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Being a Vegetarian on holiday

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My teenage daughter became vegetarian last year (went to school a meat eater and came home veggie!) Faddy as a meat eater, she's not much better having eliminated it.

Since then we've had 2 family holidays. Last year we did a few days in Belgium, very few veggie choices when eating out (we stayed in a hotel) but we managed by looking at every menu and then eating when something suitable was found. Breakfast was better as it was buffet style at the hotel.

We've just returned from a fortnight in Florida, and I thought vegetarian options would be better there - they weren't! Thankfully we were self catering but the options for eating out weren't great. I've lost count of how many cheese and tomato pizzas she had! The worst one was when ordering an egg muffin at a McD's off their all day breakfast menu. when she opened it, it had a slice of ham on it! When I took it back with the receipt convinced they'd messed the order up I got a rather sharp response of 'what were you wanting on it?' and surprised that egg and a cheese slice was all that was required. I know McD's isn't a great choice anyway but she wanted to go 'cos it's got free wi-fi' At the airport I had to ask about why all the fries were listed as 'parmesan fries' and then explain I didn't want the automatic sprinkling of cheese over a portion. This sort of thing happened so often, I started questiong if Americans use a different word to us for vegetarian, as they didn't seem to grasp what I meant?

Anyway for my dilemma, my mind is turning to next years hols and am wondering where to go to not have a huge issue about what she eats. Self catering would be the obvious answer, but she'd like a holiday where other kids of her age would be but I'm relucantant to book a hotel if she can't eat the meals.

Am hoping some more 'experienced' vegetarians can give more some pointers about holidays abroad and their dietery needs.

Thanks.
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Comments

  • mvteng
    mvteng Posts: 514 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    Agree with you that florida is far from veggie friendly.

    Without knowing what type of holiday you are looking for its hard to recommend, but from experience, Greece, Turkey, Italy, India , Thailand are all very veggie friendly
  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,664 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Hi, Thanks for reply. Ideally we'd like to go somewhere in Europe eg Spain.

    I hadn't thought of Italy, that would make sense them having more vegetarian options.
  • GwylimT
    GwylimT Posts: 6,530 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    South East Asia is very veggie friendly.

    My wife doesn't eat meat when out and about, so it is like going on holiday with a vegetarian, typically we go self catered, we have been to a few catered places, but eating hotel food day in and day out just isn't us.

    Spain is a good choice, lots of dishes are vegetarian, be careful in Italy, they put parmesan in so called vegetarian dishes.
  • peachyprice
    peachyprice Posts: 22,346 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 28 August 2017 at 4:35PM
    Spain should be ok, tapas would be ideal as you can each choose several individual dishes to suit your needs, there are usually a lot of vegetable dishes available.

    Presumably as she was eating cheese and tomato pizza she can eat parmesan? So Italy would be good too, there are lots of non-meat pasta dishes available, and of course pizza!
    Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence and face your future without fear
  • GwylimT
    GwylimT Posts: 6,530 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Spain should be ok, tapas would be ideal as you can each choose several individual dishes to suit your needs, there are usually a lot of vegetable dishes available.

    Presumably as she was eating cheese and tomato pizza she can eat parmesan? So Italy would be good too, there are lots of non-meat pasta dishes available, and of course pizza!

    Parmesan is not vegetarian.
  • Rebecca01
    Rebecca01 Posts: 732 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    This summer I have been to NYC, Copenhagen, Miamisnd Las Vegas. I have never had a problem with veggie options at all.

    That is annoying re Mc Donalds though.

    I would have just picked it off though but I know some people are funny if it touches the meat.
  • z1a
    z1a Posts: 2,522 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    "I started questiong if Americans use a different word to us for vegetarian, as they didn't seem to grasp what I meant?"
    I think they refer to it as "Meat free".
  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,664 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Rebecca01 wrote: »
    This summer I have been to NYC, Copenhagen, Miamisnd Las Vegas. I have never had a problem with veggie options at all.

    That is annoying re Mc Donalds though.

    I would have just picked it off though but I know some people are funny if it touches the meat.
    She won't eat it if it's touched the meat. Another night we did a dinner show, the pizzas came out all half and half cheese and pepperoni. The slice server had been put on the meat half. With great difficulty I explained that I required an additional server because it had touched the meat. The waitress wanted to take the original one away, not understanding that I needed 2.

    Are you able to give some examples of what vegetarian options were on the menus at the places you visited?

    Re - the cheese and tomato pizza. I'm not aware that parmesan would automatically be put on a margarita pizza. Is that the case? As said parmesan isn't vegetarian. Pizzas were frequently the only option she had when dining out.
  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,664 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    z1a wrote: »
    "I started questiong if Americans use a different word to us for vegetarian, as they didn't seem to grasp what I meant?"
    I think they refer to it as "Meat free".
    Ahh thank you. Will remember that for any future visits.
  • z1a
    z1a Posts: 2,522 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    None of us are veggie, but there seemed to be a reasonable selection of options in Crete where we've just returned from.
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