vegan travel

Join me for a vegan desert adventure

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Times are changing and the way we do a lot of regular activities has to change, too.

As you probably know, I recently co-created Vegan Culinary Cruises to host 100% vegan cruise vacations with our first departure was set for New Year’s Eve 2021/2022.

Everything was set and bookings were coming in and then… yep. The global crisis happened.

All cruise lines around the globe have put everything on hold. Our VCC departures will be back in the future, but in the meantime I wanted to help people plan vacations for 2022 so we came up with the idea to host land tours and vacations.

Say hello to VCC Adventures.

VCC Adventures showcases our land-only-based adventures for vegan and vegan-curious travellers looking to enjoy a 100% plant-based adventure holiday filled to the brim exciting exploration coupled with our signature delicious vegan cuisine. With exciting itineraries taking in some of the most beautiful, fun-filled destinations on the planet, VCC Adventures is the perfect vacation for compassionate travellers looking to get the most out of a vegan travel experience.

WHAT ABOUT THE 2022 ADVENTURE?

Join FGV and VCC Adventures for a vegan desert vacation in Utah, one of the most naturally breathtaking locations on the planet.

Our hotel-based adventure scheduled for May 15-20, 2022 is the perfect way to ease back into vegan travel as we all patiently wait for the cruise ships to hit the waters again.

Our 5-night, 6-day getaway is packed full of food, fun, and unforgettable sightseeing.

Nature set Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the Grand Canyon ablaze with copper-hued chasms and theatrical formations. Explore the diverse symphony of forest, desert, plateau, and canyon in this spectacular combination of National Parks. No postcard could possibly prepare you for the chiseled vastness of the Grand Canyon, the monolithic oddities of Bryce Canyon, or the stunning cliffs of Zion.

Explore the wonders of the USA‘s Southwest, known as Colour Country, with our travel experts at VCC Adventures. Through the eons, the wind and water’s harsh power has created the red-rock formations, deep canyons, and towering cliffs that have become many of the world’s most famous natural attractions. This enormous geological playground features nature’s intricate forms and brilliant colours combine to offer a Western landscape getaway of incredible diversity and some of the most exhilarating outdoor adventures on earth.

Activities include park walking, bus and hiking tours, outdoor nature and wildlife lecture series, vegan inspired evening programming, and a special behind the scenes day and actives at the world-famous Best Friends Sanctuary.

THE PROGRAM

Our exclusive VCC Adventures tour program is perfect for every activity and ability level. On touring days clients can choose from two levels of walks/hikes in the National Parks:

  • Moderate: Easy walks and/or park bus tours with guided interpretation perfect for all ability levels
  • Adventure: More adventurous hikes with guided interpretation over varying terrain and elevation gain

You will also enjoy:

  • Education & Guiding: All tours are accompanied by our full-time naturalists and educators who bring to life the natural wonders, geology, ecology, Native American history, and so much more!
  • Special Guests: Sean O’Callaghan of Fat Gay Vegan oversees a unique line up of special guests. These experts and personalities from the vegan world will be on hand to regale guests via up close and personal storytelling, Q&A sessions, and insights into everything plant-based. These special guest sessions are unique to VCC Adventures and will conveniently take place during our bus trips, making our time on the road fun, informative, and engaging.
  • Vegan Cuisine: Our VCC Adventures staff bring to you our 100% plant-based signature vegan dining experience all from our very own on-site private kitchen and meeting dining facility, all included for the duration of your tour. Just as we do on all Vegan Culinary Cruises and VCC Lite journeys, our culinary team ensure the highest standards of vegan cuisine. All products are specially sourced, and our menus are created to be fun, unique, nutritious, and delicious.
  • Accommodations: We are based at our hotel in St George, Utah for the duration of the stay so there is no need to pack and unpack. St. George is the perfect location, centrally located for all nearby National Parks. We will enjoy our own beautiful private meeting space for all meals and programming.

If this desert land tour adventure sounds like the vacation for you, click here to find out more information about the itinerary and book your spot.

This is going to be a dream vegan vacation in the desert and a trip of a lifetime that you (and I) will never forget. I hope you can join me for a wonderful week.

Book now.

Ten years of FGV celebration cruise

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Ten years is a long time for a blog. A really long time.

I can hardly believe that in December 2020 I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of being Fat Gay Vegan.

It has been a wild ride of a decade and to look back in a positive way, I am hosting a week-long vegan cruise on the gorgeous Danube river.

Wanna celebrate ten years of FGV with me?!

Prices start from $1,499 USD per person.

Join me and Vegan Culinary Cruises for a week-long 100% vegan cruise on the Danube traveling from Budapest, Hungary to Passau, Germany between December 31, 2020 and January 7, 2021.

Full details of the cruise are online here.

As the cruise is a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Fat Gay Vegan, it is set to be a vegan experience like no other.

The cruise will feature:

  • morning yoga classes
  • incredible vegan cuisine served across three meals a day
  • special guests involved in cooking demos and panel discussions
  • disco and karaoke nights in the lounge
  • 100% vegan toiletries in each cabin
  • Wi-Fi access
  • 24h coffee and tea station
  • Teatime and cake
  • Midnight snack in the lounge
  • All day water and ice-tea in the lounge
  • Electrically assisted bicycles

Optional extras on the cruise will include:

  • city and vegan food tours
  • drinks packages
  • airport transfers

Cruise schedule

  • Day 1 December 31 Budapest
  • Day 2 January 1 Budapest
  • Day 3 January 2 Bratislava
  • Day 4 January 3 Vienna
  • Day 5 January 4 Villages of the Wachau Valley – Durnstein & Melk
  • Day 6 January 5 Linz
  • Day 7 January 6 Passau
  • Day 8 January 7 Passau: Depart

We take over the complete ship meaning this is a fully vegan cruise.

Help me celebrate my 10th anniversary as Fat Gay Vegan. I have met thousands of vegans and vegan-friendly people over the past decade and it would be wonderful to share this huge milestone with familiar faces.

Click here to get all the details and if you like what you see, book a cabin!

Follow Vegan Culinary Cruises on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

RSVP and invite friends via the Facebook event page.

7 amazing vegan dishes I recently ate

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If you have been taking notice of my ramblings lately, you’ll know that I have teamed up with a Seattle-based travel company to launch a brand new vegan cruise company.

Vegan Culinary Cruises is dedicated to luxurious 5-star travel. Everything about the cruises we design is for vegans and vegan-curious people and our adventures are 100% vegan.

The alcohol we serve. The toiletries in the cabins. The shore excursions we organise. And of course the cuisine. It’s all designed to be 100% vegan.

I recently teamed up with our chef Tobias for a week of workshopping our menus and I have to say it was not exactly tough work for me. I got to eat some truly delicious dishes.

I’ve picked my top 7 items Tobias and I developed (and my contribution was mostly tasting) for your viewing pleasure. I’d love to know your favourite:

First up in my cavalcade of deliciousness is this stunning omelette. I haven’t eaten a non-vegan omelette in more than 20 years so I can’t place myself as an expert, but this vegan version was incredible. It was so good, we are considering having an omelette bar at breakfast on our upcoming cruises.

Dense and sweet. That’s how I like my brownies and this one didn’t disappoint. The gooey topping was perfect.

If fried spring rolls are on a menu, I order them. I’m so happy Tobias put this starter together for me and the slightly charred bok choy was the perfect accompaniment.

When Tobias told me that he wanted to cook something for me that featured multiple types of beans, I was a bit suspicious. Beans aren’t that exciting, right? I was wrong! This casolette served with crunchy garlic bread and fresh radishes was one of the highlights of the week.

Moussaka is a little bit rare to come across when you eat vegan, so I was thrilled to be served this plate during our menu workshop week.

Here is my favourite dish from the week. Seitan strudel is now the love of my life thanks to this gorgeous creation. The flaky pastry was perfectly matched by the savoury seitan filling. Not shown were some crunchy roasted potatoes in a side bowl. I mean, come on!

I couldn’t possibly end this list without the inclusion of this delicious and decadent Crêpes Suzette. I am a sucker for fancy desserts and this knocked it out of the park. The ice cream you can spot in the photo was caramel flavoured and I fell in love with it.

There you have it. What do you think about these dishes we workshopped for Vegan Culinary Cruises?

You can see both of our 2020 cruises on the VCC website. First up is the LGBT-focused (although all are welcome) cruise on the Mekong through Vietnam and Cambodia in July, followed by a Rhone cruise through the South of France during the first week of November.

We currently have a huge special for early bookers of a US$1,000 discount per person for bookings before January 31, 2020.

Click here for all cruise information.

Follow Vegan Culinary Cruises on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Vegan business in Sri Lanka

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I recently enjoyed a wonderful email exchange with a vegan business owner in Sri Lanka.

Instead of me trying to give you all the details, I’ve asked Tashie Roberts to give you all the inside information on her venture called Smokey’s – The Brownie Bar:

Three and half years ago I became a vegan and because I missed cake and goodies, I learnt to bake vegan brownies. My non-vegan family and friends loved the brownies I baked and many people suggested that I sell a few brownies from home. The rest is history. Smokey’s – The Brownie Bar was born! It took off and people (not just vegans) loved my brownies and it got bigger and I realised I could no longer do it from home. I took a small place and decided to start up my own café. I invested every last cent I have in to opening up the café. Now, even though I do have a regular amount of business coming in from people that order my brownies and cakes for delivery, it isn’t nearly enough to run the café. Sri Lanka is a fairly poor country meaning not many people simply walk into the café off the streets. In the past month (34 days to be exact) that I have been open, I have noticed to my surprise that the majority of customers walking in have been vegan tourists that have found me on HappyCow. I am also the admin of Vegan Sri Lanka, the vegan community here in Sri Lanka where we discuss veganism, help vegan tourists with where to eat, what to eat and how to order, and many other things. The vegan community in Sri Lanka is tiny but there a lot more of us than when we first started our Vegan Sri Lanka journey three years ago. It is growing and we are seeing so much progress in Sri Lanka!

What an amazing story.

We can help Tashie and the vegan movement in Sri Lanka by liking and sharing the Smokey’s Facebook page. You can also follow them on Instagram.

If you are in the area, the exact address of Smokey’s – The Brownie Bar can be seen here thanks to Google Maps.

Vegan food in Gdańsk Poland

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Guest post from my amazing friend, Mirel.

I had heard the vegan food in Poland was amazing so when I found a particularly irresistible deal on flights, I gathered up some loved ones and headed to the port town of Gdansk.

We only had limited time during our visit but after narrowing the restaurant choice down to one winner, we headed off to Vegan Pizza Port. The whole menu looked amazing.

It was incredible! Between us, we had the seitan chops served with mash, two absolutely giant portions of lasagne and two different pizzas.

None of us could stop raving about the food. We could see pizza dough being expertly hand thrown in the open kitchen and whicheve cheese they were using was one of the best we’ve ever tasted.

The restaurant itself is lovely; warm and cosy but bright and welcoming too. The staff were really attentive and able to answer any questions we had. It’s well worth visiting Gdansk just to dine at this total gem of a place.

Follow Vegan Pizza Port on Facebook and Instagram.

Vegan in the Canary Islands

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Guest blog post by my fabulous friend, Gabi.

Vegan Surprise in the Canaries

So much for my detox holiday. I have just demolished a Jamaican beer stew, some grilled veg with Aioli and instead of dessert a delicious dumpling with mushrooms. So, now it’s just a cortado…I think. The tiramisu looks good though.

The London weather and all the snotty nosed people on the tube were getting to me, so I escaped to Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands for a spot of sunshine. Having booked an all-inclusive deal in a tourist resort my food expectations were extremely low and I thought it might be a good opportunity to do a bit of a detox. I thought my options were limited to salad, nuts and fruit with the occasional canary potatoes bathed in red and/or green mojo (delicious by the way).

I was in Corralejo on the very northern tip of the island, a smallish tourist town, with a strong surfer vibe. And it’s got no less than FOUR vegan restaurants! I couldn’t believe it. Particularly since two of these really made this slightly jaded Londoner’s palate sing. The first was Baobab, a little homely family run restaurant that’s open from 11 am – 4pm, so a perfect lunch spot. Home-made bread sandwiches with an array of veggies, spreads, sprouts and tofu. Also, fresh juices and salads. But the stars of the show for me were the specials. The first day I had fried marinated tofu with a potato bake and fresh organic salad, simple, great ingredients and I nearly licked the plate. The second day I couldn’t make up my mind between home-made cashew cheese with figs and other yummy things and some croquettes. The croquettes (Spinach I think, won). Yummy again. Followed by a delicious raw chocolate and pistachio cake. Sitting in the sun, by a square, I was happy. Their English was rather basic so I didn’t get the full lowdown on this family run enterprise.

It was another restaurant though that sounded the death knell to my detox. Past & Future only opened a few months ago, and I ate there four times. And always way too much because I really wanted to try as much as possible. As much as I love street food, it was so nice to sit in a proper restaurant, have good food and wine not get totally fleeced. Even though there are some Indian/Indonesian/Jamaican outliers on the menu, to me the food is European soul food. Proper home-made pasta (Ravioli with truffled cream sauce, really good lasagne), German/Austrian dumplings, fresh crisp salads, Canarian stews, Tiramisu and parfait for dessert.

The restaurant is owned and run by the vivacious polyglot Aida Le Pesqueur who can rattle off her menu in what seems like 15 languages and gave me a bit of an insight into the Canary Island vegan scene. She is helping to organise the island’s first vegan festival on May 19th-20th in the capital Puerto del Rosario. Le Pesqueur moved her restaurant from Cologne to Corralejo last year and credits the arrival of a number of Italian restauranteurs in recent years with the sudden flurry of vegan activity in the town. Her own ambition is either to franchise Past & Future or to open a vegan hotel on the island.

The other two vegan spots are H20, a daytime café which is really good too. It has the standard vegan fare of juices, salads and burgers, and does a full English breakfast, hence I wasn’t as excited. D Sanchez is a burger bar that gets a lot of love online for its fresh food and craft beer, but I didn’t make it there. It does look good from the outside though.

The vegan cruise is over

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I am tired but happy.

Right this very moment I am sitting on my bed in west London after calling a cruise ship home for the past week. It has been a wonderful trip with lots of unique experiences.

I’m about to post all my favourite photos from the trip with Vegan Travel, but I also need to remind you of the next wonderful adventure coming up.

Click here to read about the New Year’s Eve cruise heading out of Amsterdam on December 29, 2016. It is going to be a trip to remember!

Now my photos from the south of France!

Fab salad plate on the #vegancruise today. Incredible maple mustard dressing. #vegan #vegantravel

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

If I see ONE MORE enchanting castle in the stunning French countryside… #vegan #vegancruise #vegantravel

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Just devoured this sloppy cannelloni for lunch on the France #vegancruise #vegan #vegantravel

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

So pretty! Lunchtime dessert on the #vegancruise today is pineapple rice pudding with cream! #vegan #vegantravel

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Ratatouille with rosemary potatoes for dinner on the #vegancruise tonight. #vegan #vegantravel

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Enjoying a rain day on the river with a bottle of @fritzkola #vegancruise #vegantravel #vegan

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Dang! Afternoon #vegan cake on the @vegantravel cruise. #vegancruise

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Josh is getting VERY comfortable with living on a cruise ship. Pot of tea and a 500 piece jigsaw!

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Hanging out in my cabin, watching France roll past. Dreamy times on the south of France #vegancruise with @vegantravel

A video posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on


Get booking for the next cruise. You’ll love it!

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New Year’s Eve with FGV

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You all know I love being involved in special vegan get-togethers and gatherings.

Whether I’m presiding over a beer festival or watching diners be treated to a special meal, one of my favourite things to do in life is to create opportunities for people to enjoy being vegan.

This love affair with being social is being taken to a whole new level at the end of the year as I jump on board the New Year’s Eve cruise hosted by Vegan River Cruises that just happens to be setting sail from Amsterdam.

I’m so excited!

Following on from last year’s NYE adventure down the Danube, I know exactly what to expect from the 2016/2107 journey. But maybe you don’t, so let me fill you in.

This year’s NYE vegan cruise runs between December 29, 2016 and January 4, 2017 with the starting and final port of call being the gorgeous city of Amsterdam.

After spending the first night docked in Amsterdam, the cruise sets off for a magical journey along waterways as the boat visits Rotterdam, Brussels, Antwerp and Maastricht before gliding back to Amsterdam.

We are going to be wowed by the scenery as we pass medieval towns and windmill-studded fields.

The ship itself is enough to make you want to book this holiday. Check out some photos below before I jump into telling you what you get on board:

01-emerald-sky-moored-at-cologne-e1397170956920-1024x527 amsterdam-canal-night balconysuiteemerald brussels emerald-sky-in-koblenz emeraldbar emeraldsuite emerladpooldsc_994_3329885k-1 ftdc_emeraldwaterways-pool_at_nightindoorbalconysuite lobby_emerald r0_0_3543_2362_w1200_h678_fmax swimming_pool_onboard_emerald_waterways

Well, there isn’t too much more I need to say about the ship that the photos haven’t already conveyed.

These ships are the equivalent of a 5-star hotel on water. The suites are luxurious with ultra-comfortable beds and well-appointed bathrooms.

All of your meals are included on the NYE cruise, so you don’t need to spend any money while on board. Yep. That’s right. Breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day is served to you at no extra charge and of course every single thing on the ship is 100% vegan.

In addition to your three meals a day, the cruise includes afternoon tea with cakes and a late night snack. All wine, beer and cocktails are included in the price you pay for the cabin. You will not be asked to pay for any food or drink while on board. Of course, all of the wines and beers are 100% vegan.

There is free WiFi in all suites and on board entertainment including a karaoke night hosted by me and my partner Josh!

You can explore the cities and towns where we dock either on your own or by paying to join some of the organised shore excursions. You can even make use of the electric bicycles on board the ship to adventure throughout the surrounding countryside. If you choose to stay on board for most of the trip, you can make use of the pool (!) and gym.

I’m incredibly excited to be part of this luxury cruise and proud to be involved with a business that goes to great effort to give passengers a completely vegan experience. Heck, even the toiletries in your suite are vegan!

Will I see you on board over New Year’s Eve?

Click here to see full details including pricing and to begin booking your vegan holiday.

Copenhagen 2016

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Post by:

joe panel

You know, I’ve got no excuse to go on holiday to Copenhagen again. There are so many new vegan places in Berlin that I’ve failed to tell you about (though that will soon be rectified, I promise!), yet here I am trotting off to Denmark again.

Anyway, the good news is that since my last visit a year ago, Copenhagen’s vegan selection has improved considerably. In addition to seeing more vegan options in non-vegan places, there are a few new all-vegan restaurants too (and they’re not of the faddy health food variety that dominated previously). Here’s the low-down on two of them.

I think our favourite new place was Souls. Located on a quiet but pretty square in the residential area of Østerbro, Souls is a real step up for vegan fare in Denmark.

We had two sandwiches, and they were not only huge but incredibly tasty too. Photographed here you can see a “Soulful BBQ” which includes grilled mushrooms and tofu, and the Kidney Bean which includes something like Mexican-style refried beans and guacamole, among other ingredients. One sandwich (or “sanger” in their Australian parlance) is plenty of food for one person, but you can order some sweet potato fries now, if you have room.

Souls-Copenhagen-sandwich-2 Souls-Copenhagen-sandwich-1 Souls-Copenhagen-outdoor-seating

They also have a (US-style) pancake brunch, which we never made it to, much to our regret!

We also visited Café N which has a wide range of food available. They have some tasty croissants (the best vegan croissants I’ve had, maybe) and enjoyable sandwiches and sides, as well as full-plate meals (and the portions are generous here, too). You can see a big sandwich crammed full of mushrooms and tofu, with some chunky fries and home-made mayonnaise dip artfully blurred in the background.

Cafe-N-Copenhagen-sandwiches-and-chunky-fries Cafe-N-Copenhagen-board

My only complaint about Café N is that they stop taking orders at 9pm, but their website doesn’t mention this (just says they close at 10pm). Come on guys, it’s easy to put that information on there! The staff were very friendly and directed us to another restaurant that had some so-so vegan options, but it was still disappointing, especially as we could have got there earlier if we’d known.

Anyway, those are my latest recommendations for Copenhagen. I hope the city continues to expand for vegans… maybe one day it will catch up to Berlin!

south of france cruise

Vegan surf camp

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What follows on this page is one of my favourite guest posts of all time.

I won’t explain as Elena from The Vegan Society does such an amazing job. My words would only get in the way.

Vegan Surf Camp By Elena Orde from The Vegan Society

Sun, miles and miles of beaches and all the delicious food you can eat… have I got your attention yet? Vegan Surf Camp is a haven for globetrotting vegans, located in the wonderfully green Plage-Moliets in the South of France. The camp runs throughout July and August each year, and I was lucky enough to visit in the second week of their season.

Let’s begin with the important stuff… the incredible food. Each night the staff laid out an array of amazing homemade dishes. A few examples include mushroom and seitan stew, crispy garlic bread, tomato and ‘tofu feta’ salad, vegetable tempura, burgers, fried potatoes, plus the camp’s own vegan mayo, which they literally made by the bucket.

dinner spread plate1 plate3 plate2

As a complete surfing newb I didn’t know how I would take to it. But with the guidance of the surf instructor I actually managed to stand up on the board a handful of times over the course of the week (before plunging into the sea and having a little drink of ocean each time). So I think that counts as a win.

If surfing isn’t your bag, the camp has so much else to offer. You can go for walks along the coast or in the surrounding woodland, become embroiled in ping-pong wars, or lounge around the camp’s outdoor bar in their rainbow-striped hammocks or on their rustic decking complete with cat-patterned upcycled cushions. It’s all gloriously Instagrammable.

beach and vsc flag decking hammock2 surf crew beach

The camp also offers daily outdoor yoga sessions in the woods. What with the warm breeze and the chirruping wildlife, the atmosphere was so relaxing that I found myself dozing off during the end-of-session Savasana. I can definitely get behind a yoga pose which basically consists of having a bit of a lie-down with your eyes closed.

yoga

The only downsides to the camp were due to my own lack of preparation. If you’re going, take suncream. Take a lot of it, and use it. Or you will end up like me, with randomly-placed patches of sunburn from where you fell asleep in the sun and your towel slipped off a bit. Also: come prepared with mozzie repellent. I found myself having some very un-vegan thoughts towards these little guys as they nibbled on me in the evenings.

Members of The Vegan Society receive 5% off their Vegan Surf Camp booking fee, plus hundreds of other great discounts. Sign up here.

Vegan Surf Camp runs throughout July and August each year. Get more details and pricing here: https://envegansummercamp.wordpress.com/

south of france cruise