Luxury travel
Most luxury itineraries treat a strict vegetarian diet as a request to be handled on arrival. That is how families end up eating plain rice in a two star Michelin restaurant. We treat it as a design constraint, decided before the hotel is chosen.
“Vegetarian” means at least six different things to six different families, and the word travels badly. Before we book anything, we write down exactly which of these apply, because the answer determines which destinations and which properties are realistic.
| Requirement | What it rules out |
|---|---|
| Lacto vegetarian | All meat, fish and eggs; dairy is fine |
| Eggless baking | Most hotel desserts and breads without notice |
| No onion, no garlic (satvik) | Nearly every base sauce in a Western or Chinese kitchen |
| Jain | Root vegetables, potato, onion, garlic, ginger, carrot; often honey and fermented foods |
| No rennet or gelatine | Most European cheeses, many desserts and confectionery |
| Separate preparation | Shared grills, fryers, stocks and utensils |
| Fasting days | Requires a separate menu on specified dates, planned ahead |
The separate preparation line is the one that most often gets missed. A vegetarian dish cooked in a stock made from bones, or fried in the same oil as fish, satisfies nobody who asked the question seriously.
India, Dubai and the UAE, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bali, Mauritius, Kenya's Indian influenced coast, London. Skilled Indian kitchens, plentiful pure vegetarian restaurants, staff who understand the terminology without translation.
Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Mexico, Costa Rica, Japan, Vietnam, South Africa. Excellent vegetable cooking exists but rennet, fish sauce, dashi and lard appear in unexpected places. Needs a written brief per property.
Safari camps, remote island resorts, expedition cruising, rural France and Spain. Supply chains are fixed weeks ahead and there is no alternative restaurant. Jain requirements here must be agreed at booking, not on arrival.
Safari camps are the most common failure point. They are provisioned by air or by long road transfer, the kitchen is small, and there is nowhere else to eat. Camps that regularly host Indian families handle Jain requirements very well. Camps that do not will say yes to the request and then serve you the same vegetable curry for six days.
We only place strictly Jain families in camps we have specifically checked for this. It narrows the list, and it is the right trade.
Send us the requirements as they really are, including the parts you normally soften because you assume nobody will accommodate them. It is much easier to build the trip around them than to work around them once you have arrived.
