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Hello All,
I'd love to spend time in the Canary Islands.... particularly because of the desirable climate, the natural beauty n' all.
If anyone has any experience out there, or knows of anywhere in particular to recommend - I'd appreciate any insight.
Blessings
Grace
Hi Grace, this book may have some interesting info for you:
http://www.vegetarianguides.co.uk/pr...newspain.shtml
Here's some other info:Quote:
The New Spain - Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants
By vegan chef and restaurateur Jean-Claude Juston
Over 100 vegetarian and vegan restaurants throughout Spain, Mallorca and the Canary islands. Includes 18 restaurants in Barcelona, a dozen places in Madrid, plus Alicante, Gerona, Granada, Las Palmas, Malaga, Murcia, Navarra, Pontevedra, Seville, Tarragona, Tenerife, Valladolid, Valencia, Vizcaya, Zaragoza and others. Also things to do in each area, places to see and shop, bookshops, cinemas, tourist offices, vegetarian magazines and websites and associations in Spain, and even some Spanish vegan recipes, for when you get home.
130 pages.
http://www.happycow.net/europe/spain/canary_islands/
Let me know if you find out more....!Quote:
El Mundo Verde
Calle Las Tapias, Urb. Guacimara (Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife)
922-368565
Vegan-friendly, Organic, Macrobiotic, International, Gourmet, Juice-bar, Beer/Wine
Closed on Mondays, open Tues-Sunday 12:30 - 23:00. Proprietors speak Spanish, German and English. Accept Credit Cards
i lived in the canary islands for a few years - tenerife to be precise. i was only vegetarian at the time and even that was a bit of a 'mare. i'm sure that being vegan over there would be a slog and you'd have a fairly dull diet. the canarios are big on their meat.
Hi,I'm from Gran canaria and I'm living in essex at the moment,it is not easy being vegan in spain.In canaries you can find vegetarian restaurants in big cities (las palmas or santa cruz de tenerife) surely you also can find local vegetarian groups,check on internet...) there are healthy food shops and you can buy vegan food there(although there are not too many stuff as in uk) marmite is impossible to find is canaries, all sliced bread contains milk, you can also try El Corte Ingles (big store) in diet setion you can find vegetarian food,read always the label,,,soya milk is not very good but in Carrefour you can find Alpro :),well it is not easy,for me england is the paradise for vegans,and I'm gonna stay here forever, I prefer vegan food than sun :) see ya
eva_orcinus@hotmail.com
Was eating out a nightmare, or was it hard to get what you needed to make your own food? Both?Quote:
Tofu Monster
luckily there were plenty of 'foreign' restaurants so it was easy to get mexican, indian, thai, chinese, even swiss. but if you wanted to 'go native', in the canarian restaurants you'd be really stuck as vegan.
like i said i wasn't vegan at the time but getting decent stuff in the shops was difficult. plenty of veggies and whatnot obviously, so you could easily manage, but you'd be struggling to find things like tofu, nutritional yeast, miso, the various 'milks' we like, etc.
one thing i like about the canary islands is that they don't really think of themselves as spanish and they don't go in for that awful bullfighting.
sorry to revive a thread that is years old. i've just had a week in tenerife with my omni mum. it was pretty awful to be honest. this is mainly because i don't get on with my mum at all so not sure why i was pressured into going on holiday with her. anyway she insisted on a package deal with thomas cook to Puerto de la Cruz. i had a vegan meal on the plane which was actually vegan (i had a flight with united emirates where they gave my honey and milk :o). I asked my mum what the hotel had said about having a vegan to stay. she didn't think to give them advance notice. so when we got there i asked the tour rep who couldn't be less interested. her advice was for me to buy my own meals locally and give it to the restaurant to serve for dinner. nice attitude. i asked if she could recommend any vegetarian restaurants and she said "no". not "no, i don't know but i will find out and get back to you." just "no". i regret not visiting the forum first. so i ate salad every day for a week. my mum refused to go to another restaurant even the once as she had already paid for our evening meals as part of the package.
i did notice the local supermarkets sold things like pasta with tofu (but my spanish isn't good enough to guarantee its vegan) and soya milk, rice milk and soya yoghurts. i didn't see any tofu anywhere but one of the local restaurants had tofu on the menu so it must be possible!
word of warning though - like the rest of spain what is listed on the menu is only a suggestions of what you might actually be given. 'vegetable sandwich' does not mean a sandwich with vegetables inside. it means tuna or egg and salad.
We visiting Gran Canaria this September for 9 nights, staying on the southeast coast.
We've sensibly gone self catering, as the chances of being able to find a hotel cooking decent vegan food seems pretty unlikely.
In doing some research on the internet about vegan options there seems to be little info beyond this thread and happycow's listings. It seems that the 2 health food shops and 1 vegetarian restaurant we've found are in Las Palmas, which is on the other side of the island - 35 min drive. We don't plan to have a hire car, so are interested to know if anyone knows of any places on the south coast of the island? If not then we'll need to think about hiring one for 1-2 days and stocking up.
We've paid for extra luggage allowance, so we can take a load of 'specialist' food (such as tofu). What can we expect to find vegan-wise in supermarkets these days? Knowing what is likely to be found in each of the main chains would be extremely helpful.
We're arriving on Saturday evening and it's my understanding that most places aren't open on a sunday, so we'll have to take food with us for sun.
In the (unlikely?) event of there being anyone on the forum who knows the island, any tips would be appreciated.
We've only been to Gran Canaria once, but to Lanzarote several times, and we found soya milk to be available in the local shops. We also found quite a good selection of beans in jars (rather than tins) - chick peas, haricot beans etc so they're good for salads or mixing with sosmix to form more substantial burgers. The local fruit and vegetables are ok, especially if you like tomatoes, but mushrooms and potatoes aren't too good. HTH.
I'm planning to go to Tenerife in a few weeks time for some winter sun, apparently an all-inclusive deal looks like the best option at the moment. My friend who I'm going with is vegetarian, but is used to this sort of holiday so I'm sure will manage okay, but I'm starting to resign myself to eating fruit most of the week now! Is there anything else that would likely be "safe" if the bread is likely to have milk in?
It's buffet catering and I've never been on one of these kinds of holidays before. Does anyone know how easy it is to find out about ingredients in dishes in these kinds of places?
Thanks.
Does anyone have any updates on this thread? I'm heading out to Tenerife in a couple of months. I am really hoping that they no longer make their bread using milk - Eurgh!
I haven't been to Tenerife but once you have El Corte Inglés, you'll be okay :).Quote:
KayJay
Hi,
i'm vegan. I live in La Laguna, Tenerife. People here do not imagine their lives without meet. My son's pediatrician says that only an adult person can become a vegetarian (the word 'vegan' is unknown to them). she told me I should start giving my boy meet a couple of times a day. My son is 9 months old now, he is a sturdy and healthy boy. The only animal protein he has ever tried is my milk.
My husband has got a small restaurant where they serve typical canarian cuisine (different types of meet, fish and octopus o_O). But we are beginning to introduce some vegetarian and vegan dishes. I always cook vegan food for our family so I decided, maybe it'd be a good idea to share it with the others.
As for vegan food, it's very easy to find. there's a wide choice and good quality.
blessings,
yuli
ˇHola Yuli! Welcome to the forum! I am glad to hear that your little boy is thriving, hopefully your paediatriction will see that children can live without meat. I have the business card of a vegan nutritionist here in Barcelona, I could private message you his email address if you like? I know you are a bit far from Barcelona but maybe he could email you some general guidelines or give you some links that you could show your paediatriction? Let me know! Also I am glad to hear that there are lots of vegan options in Teneife! :)Quote:
Yuli