Vegetarian diets are easier for business travelers to handle than in years past. Planning veggie menus from the hotel starts at home, and continues while on the road.
With more and more business travelers turning to a Vegetarian Diet, many fast food chains, as well as hotel restaurants and airlines, now offer the traveling vegetarian choices on their menus.
Before you leave, make a list of popular chains that offer vegetarian options. When you arrive, be sure to read a restaurant review of the area or ask hotel staff for guidance.
If you find yourself at an unfamiliar restaurant, check the menu or ask the waiter for veggie suggestions. If they don't have a vegetarian selection available, sometimes they are willing to modify one of their dishes, or do a trade off.
For instance, if a breakfast is offered with eggs, bacon and hash browns, ask if they can substitute cereal, fruit or a pancake in place of the bacon. If a meat entrée comes with two side dishes, ask if beans or another side can be substituted. Of course, you will want to ask how the food is prepared, as some restaurants use meat or meat fat for flavoring.
Some more Vegetarian Travel Dining Tips:
- Typically, Eastern dishes tend to be more vegetarian-friendly than Western fare.
- If you want to keep things simple, cafeteria buffets are always a nice option for vegetarians. Look for a good cafeteria near your hotel, and then eat to your heart's content of vegetables, fruits, rice, beans, breads, salads, and desserts. This is a great option for travelers on other diets, such as low fat or low carb regimes.
- Or, if your hotel room gives you access to refrigeration, stop in at a local supermarket and pick up some healthy veggie choices - like soy sandwich slices and whole grain bread, along with yogurts or cheeses.
- If you have access to a microwave, vegetarian frozen dinners and a baked potato can provide a convenient meal, while hotel Styrofoam coffee cups are readily available for making instant oatmeal or hot chocolate.
- A few healthy snacks tucked into your luggage can help round out the taste and nutrition of a sandwich meal or the hotel continental breakfast. Some foods that travel well include Ziploc baggies of grapes, raisins, apples, nuts, granola bars, fruit bars, protein bars, peanut butter, crackers, bagels, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, carrots, celery, radishes or, for "instant apple pie", whole grain cereal to stir into snack packs of cinnamon flavored applesauce.
- And remember, you can always send out an SOS to the local pizza place. They'll deliver a vegetarian pizza right to your hotel room!
- Join the discussion! Add your own travel and diet tips.
Joy Butler studied writing through correspondence and online courses and currently writes the new Suite101 Dogs topic after retiring her Working Animals topic. Her free, SuiteU online course Vegetarian Diet provides more vegetarian tips and hints.
Related, on Suite101:
- Hotels and Low Fat Diets
- Hotels and Low Carb Diets
- Hotel Continental Breakfast = Sugar High
- Free Continental Breakfast Blog
- Healthy Kid's Travel Snacks
