How To Eat Great And Stick To Dietary Restrictions While Traveling
Enjoy local food culture while adhering to your diet by following these tips
Eating well on the road can be done with a bit of planning and helpful digital tools.
For most travelers, sampling a new city’s local cuisine is one of the best parts of being on the road. But if you have certain dietary restrictions, finding an appropriate meal away from home can sometimes feel more daunting than adventurous. Thankfully, as restaurateurs become increasingly aware of allergies and the like, they are cooking up new ways for everyone to sample their local flavor. Follow these tips for healthy eating while traveling and to find restaurants where you’ll have an excellent dining experience—regardless of your diet.
With the abundance of blogs, websites and review aggregators out there, it’s easier than ever to find out if a given restaurant can meet your dietary needs. Use Instagram’s Places feature to search for restaurants using terms like vegetarian or vegan—and as a bonus you get to see other user’s photos of the food. Or try searching hashtags like #vegantravel on social channels for a little crowd sourced foodie inspiration.
Reaching out to local interest groups can be a great way to get recommendations for niche shops or chefs who accommodate specific dietary restrictions. Many cities have meetups for things like celiac disease; contact the group’s administrator for tips on how you can best explore their city. Folks at the airport guest services desk may also have insider recommendations. Ask them to suggest restaurants that suit your needs; if they don’t know of any, they have a wide network of people ready to offer advice.
When they say “there’s an app for that,” they mean it. Many now cater to users with major dietary restrictions who are seeking out accommodating restaurants in their areas. Try AllergyEats, Find Me Gluten Free or HappyCow for the quickest way to find your perfect meal. These apps also offer tips for how to communicate with the wait staff and which questions to ask to ensure you get the food you need and want.
If there’s a specific restaurant you want to visit, but you aren’t sure if their menu is suitable, call ahead and ask if any modifications can be made. Chefs are often able to prepare dishes appropriate for a wide range of dietary restrictions if they’re given sufficient notice. And if your dish is amazing, don’t forget to leave an online review (on the restaurant’s website, Yelp, etc.)—it will help others in your situation find the same great food!
Even if you’re traveling within the U.S., many areas of the country use different terms than what you may be used to. It can be a bit like traveling to a country where you don’t speak the language. So be sure to do your research and find out relevant words and phrases, such as any regional terms for common ingredients, before you go. Make a note in your phone or write them down on a card so you can refer to them when you’re ordering.
Sometimes it’s just easier to pack your own food. For stressful, on-the-go situations like tight airport layovers, bring portable snacks such as carrots and hummus. Pack them in a container you can reuse over the course of your trip whenever you’ll be in a situation with few food options. Packaged, nonperishable snacks like granola bars are also a great choice.
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