Posts tagged travel

Hello Internet people!

As you know, I was traveling this Wednesday. I spent about fourteen hours in airports and airplanes all together. Because my family has always been pretty spread out across North America, I’ve done trips like this at least twice a year, often three times, for the past six years, as well as flying a fair amount before that.

When you’re an omnivore, airports and airplanes have a wide variety of options for food. There are less as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, but generally still a fair amount. When you get to veganism though, it can be pretty difficult. Because of the vast amount of time I’ve spent in airports, I’ve worked out a bit of a system to get me through them - here are my tips!

First: pack for your destination, but pack for the flight and airports too!

Pack food. More and more often, airports will have decent vegan snacks like Luna bars, Kind bars, dried fruits and nuts, etc. This is great if you’re caught without anything, but if you’re a college student like me, or on any sort of budget, the $6 price tag on that single serving bag of trail mix can be a little hard to swallow. When I’m going to be spending all day in transit I like to pack protein bars like a Simply bar to keep me full, as well as granola bars and almonds for snacks.

Pack Drinks.”But Katrina,” you may ask, “How can I pack drinks when I can’t take more than three ounces of fluid through security?” You might not be able to take though a travel mug full of tea, but you can take through a travel mug and tea bags, which is just as good. In my experience, anywhere that has hot water will fill up your mug for free. They’ll also give you cold tap water, so make sure to bring an empty water bottle too, as well as some water flavouring packets if you like those. Just as above, you can buy these things inside, but it’s nice to save the $3 you’d have to pay for a plastic bottle of water.

Plan Ahead. For example, on the trip to Cayman I knew I was going to have a four hour layover in the Miami airport, from 5:00 to 9:00. Since I was flying internationally I couldn’t pack any real food with me, and I was going to need dinner. I went on the airport website and figured out which terminal I was coming in at, which I’d be leaving through, and what options there were for food between them. (For those interested, the best option I found in the Miami airport was Au Bon Pain, for vegetable soup and a garden salad)

I love wandering around airports, but not when I’m super hungry and craving something more substantial than a granola bar or a piece of fruit. It also really sucks when you settle on a sad looking side salad and fries from a fast food place only to find a restaurant that makes custom sandwiches and salads around the corner.

Flight food.Sometimes longer flights will have a meal service. If yours does, make sure to specify that you need a vegan meal either when booking your flight or by calling the airline. If your flight has snack boxes and other food for purchase and you want to buy something other than Pringles, try to get a seat closer to the front of the plane. Often the veggie sandwich or salad will be sold out by the time they reach the back of the plane, and then you’re stuck with those Pringles.

Also beware that what seems vegan from the description might not be, so ask if you can read the package before you buy something if you’re able too. Snack boxes often don’t have the nutritional information for what’s inside in them, and it can be really hit or miss. This Christmas when I was flying on United, I bought the savory snack box (Tortilla Chips, Mild Salsa, Granola Bar, Fruit & Nut Mix, Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzel), thinking that at least half of the things would be vegan. Only the tortilla chips were completely vegan. I picked the yogurt covered raisins out of the fruit and nut mix, but I know that doesn’t work for some people. The salsa, granola bar, and pretzel all had non-removeable milk ingredients though. Ick.

Explore! My final tip is less vegan specific, but possibly more rewarding for vegans if you’re like me and get super excited when you find a new vegan treat. If you have some times between your flights, explore the little souvenir shops and specialty boutiques around the airport. My first flight stopped in Chicago, which is quite possibly my new favourite airport, and I found a Vosges chocolate outlet! You never know what cool things you’ll stumble upon.

Those are my tips! Do you have any tips for traveling while vegan?