Top 5 Essential Apps for Traveling Vegetarians

When you decide to travel while staying true to your vegetarian diet, preparation often requires a bit more organization: identifying suitable restaurants, avoiding accidentally consuming animal products, finding simple recipes to cook in a hostel or rental… Fortunately, several applications can greatly simplify the lives of vegetarian travelers. Here is a selection of five must-have apps to accompany you on your adventures and help you eat healthily and in line with your values, wherever you go.

Table of Contents

  1. Why Use Specialized Apps for a Vegetarian Trip
  2. App #1: HappyCow
  3. App #2: Vanilla Bean
  4. App #3: abillion
  5. App #4: Vegan Maps
  6. App #5: Vegsafe (or Veggie Safe)
  7. General Tips for a Successful Vegetarian Trip
  8. Conclusion

Why Use Specialized Apps for a Vegetarian Trip

Traveling as a vegetarian can be easy in some major cities, rich in diverse culinary options. However, in some countries where the culinary culture heavily relies on meat or fish, finding a purely vegetarian dish can be challenging. You might find yourself spending precious time scouring menus, questioning servers, consulting blogs… This is where specialized apps prove very useful:

  • They centralize the necessary information to quickly find a restaurant that suits your preferences (vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based).
  • They allow you to quickly locate vegan-friendly grocery stores, markets, or corners nearby.
  • They often provide reviews and feedback from other travelers who have already tested these places.
  • They sometimes offer additional features, such as the ability to scan a product to check its composition or communicate in multiple languages.

The choice of app will mainly depend on your needs. Would you prefer one that lists all the restaurants in a city in one place, or an app that helps you know the exact composition of each dish? The list below covers various practical aspects to meet all expectations.

App #1: HappyCow

HappyCow is undoubtedly the most famous app for vegetarian and vegan travelers. It is used by millions of individuals worldwide who share their finds and culinary experiences. If you don’t know where to start, a quick tour on HappyCow is often the first step to mapping out vegetarian restaurants at your destination.

Main Advantages

  • A very extensive database, covering hundreds of countries.
  • Practical filters to find fully vegan, vegetarian, or plant-based options.
  • Ratings and comments left by the user community, making it easier to assess the quality of a restaurant.
  • Offline access, with the ability to save your favorites for later retrieval without an internet connection.

Key Features

  1. Geolocated Map: As soon as you arrive in a city, you can quickly view all the referenced points of sale, whether they are restaurants, cafes, or small stands.
  2. Specialized Sectors: In addition to dining places, the app sometimes lists organic food stores, vegan shops (non-food products), or even tea rooms offering plant-based milk.
  3. Multiple Categories: You can filter according to several criteria (budget, type of cuisine, distance, etc.) to turn your search into a personalized stroll.
  4. Evaluation Feature: Each place receives a rating, and they are often detailed (food quality, ambiance, value for money…).

Tips for Best Use

  • Save your favorites before leaving your accommodation when you still have Wi-Fi access. This way, you’ll have them even if you lose connection later.
  • Consider contributing by posting your own reviews. The more the community grows, the fresher and more complete the information will be.
  • Use the comments: Some users share specific dish recommendations, which can save you time when you’re unsure of what the menu offers.

App #2: Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Bean is another must-have for spotting vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Its interface is designed to be clean and pleasant to use, offering smooth and intuitive navigation. Younger than HappyCow, Vanilla Bean is rapidly developing and gaining popularity among health-conscious travelers.

Strengths of Vanilla Bean

  • Modern and intuitive interface: It’s easy to find the various filters and search options.
  • Careful selection: Each restaurant listed on the app is presented with a detailed description, often accompanied by photos and information on the ingredients used.
  • Advanced dietary filters: If you’re vegetarian or vegan but also intolerant to certain allergens (gluten, soy, nuts…), the app allows you to refine your search.

Practical Features

  1. Geolocated search: Instantly find out which restaurants are near you, based on your GPS position.
  2. Details on cuisine type: Craving a vegan burger, a vegetarian Indian dish, or a cheese-free pizza? Vanilla Bean lists the specialty of each place for a more precise selection.
  3. Menu photos: When available, you’ll find images of the dishes, which helps you choose quickly and avoid unpleasant surprises.
  4. Cooking method information: This is interesting if you pay attention to the presence or absence of butter or other animal by-products in preparations.

Usage Tips

  • Create an account to manage your list of favorites and receive personalized updates.
  • Feel free to post photos of your dishes. The more visuals an app offers, the easier it is to imagine and make your choice.
  • Check the hours: Some restaurants have specific hours, so it’s better to avoid showing up during breaks or closing days.

App #3: abillion

abillion (formerly abillionVeg) is a platform that brings together reviews on restaurants as well as a wide variety of vegetarian, vegan, and cruelty-free products. It aims to be more than just a restaurant guide, encompassing the entire spectrum of responsible consumption, from plant-based milk to household products not tested on animals.

Why This App is Useful

  • Product database: You can find references and reviews on everyday products, helping you identify their composition or ethical impact.
  • Discovery of local brands: While traveling, it can be difficult to spot local brands of plant-based substitutes, vegan cosmetics, etc. Abillion can guide you to products recommended by users in the region.
  • International community: The app is used worldwide, allowing for more varied and representative feedback.

How It Works

  1. Restaurant search: Geolocate yourself and discover nearby vegetarian or vegan options, with photos and comments.
  2. Product evaluation: Scan or search for a product to read or leave a detailed review.
  3. News feed: You can follow other users, see their posts, share your finds or impressions of visited restaurants.

Earn Rewards and Make Donations

One of abillion’s original features is its reward points system. Every time you post a review, you earn points. Once a certain threshold is reached, you can convert these points into donations to organizations advocating for animal or environmental causes. Thus, the app not only encourages you to continue your vegetarian exploration but also to financially support organizations committed to animal welfare or planet preservation.

App #4: Vegan Maps

As the name suggests, Vegan Maps is a mapping service dedicated to vegan options (and therefore also suitable for vegetarians). It is a minimalist but effective application, ideal for those primarily seeking 100 percent vegan places or offering a wide selection of dishes without any animal products.

Vegetarian and Vegan Mapping

  • 100 percent vegan establishments: The app clearly highlights fully vegan addresses, a good criterion if you want to avoid any risk of encountering meat or dairy products.
  • Global presence: Although the application is newer, it covers a large number of destinations, especially American and European metropolises.
  • Clear interface: The interactive map directly shows the location of restaurants, cafes, bars, and even shops related to a vegan lifestyle (clothing, shoes, cosmetics).

Main Advantages

  1. No-frills navigation: Vegan Maps gets straight to the point, making it very accessible for those who want a quick solution for lunch or dinner.
  2. Clarity of information: Each listed place is categorized (restaurant, food truck, etc.) and has an average rating and a few reviews.
  3. GPS integration: You can start navigation with one click to get there.

Minor Limitations

  • Fewer local options: Depending on the destination, the database may not be as extensive as HappyCow, for example.
  • Focus on vegan: If you’re a flexitarian or traveling with omnivorous people, you’ll have fewer choices, as the app mainly lists vegan addresses.
  • Less community interaction: There are generally fewer reviews and photos than on other more popular platforms.

App #5: Vegsafe (or Veggie Safe)

Vegsafe, sometimes called Veggie Safe depending on the versions and updates, is an app that allows you to easily decipher the composition of a dish or product to check if it potentially contains animal-derived ingredients. For a vegetarian traveler, it’s a valuable aid, especially in regions where the language barrier sometimes makes reading labels challenging.

Focus on Dish Composition

  • Additive analysis: It can be complicated to know if an additive (E120, E441, etc.) is synthetic or comes from an animal source. Vegsafe guides you by specifying which substances to avoid.
  • Translations in multiple languages: In many destinations, the ingredient list may not be available in English or French. The app provides quick translation tools to detect potentially problematic elements.
  • Barcode scanning: For some packaged products, you can directly scan the barcode to get information on the origin of the ingredients.

Offline Options

Vegsafe offers in some versions the possibility to download an offline database. This allows you to make checks even if you don’t have internet access or are in a remote location. It’s particularly advantageous when traveling in an area with unstable mobile connectivity.

Why Adopt It

  • Reliability: The app is regularly updated to integrate new information on additives or ingredients discovered in international trade.
  • Time-saving: Instead of spending ten minutes trying to translate a label and doing a Google search on an unknown additive, you’ll find the information directly on the app.
  • Peace of mind: For vegetarians and vegans, it’s often reassuring to control product traceability.

General Tips for a Successful Vegetarian Trip

Beyond these five apps, a successful vegetarian trip also relies on some good practices. Apps are there to facilitate your quest for restaurants, recipes, and products that align with your beliefs and health. But they don’t do everything. Here are some additional tips and tricks:

Do Preliminary Research

Before leaving, find out about the culinary culture of the country or region you are visiting. Some places are well-known for their variety of meatless dishes (like India or Sri Lanka), while others may require more preparation. Check vegetarian travel blogs, watch videos, and of course, download the mentioned apps in advance.

Learn Some Key Words in the Local Language

Being able to say “I am vegetarian” or “No meat, please” in the local language can prevent many misunderstandings. Prepare a small list of specialized vocabulary:

  • “No eggs”
  • “No milk”
  • “No fish”
  • “No meat”
  • “Vegetarian” / “Vegan”

This initiative is often well-received by restaurateurs, who will do their best to accommodate you.

Prepare Your Own Meals When Possible

If you’re staying in a hostel, apartment, or camper, consider cooking from time to time. This way, you’ll be sure of the composition of your dishes, and you can buy your vegetables, legumes, and grains at local markets, which often provides an opportunity to better discover the culinary culture of the country. Apps are not only for finding restaurants: some, like abillion, also help locate stores or stands with suitable products.

Some simple meal ideas to cook while traveling:

  • Lentil and raw vegetable salad (carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.).
  • Hummus and raw vegetable sandwich, very quick to prepare.
  • Vegetable curry (zucchini, eggplant, chickpeas) if you have access to a small kitchenette.
  • Grilled vegetable wrap, topped with vegan cheese or a sauce made from plant-based yogurt.

This culinary autonomy is a great ally to avoid being dependent on an open restaurant or the hospitality of tourist spots.

Conclusion

These five applications (HappyCow, Vanilla Bean, abillion, Vegan Maps, Vegsafe) form a solid foundation for organizing a vegetarian trip. They cover almost all the needs you may face: finding a restaurant that meets your requirements, discovering new dishes, checking a product’s composition, or locating the nearest addresses on a map. Technologies are constantly evolving, and new features appear (or new apps emerge), but these classics are already well-tested by the vegetarian community.

To travel with peace of mind, remember to:

  • Download the apps and their offline content (list of addresses, additive databases…) before leaving.
  • Note the community’s reviews and advice.
  • Learn some key expressions in the local language.

And most importantly, don’t forget to fully enjoy your trip. Discovering new flavors and making great encounters is at the heart of travel. Being vegetarian should not be a hindrance, quite the opposite. These apps and tips will help you immerse yourself in the local culture by exploring its often unexpected and fascinating vegetarian side. Have a great trip and bon appétit!