Do you want to visit a vegan haven this year?
In this blog post, I’ve collected and trimmed down a large list of countries to give you the ten best vegan travel destinations in the world. In these destinations, you’re going to find cities where the vegan movement is brimming and ever-expanding.
As you’ll be able to read for yourself, most destinations are modern-world countries where veganism blew up, partly because of the immediate access we have to information.
Being from Portugal, a fairly traditional country where bullfighting still happens, that information crept up to me through a documentary called Cowspiracy. And it was this access to information that allowed millions of people to embrace veganism, as well.
The trend is still growing worldwide, and the way we can know that is by using tools like Google Trends (and Happy Cow) because it allows us to see what people are searching for. And these are essentially the tools I’ve used to come up with the best vegan destinations for any vegan looking to visit a place with awesome vegan food.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a tool that allows you to check if whether or not interest is trending in a particular country, or even worldwide.
I’ve typed in “vegan”, and I’ve set ‘Portugal’ as the location this time around. Plus, I set the time range for the past 5 years. And as you can see, it’s a bull trend.
Over the past 5 years, more and more people have been showing interest in the ‘vegan’ term, which means more people are interested.
But you can go even deeper…
You can see wherein each country is that term being searched for the most.
In Portugal, those are the 5 sub-regions (or districts), where searches for the ‘vegan’ term are being conducted the most. What this also means, is that there’s a higher chance of you finding more vegan restaurants if you visit one of the five sub-regions.
At the same time… you can see which countries are conducting searches related to veganism the most. All you have to is change the location to“worldwide”.
Using this one or any other tool might not be the most precise way of finding out which countries are the most vegan-friendly, but it’s a good starting point.
When you dive a bit deeper and research terms like “vegan recipes” and vegan restaurants near me”; that means the search goes just beyond curiosity.
Happy Cow
While Happy Cow can serve us immensely by helping us find a top-notch vegan restaurant, it can also help us figure out how many vegan restaurants we have within a certain location.
Combined with Google Trends, we can more or less figure out if a certain country, city or region is vegan-friendly.
This is especially important because veganism starts with our diets. it’s not like we’re on a strict omnivore diet and can suddenly open an exception to chocolate…
No… we need to ensure we find vegan food in the places we’re traveling to, and this article is to help you find out about the places where you can find a brimming vegan culture… where movements and restaurants are brought to existence at an incredible pace.
Let’s have a look at the best vegan travel destination from worst to best!
The point of this article is to remain current, and therefore the information on this page might change over time.
The data I’ve used here is from 2019 and onward.
This data is essentially interest-level data by Google Trends that we’re confirming using Happy Cow by looking at the number of vegan establishments in a given location.
You might have a country with a high-interest level in veganism, but it might not be ideal to receive vegan travelers. Happy Cow gives us that confirmation.
#15 – Romania
Popularity level (Google Trends): 24
When I think about Romania, I think about meat and potatoes.
However, the Eastern Orthodox fasting tradition common in most Eastern European countries compels them to abandon meat and dairy during the fasting season.
Not sure whether these recipes were developed for that season in particular, but Romanians have many traditional vegan recipes such as Varza Calita, which is essentially stewed cabbage. Mamaliga, which translates to cornmeal porridge. And Sarmale, which is stuffed cabbage rolls. (This is normally stuffed with meat, but not unusual to find them stuffed with rice as well.)
There are many other vegan recipes you’re able to find in traditional restaurants in Romania, and I don’t think you’d be disappointed.
As far as vegan restaurants go, you can find a few across all Romania, but it’s in Bucharest, the capital city, where you can find most.
#14 – Slovenia
One aspect I found to be common among Eastern European countries is the affordability of eating at a restaurant. And Slovenia is not any different. With 5-7 euros you can stuff your belly and not feel bad about it.
While there are only a few vegan restaurants across the country… you’ll find most of them in Ljubljana, the capital city.
In fact, you can even find the Loving Hut, a vegan restaurant chain that sells delicious vegan food at a really reasonable price. A wrap and chips for 5.50 euros is a bargain.
#13 – Norway
In just 6 years, the number of vegans living in Norway has increased by 80%. And it’s also estimated that 4% of the Norwegian population follows a meat-free diet.
Mind you, these metrics come from a country that allows whale hunting and was once the world’s biggest producer of fox fur.
Fortunately, Norway is experiencing a shift, which you can confirm via data:
- Stores reported a 60% increase in sales of plant-based foods in 2018 when compared to 2017.
- The Norwegian government has agreed to put a stop to mink and fox farming in the country by 2025, shutting down the fur industry there.
- There’s an increasing number of animal activists and protests against animal cruelty.
And w