An afternoon tea in a prestigious five-star hotel in Paris, an après-ski in Whistler, seeing gorillas in the wild in Rwanda, sunset drinks in carved out boats in Botswana's Okavango Delta while observing incredible birdlife, visiting a sanctuary for ex-circus bears in the Black Forest in Germany... These are things most vegans don't have the opportunity to enjoy on typical group holidays or even when traveling independently, but they do when traveling on a group tour with World Vegan Travel.
More people are choosing a vegan lifestyle than ever before. However when it comes to travel, especially luxury travel, there are few options available. Vegans are often short-changed on the meals they are provided on conventional tours and itineraries often include activities that vegans are uncomfortable with.
World Vegan Travel, a tour operator started in 2018 in Asia by former group tour guides and long-term travelers Brighde Reed and Sebastien Ranger. They create carefully-curated trips to give vegans, and the vegan-curious, a luxury experience and they have recently relocated their lives and business from Asia to Squamish, BC, Canada.
The company works with five-star hotels and gourmet restaurants, teaching them how to select and craft delicious, provincial, vegan meals. On their last trip to Alsace, France, guests stayed at a 16th-century inn where Napoleon reportedly spent a night, and dined on local dishes like tarte flambée, coq au vin, cheese fondue and finished off with Crêpes Suzette, Kougelhopf, and Bûche de Noël. All vegan of course.
Itineraries are carefully designed to include activities that promote activities or organizations that protect animals, not exploit them. Activities such as elephant riding, fishing, and visiting zoos are replaced with visits to sanctuaries, wilderness hikes, and safaris where travelers can view animals in natural habitats.
World Vegan Travel also offers trips hosted by vegan influencers, giving their followers intimate time with their favorite personalities for unforgettable experiences in spectacular locations where it is often hard to be vegan, such as Rwanda, Thailand, Vietnam and France.
“There are a million other tours to choose from, but these trips have the integrity that I was looking for,” said traveler Lynda. Brighde, one of the co-founders, says “World Vegan Travel is filling a niche by creating luxury experiences that align with the values of vegans.”