Hey!
Who doesn’t like to travel? I know that it’s one of those things that Lana and I really love to do. It’s a great way to gain perspective of your own place in the world and also a wonderful way to unwind.
Some of you may have followed Lana and I on our recent trip to Hawaii and Mexico. It was so inspiring to visit iconic locations and eat local food. We got to try lots of smoothies and even visited our stockist Sip Me cafe on the island of Maui.
Something that we don’t always show on social media is how we navigate our special dietary requirements when we travel. Both Lana and I don’t eat dairy or other animal products so what we find when we do go to new countries is that we have to do a little bit of research before we get there.
This means we look at the specific cuisine of the place we are visiting and try to see what way we can eat locally without too much fuss. For example, Mexico wasn’t too difficult. We chose rice and bean dishes and asked for no cheese. We still got to have awesome burritos, nachos and our other favourite Mexican dishes.
So while it’s still fresh in my mind, I thought I would jot down some handy tips to help you avoid the stress of finding the food you can eat when traveling.
MY 5 TOP TRAVEL TIPS for special dietary requirements
- Learn to communicate - if you're going to a country where they don’t speak english, learn the words to specific what you need. For example, if you don't have dairy learn how to say 'no dairy please'
- Put a call out on Facebook - If you are part of Facebook groups, for example gluten free or vegan groups, put out a post there before you go and say 'hey has anyone travelled here?' because you can get invaluable tips. That really helped us to find some really good eateries while we were in Mexico
- Buy or bring snacks! - If you are one of those people who need to eat every two hours or you get dips in energy, make sure you have plenty of snacks in your bag. We came prepared just in case it took a little longer to find appropriate meals in some small towns
- Use phone apps - Restaurant review apps like Trip Advisor or Yelp are great when traveling. You can check out what others have said or recommended then search the place on Instagram where you can see their food dished up
- Pre-arrange food for flight - This may seem obvious but sometimes we have forgotten and gone a 10 hour flight feeling insanely hungry! Make sure on your flight that you pre-arrange your dietary requirements and if you can't find it bring it
The great thing is it’s getting much easier to find specific foods to suit dietary needs now more than ever. So the message here is to do a little prepping and it will go a long way to having an awesome holiday experience. After all, don’t we want to make our way through all the delicious local cuisine?
Happy travels!
Yours in health,
(BHSc Nutritional Medicine)
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