Are Vegetarian & Vegan Diets Accommodated On TDA Tours?

Yes! Ever since the first Tour d’Afrique Cycling Expedition in 2003 we have had vegetarians and vegans participate on our tours. In fact, many of our tour staff over the years have also been vegetarian or vegan.

In the months before the start of a tour, the registered riders receive a health and fitness questionnaire. This includes questions on whether they are vegetarian or vegan as well as if they have any dietary restrictions, such as intolerances or allergies. We make note of these for each of our groups and reach out to riders if we have any further questions regarding their dietary needs.

On our Expedition tours, or select Adventure tours that involve camping, our tour Chef prepares a separate main dish for vegetarians each evening for our camp dinner. Typically, the vegetarian main dish is also vegan, but if dairy is included then a separate vegan main dish would also be prepared.

Breakfasts on our tours with camping are typically vegetarian by nature, and on Expedition tours where we have a post ride soup, this is always vegetarian as well.

Across all our tours we have vegetarian and vegan options for our roadside lunch, including sandwich fixings, as well as side items such as salads.

For our Touring and Adventure tours, where we stay in hotels and eat at the hotel or in nearby restaurants, we request vegetarian or vegan dishes as needed.

Nutrition and Variety / Availability

We do our best to provide all the nutritional necessities for all participants, including vegetarians and vegans. This means on our camping tours we are often cooking with legumes, pulses, soy products, or using nuts and seeds in our dishes to provide the required protein for non-meat eaters, as well as dairy for vegetarians.

We make these same nutritional menu requests on our hotel tours where we are eating at restaurants.

As we operate tours in over 80 countries, the availability of certain types of products varies. For instance, dairy on our tours in Asia or parts of Africa, is much less common and a smaller part of the food options available there. In addition, on some of our hotel tours in some areas of the world, a vegetarian or vegan diet is very uncommon. Restaurants may only be able to prepare limited options which may not vary greatly during the tour compared to the meat options. In addition, items such as nut-based milks or soy meat alternatives are not available in many parts of the world. We try to set this expectation in advance depending on the region of the world the tour travels to.

We often recommend that vegetarian or vegan participants bring along some extra protein bars and multi-vitamins and to expect they may need to add to their diet at times during the tour, based on their energy levels and general health over the course of the tour.

If you have other dietary restrictions, such as a gluten intolerance, we can accommodate many of these as well.