clouds. Another person driving eight hours to their destination could bring a cooler full of sandwiches and snacks. It depends on how you’ll get where you’re going and the length of your trip.
2. Research Nearby Restaurants
It’s also helpful to research restaurants along your travel route. Save the town names or zip codes if you’ll drive through a few places before reaching your next remote work destination. You could use vegan apps like Happy Cow to find restaurants with vegan foods. If you’re unsure about the foods on a menu, apps like Is It Vegan? will identify each food, explain what’s in them, and identify them as vegan or not.
Airports also have their restaurant menus available online. Check the offerings at your departure and arrival airports, plus anywhere you might have layovers along the way. You’ll have more time to read through the extra detailed menus, reducing your stress and ensuring you know where you want to eat between flights.
Don’t forget about the power of social media websites. You could easily find forums, groups, or review sites where local vegans discuss their favorite options at nearby restaurants. Check within your coworking space community, too. You’ll be sure to find plenty of people asking for recommendations while they’re exploring a new city.
3. Bring Your Own Snacks
To make it easy to stick to a vegan diet while traveling, it’s always a good idea to bring some snacks. You’ll prevent yourself from going without food for long periods, so you never make a desperate — and potentially non-vegan — purchase because you’re starving and lacking options.
Pack some popcorn in little baggies or turn the popped kernels into trail mix by adding nuts, sunflower seeds and raisins. It’s a great combination that’s tasty on plane rides or road trips. If you have a cooler, you could also bring carrot sticks to maintain your vitamin E intake and enjoy them with vegan dips.
Snacks are also a bonus in coworking spaces. You’ll always have food within reach, so there’s no need to worry about finding the shared kitchen or walking a few blocks to the nearest convenience store.
If you’re out of ideas, vegan cookbooks, Instagram accounts and Pinterest boards could reveal food combinations you haven’t tried before. Have fun exploring before your next trip so you know what you’ll eat before leaving home.
4. Look Up Hashtags
Your next travel hack could involve hashtags if you’ll work in a popular destination. Places like New York City, Los Angeles, Paris, London and more often have people combining vegan hashtags with the location.
Before leaving home or after arriving, look up your city with a hashtag like #vegan[insert city name here]. The search results on Instagram or Facebook could connect you with the most recent reviews of local restaurants. You’ll gain first-hand accounts of dining experiences within the last 24 hours, so you might even discover restaurants that don’t show up on the first page of search engines.
Although spending too much time on social media can disrupt your sleep cycle, using it for a few minutes could make your vegan lifestyle easier. You could also make temporary accounts if you don’t have social media profiles on specific sites. They’ll help you learn more about a particular area until you’re ready to delete them on your way home from your work travels.
5. Book Places With Kitchens
Even with the best planning, finding vegan food away from home sometimes feels impossible. Small towns may not have plant-based menu options or specialty grocery stores with vegan snacks. If you think you’re traveling to a remote location or your research doesn’t point out any possibilities around your destination, try booking a place with a kitchen near your next coworking space.
A hotel room or rental property with a kitchen will make sticking to a vegan lifestyle much easier. All you need is a grocery store to get ingredients for your favorite meals and snacks.
You could substitute applesauce with eggs to maintain a recipe’s moisture content without using animal products. Other cooking ideas like using nut-based cheeses or chopping mushrooms to replace ground beef are simple ways to stick to a vegan diet while traveling if you have a kitchen. Remember to bring storage containers that fit in your rental fridge and the fridge at your co-working office to prevent your food from spoiling.
6. Practice Vegan Words in Other Languages
Finding vegan travel food is a bit more challenging when you don’t speak a city or country’s primary language. Digital nomads use translation apps to simplify communication when they don’t have time to study a language before arriving.
Apps like Google Translate and iTranslate are great places to practice vegan words in other languages. Input your favorite meals or ingredients to discover how you’ll say them when chatting with a server or grocery store attendant. You’ll easily request vegan food or substitutes if you’re already familiar with them when you arrive.
Translation apps also save the day when facing other remote work dilemmas, like asking where to find the bathroom or the closest bus station to your co-working space. Travel enthusiasts would benefit from saving them on their phones, even if they already know how to ask for vegan food in a language.
Vegan Nomad: Mastering Traveling & Coworking
Once you have a few resources in your travel toolbox, you can stick to a vegan diet while working from anywhere. Research your routes, look up restaurant menus, and choose places to stay based on how much you want to cook while you’re away from home. You’ll feel more prepared than ever for your next remote work experience, preventing stress from ruining the experience whenever you get hungry.
