10 Best Countries for Vegetarian or Vegan Travel
For vegan or vegetarian travelers, maintaining a strict vegan/vegetarian diet while traveling can sometimes be extremely challenging. Luckily there are plenty of places where vegetarianism is commonplace and even encouraged (specifically in Buddhist countries).
Here are 10 countries where vegetarian travelers should have an easier time finding vegetarian restaurants (listed alphabetically):
- Canada
- Hong Kong
- India
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Vietnam
photo credit: NatalieMaynor
I would argue that the best country to eat vegetarian or vegan is the one where you work on an organic farm. During our experience WWOOFing in El Bolson, Argentina the diet was almost entirely vegetarian, with plenty of vegan options at every meal.
A great resource for finding vegetarian restaurants is Happy Cow. Check out their list (from 11/2008) of the top vegetarian cities in the world:
When looking at the list, remember that these are the number of restaurants in each city, and it doesn’t take into account the size or population of the cities.
1. Singapore, Asia (144) [GGTG note: The list seems to encompass all of Singapore and not just Singapore City.]
2. London, England (135) (*201)
3. New York City, New York (121) (*237)
4. Bangkok, Thailand (73)
5. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (72)
6. Taipei, Taiwan (63)
7. Sao Paulo, Brazil (59)
8. Los Angeles, California (59)
9. Chicago, Illinois (58)
10. Tokyo, Japan (55)
11. Toronto, Ontario (52)
12. Berlin, Germany (49)
13. Montreal, Quebec (49)
14. Portland, Oregon (49)
15. North West London, England (49)
16. Seattle, Washington (48)
17. Chiang Mai, Thailand (48)
18. San Francisco, California (44)
19. Barcelona, Spain (44)
20. Sydney, New South Wales (43)
21. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (43)
22. London, England (43)
23. Vancouver, British Columbia (43)
24. Mexico City, Mexico (43)
25. Brooklyn, New York (42)
26. Dubai, United Arab Emirates (40)
27. San Diego, California (38)
28. Java, Indonesia (38)
29. Munich, Germany (38)
30. Paris, France (37)
31. Vienna, Austria (37)
32. Taichung, Taiwan (35)
33. Penang, Malaysia (34)
34. Minneapolis, Minnesota (33)
35. Madrid, Spain (30)
36. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (30)
37. Houston, Texas (29)
38. Kathmandu, Nepal (29)
39. Prague, Czech Republic (28)
40. Stockholm, Sweden (28)
41. Oslo, Norway (28)
42. Atlanta, Georgia (28)
43. Kowloon, Hong Kong (28)
44. South West London, England (27)
45. Auckland, New Zealand (27)
46. Kyoto, Japan (26)
47. Washington, District Of Columbia (26)
48. Bali, Indonesia (26)
49. Las Vegas, Nevada (26)
50. Buenos Aires, Argentina (26)
51. Lisbon, Portugal (26)
The best city in California for vegans and vegetarians is most definitely Nevada City, Grass Valley California! The best organic stores, the best restaurants with so many to choose from. It is definitely a vegetarian dream!
I’m not much of a meat eater and I was PSYCHED by how many options there were for me in Vietnam! Wow, did I feast on fine food. I was also really surprised in the meat and potato country of Austria how many excellent veggie meals I had. Even in small towns there were surprisingly delicious options. I’m tellin ya, a spinach and goat cheese strudel? That’s a good thing.
And what about Italy?? All that pasta and risotto and baked vegetable casserole and vegetarian pizza… seems to me this is a vegetarian country par excellence!
Another great source for savvy vegetarians is Judy Kingsbury’s website http://www.savvyvegetarian.com
1. Singapore, Asia (144) [GGTG note: The list seems to encompass all of Singapore and not just Singapore City.]
That’s cause we only have one city in Singapore, and that is Singapore…
we are a city-state-country!
Didn’t know we had so many vegan restaurants tho… interesting..
hmm… not impressed with malaysia - lots of ’seitan’ revolting pretend meat, served as fake shark! why do they think vegetarians want to eat pretend dead flesh? especially bizarre things like shark. brighton (uk) amazing, especially terre-a-terre restaurant.
hayden here lots of great food on this website
In my opinion, the best vegetarian or vegan diet is from the Mediterranean diet. Of course in recent year, much meat has been added into their selection of food. But look at what they eat originally — it was all veg…healthy stuff and full of goodness.
If going to Toronto, Canada, the Kensington Market area in the downtown core is the best area for vegan dining.
Re. Toronto. I wholeheartedly agree. I’d go back to the Kensington area just for 666 Buddha (located at 666 Dundas, just a little west of the core, Eaton’s Centre). Huge portions of excellent vegan Buddhist Chinese food. Faux meat options but we made out just fine with the massive bowls of hot and sour soup and mushroom and veg stir fry. I do remember the mock duck being pretty outstanding.
that’s wrong israel is one of the best countries for vegetarians it is over than 8% of the population are vegetraians! we have alot of vegetarian resturents, and all the food is marked if it is meat,not meat and not milk products, milk products…and all of this makes your life easyer as vegetarian!
Honestly, Barcelona is NOT good for a vegetarian. I have lived there myself and they put tuna in so called “vegetarian” meals. Stockholm should definitely be above Barcelona.
I was surprised not to see Australia on your list!
India is heaven for the vegetarians , in each and every city of india u can find plenty of vegetarian hotels , i’ll say india is no.1 vegetarian country