People sometimes assume that because I write city guides, I have some special system to find vegan food abroad. I do, but it’s not secret, and it’s not complicated. It’s a handful of free apps used in a particular order, plus a few unglamorous habits. Here’s the honest toolkit, including where each tool falls down.
HappyCow: the starting point, not the answer
Every city I research starts with HappyCow. It’s the closest thing vegan travel has to a universal map, and the filters (fully vegan vs veg-friendly, open now, distance) do a lot of work quickly.
But I treat it as a longlist, never a verdict. Listings outlive the restaurants they describe, especially in seasonal places, where a spot can close for winter (or forever) without anyone updating the entry. My rule: if the most recent review is more than a few months old, the place needs verifying somewhere else before it earns a spot in a guide, or in your dinner plans.
Google Maps: where the actual planning happens
Once I have candidates, they go into a saved list in Google Maps (one list per city). Two habits make this genuinely useful rather than just tidy:
Search “vegan” inside Maps itself. It surfaces places HappyCow misses, particularly newer openings and mainstream restaurants with proper plant-based menus. The reverse is also true, which is exactly why I use both.
Download the offline map before you fly. Your saved pins keep working underground, in flight mode, and in that dead zone between airport wifi and a local SIM, which is precisely when you’re hungriest and least rational.
Instagram: the only reliable source for “is it open right now?”
This is the step most people skip, and it’s the one that saves you from standing in front of closed shutters. Small vegan places live on Instagram: changed hours go in the story, holiday closures go in the story, “we sold out of everything, sorry” goes in the story. Google gets updated months later, if ever.
Before I walk twenty minutes to anywhere, I check their account. It’s also the fastest way to judge whether a place is still what it was: a feed that’s gone quiet for three months tells you something no directory will. This is why every venue in my guides is listed with its Instagram handle: it’s not decoration, it’s the freshest data source that exists.
Google Translate: for the ingredients you can’t see
The menu is rarely the problem as you can point at things. The problem is what’s invisible: fish sauce, ghee, lard, meat stock, egg in the noodles. I keep two things ready before any trip: the offline language pack downloaded (wifi always disappears at the critical moment), and a saved, correctly translated phrase along the lines of “I don’t eat meat, fish, dairy or eggs. Does this contain any of those?” Asking about the specific hidden ingredient of the local cuisine works even better: in Thailand ask about fish sauce; in France, butter; in central Europe, lard in the pastry. My guide to whether French wine is vegan exists because of exactly this kind of invisible-ingredient problem.
The unglamorous habits that do the real work
Screenshot everything. Opening hours, addresses, the menu, the phrase in the local language. Batteries die, wifi vanishes, and a screenshot folder is the most reliable app ever made.
Have a first-meal plan before you land. Not a full itinerary, just one confirmed-open place near where you’re staying for that first hungry evening. Every bad food day I’ve had while travelling started with improvising the first meal.
Note what you find. Mine started as a notes app full of half-sentences like “tofu place near palace”. Those notes eventually became this site. Yours don’t have to become anything, but future-you, planning a return trip, will be grateful. Also, if you take photos of your meals like I do, and your location is turned on, you’ll be able to plot these out later if you happen to stumble upon a place off the beaten path.
The short version: how to find vegan food abroad
HappyCow for the longlist, Google Maps for the plan, Instagram (or TikTok) for the truth, Translate for the invisible stuff, screenshots for when technology fails you. That’s the whole system and it’s what every one of my city guides is built on, so if I’ve already covered your destination, the first three steps are done for you.
Is there a tool you swear by that I’ve missed? Tell me! I’m always looking for better ways to do this.