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Finding Vegan Restaurants: HappyCow

Posted on August 29, 2022January 24, 2023

Past Monday I came back from my holiday. I traveled to Budapest with my partner and two friends (the coming weeks I’ll tell you more about the traveling itself). Today I want to talk about another sustainability aspect while on the road: vegan food. I personally find the Netherlands a walhalla for vegan food (but we can do much better) and I know where to look for vegan food. But in other countries this can be tricky. Luckily there’s an amazing website/app for finding vegan restaurants: HappyCow.

Veganism

For me personally, veganism is not just a diet. Diets are temporary. Therefore, I don’t consider myself as someone who is on a diet. For me, veganism is an ideology and I consider myself an ethical vegan. Want to know why I am a vegan? Consider reading this, this or this post. But anyway, since veganism is an ideology, it’s not something I will let go off. Not on a holiday, not when people have difficulties with it, not when it gets difficult, not ever.

Abroad

I have found my way in the Netherlands when it comes to veganism. I soon will celebrate my 5th vegan anniversary and so it’s become my baseline. However, I have to admit that it can be difficult when you’re abroad. I’m usually not familiar in foreign countries. And so, when I go on a holiday it gets a little tricky to find vegan restaurants. But as I said, I will not let go of my vegan lifestyle just because it gets tricky. I won’t let my personal values go. And also, if there are little vegan options in a city or country, I want those options to grow. For the next vegans that will visit. If I let go and say: ‘vegetarian is fine’ then we will never get much further.

Non-vegan vs. vegan restaurants

With that small battle in mind, it’s always a difficult decision whether to go to a non-vegan restaurant or a vegan restaurants. If I visit the non-vegan restaurants I send a signal, I remind them to put a vegan option on the menu. For me personally this is the most uncomfortable option, because not everybody understands what veganism is. Also, if you’re going with a group of non-vegans out for dinner, you will usually go to a non-vegan restaurants since veganism is not the norm (yet).

On the other hand, there are the vegan restaurants, 100% vegan. I find it extremely important to support those restaurants. First of all because it’s the best option for me personally. There’s no awkwardness of having to ask if they have any vegan option at all. I can order anything on the menu. And usually the food is magnificent. And secondly this also send a signal. When vegan restaurants do well, more will open. So both options, choosing to go to a non-vegan or vegan restaurant send an important signal. The latter is just easier for me personally.

HappyCow

So, if I could choose myself, I would always go for the vegan restaurants abroad as well. But how do you find vegan restaurants in a country you’re not familiar with? That’s not difficult if you have the right tool. You honestly only need just one: HappyCow. HappyCow is a website and app where you can just type in any city in the world (yes, all around the globe!) and it shows you which vegan restaurants there are in a city and where they are. I personally always use the website because I don’t like too many apps on my phone.

So here’s what I did the past month: I just typed in Budapest on the homepage of HappyCow and then selected a filter. HappyCow is also for vegetarians and so you can choose between 3 filters. HappyCow can show either 100% vegan restaurants, vegetarian restaurants and restaurants that offer vegan options. I always select the ‘vegan’ option and tadaa, a list of vegan restaurants appears with a map and their location in the city you’re visiting.

Finding Vegan Restaurants: HappyCow
Finding Vegan Restaurants: HappyCow

How to Use HappyCow

As I said, it’s really easy. Just type in your location, choose the vegan filter and the website/app will show you a list of vegan restaurants! There are more elaborate filters available as well. Some examples for what you can think of, there are filters when you’re looking for bakeries, vegan supermarkets, bed and breakfasts, juice bars, farmer’s markets, and the list goes on. But so far, I have only used HappyCow for finding vegan restaurants.

When the website/app shows you the list of restaurants, you can then click on a single restaurant. The next page will then inform you about the opening hours, the price range, the location, a redirection to the website, their contact information, reviews, and very important: pictures! I usually select the option which looks the most tasty, or which is a ‘Top Rated’ restaurant.

Finding Vegan Restaurants: HappyCow

Contribute to HappyCow

There are also ways to contribute to HappyCow yourself. I would say the best way to contribute is to list new vegan restaurants if you know of any which are not on the website yet. You have to do this through a form and there are submission guidelines on this. If you do so, vegan options available around the world become known to many vegans! Another way to contribute is to write a review of vegan restaurants you visited. But beware, writing reviews and listing new restaurants can only be done if you have an account (which is free). You can also order vegan stickers for spreading the vegan word in your city via HappyCow. Want to find out about more ways to contribute? Check out the HappyCow website.

Easy

So, there you have it: a very useful tool to finding vegan restaurants: HappyCow! It’s honestly the only tool you need when finding vegan restaurants. I personally always use HappyCow when I’m abroad. Let’s turn this world vegan!

Did you know about this tool to finding vegan restaurants: HappyCow?

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Ik gebruik al jaren een bamboe tandenborstel, die van Humble Brush 🎋. Naast dat hun product duurzaam is, doen ze ook wat moois met de winst. Dat maakt een product nou echt eco-positief! Je leest meer over poetsen met bamboe op mijn blog, via de link in mijn bio. Vandaag op de blog: iets waarbij de relatie met eco-positief leven wat indirect is: diëten. Januari is dé maand waarin veel mensen weer aan het diëten slaan en daarom leek het me goed om deze post nog net op de valreep in januari te delen. De blog van vandaag gaat slechts over één van de vele nadelen van diëten: het leidt ons af van wat echt belangrijk is 🧐. Weten waarom ik dat denk? Lees dan nu het artikel via de link in mijn bio. Ik ga dit jaar weer de challenge aan om de winter door te komen zonder de warming aan te zetten. Hiervoor ging mijn essential, een warmwaterkruik 💦, kapot. In deze reel laat ik je zien hoe ik een ‘nieuwe’ tweedehands kruik kocht. Vandaag te lezen op whenateengoesgreen.com: een inspirerende documentary over Greta Thunberg: I am Greta. Een documentaire over hoop, maar vooral over doorzettingsvermogen 🔥. Lees het nu via de link in mijn bio. Meer vegan producten in de schappen, yay! Gisteren probeerde ik voor het eerst de vegan lentil tikki masala saus van Patak’s 🧑🏼‍🍳. Zie in deze reel wat ik ervan vond. Vandaag verscheen er een nieuw artikel op mijn blog over: 5 dingen die ik niet koop. Want we denken vaak dat we dingen écht nodig hebben, maar vaak is dat niet zo 🧠. Check het artikel via de link in miijn bio. Vorige week verscheen er een artikel op mijn blog over alles wat ik nieuw kocht in 2022. Dat is een groot deel van mijn negatieve impact. Deze week was het tijd om te kijken naar de andere kant van de medaille. Vandaag lees je op mijn blog een artikel over al mijn positive impact in 2022 🌞. Je vind de link naar het artikel in de link in mijn bio. Afgelopen week verscheen er op mijn blog een artikel over alles wat ik nieuw heb gekocht in 2022. Eén ding op de lijst waren deze onderbroeken (een stuk of 20). En nu denk je misschien: waarom zou je in één keer zoveel onderbroeken kopen? Op 31 december, nog net op de valreep in 2022, kwam er een video online op mijn Youtube-kanaal over voedselcoöperaties. Ik denk namelijk dat voedselcoöperaties ons voedselsysteem democratischer en eerlijker kunnen maken 🥦.

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  • The last secondhand clothing inspiration of 2022
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  • 5 things I don’t buy
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