Travel provides a lot of temptation to overindulge. There’s a great cafe or bar around every corner brimming with pastries and craft brew.
It’s wrong to not try them right?
A big reason we travel is to taste the flavours and stories of the local culture.
After spending a month in Tasmania and eating our way around Melbourne we discovered how disastrous these choices can be for your health.
The waistline expanded, the sluggishness set in, and the children’s undesirable behaviour shot through the roof.
I am quite health conscious. I do have a lot of food intolerances – gluten the main offender – and so have been on a journey for the past couple of years that involves a return to whole foods.
I try my best to eat foods free from gluten, dairy, and sugar. I was pescatarian, but have started eating a little more meat to compensate for a diet that is missing a whole lot of other stuff!
The problem with dietary requirements is you need to have a lot of control over your meals AND creating them involves a few extra ingredients and tools.
That is why I decided we needed to travel with a high-speed blender.
The backpacker in me thought I was insane!
But, I’m not backpacking. I have a camper trailer and a car with lots of room to pack a few more conveniences.
We now travel with a Blendtec high-speed blender.

Apart from our bikes, the blender has become the best addition to the tools and equipment we have packed with us on this journey around Australia.
We chose a high-speed blender over a smaller travel blender because I need it to turn food into liquid and to process things like nuts and dates.
I use our high-speed blender for everything. In fact, as soon as we set up camp, it stays out on the kitchen bench. On my wish list is to move up from the Blendtec high-speed blender to a Vitamix, or a thermomix.

Every morning we have a green power smoothie.
We struggle to get Savannah to try them – I swear she can sniff spinach a mile away, no matter how much you disguise it with raw cacao (for those who don’t know, that’s chocolate in its pure form that is so healthy you can eat it for breakfast.)
Kalyra loves the smoothies and is happy to try one each morning, even when it has ingredients like cucumber, coriander (cilantro) or even kale.
She does a happy dance on the mornings we make the Ultimate Smoothie.
In fact I think we all do: almonds, chia seeds, banana, avocado, spinach, coconut water, dates, and raw cacao. It’s to die for and a meal that is filling and packed with protein to get us through the day.
My smoothie has replaced coffee as my I cannot function without it morning drink.

I don’t just use the blender for smoothies. I use it to make healthy soup, like cauliflower and leek, or carrot and pumpkin – which Kalyra absolutely loves.
I use it to make dips like beetroot hummus for our afternoon snack, or a treat the girls love- berry coconut pops.

And our family favourite snack – which the girls fight over – are the chia and nut protein balls I whip up in 10 minutes using the blender.
I have to ration them out in their lunch boxes for long car journeys, else they’d eat 10 in a row. These are so delicious and cheap to make. They’d cost you $4 a ball if you brought them at the health food shop.
I also make healthy meals with the high-speed blender, like cauliflower couscous, raw vegan tacos, or basil pesto.
And then there are amazing desserts like this chocolate tart. Yep – it’s sugar, gluten and dairy free and is an indulgent slice of heaven.

Eating whilst travelling on a road trip has never been so good. We still indulge in the local flavours, but we now have a lovely balance and something a little more enticing to help us say No to the temptations.
When you feed your body food that elevates your energy with long-lasting healthy ingredients, you have more strength and stamina to get through the day enjoying the many activities you can enjoy.
I never thought I’d carry a high-speed blender with me on my travels, but now I’d never leave home without one.
I reckon I’d even find space for it in my backpack.
Update: We also now travel with a cold-press juicer!
You can read more of my tips for staying healthy on the road here.
Hi Caz,
That is the most random essential travel item and yet I totally get it. I take my stick blender with me and the beaker for blending my breakfast smoothies and I am totally addicted to them too but I can see a bigger blender is better for families – as long as you have electricity and it works 🙂
I know that bad food is one of the biggest drawbacks on long trips so it makes total sense.
Totally random, but the best thing ever! It’s like my UGG boots, I debated taking them but it’s been so worthwhile! Can’t live without my smoothies.
Hi! Love your blog. My boyfriend and I just arrived in Australia about 3 weeks ago, bought a campervan, and will be adventuring around the country for a year. We’ve also recently started eating a lot healthier. Your blog is full of many appropriate things for us! 🙂 Was wondering if you have any great cheap, easy, healthy recipes you could share. Especially the protein balls? 🙂
Thanks!
I will definitely share them! Coming soon. Great excuse to make them again so I can get some photos!
This post could not have come at a better time! After traveling through Mexico and now France, two countries with some of my favorite food in the world, I am in serious need of a way to bring back healthy eats while traveling. I want to try everything while I can, but I’m also not enjoying it as much because I’m sluggish and feel unhealthy. Dan probably won’t be as excited about it since inevitably he’ll be the one to carry it, but I’m definitely going to look into one of these!
It’s such a great idea. I can’t tell you the difference having a green smoothie every morning makes. It adds such a vibrant energy to my day
Oh wow love smoothies I may have to invest in one of these when I go travelling. That tart looks amazing and I like the sound of the protein balls!!! Any chance you can share some recipes?
Coming up. You’ve just convinced me to make the tart tomorrow night as I have friends visiting. I’ll take some more photos and put the recipe up. Protein balls coming up too!
Totally buying a personal blender for travel after reading this! I was craving green smoothies in the states recently especially in the morning (I managed to find a few, but it would have been easier to do my own)… and we have a thermomix so it is hard to go without … but I can totally see that a blender is a great idea for your travels. Especially when you have the space in your camper trailer to carry it. Now… please can I have the recipe for your chia and nut balls. :o) (and love your mason jar blackboard stickers!).
I’ve recently gone Paleo in a similar attempt to cut our gluten, dairy and sugar. I set off for my travels in 7 weeks through Asia and I have been concerned about the availability of yummy options…having a blender/smoothies on the go is a great idea! I also make lots of healthy protein bars to keep me going as I wander…
It really make me crave… Love it.
Wow, this sounds amazing! I think I would do a happy dance every morning too if someone were making me the Ultimate Smoothie! The thing I probably miss most about travelling in South America now that I’m back in Europe is the great quality and low price of such wonderfully fresh fruit (in particular avocados, pineapple and mangos), and usually a blender in most of the apartments we rented.
I’m in love with avocados and am disappointed as the price of them in Oz has just hiked up. At first I thought having them in a smoothie sounded gross, but I can’t have one without them in it now. They had such a luscious creaminess to it and they are so good for you!
Cannot believe I’ve never considered this before! I’m vegetarian and a bit of a health nut so carrying a blender while traveling would be amazing. As much as I love digging into the local cuisine, sometimes it all just gets too much and I find myself putting on the stretchy pants (oh so comfy, but slightly unflattering). Am seriously considering buying a wee blender for my next long term travel adventure. Cheers guys 🙂
No worries. It’s such a great idea! I have friends coming over for dinner tonight and I”m excited to wow them with my chocolate tart!
Smart and random! I wish we could manage to fit one in our backpacks while traveling through SE Asia.. 😉 but luckily there are often places to purchase fresh tropical fruit smoothies in this region. Great idea though!
Yeah I think in SEA, you have a lot more, cheap options! It costs about $8 to buy a green smoothie in OZ so the blender is well worth it for us to make our own!
I’ve been been debating whether to buy a travel blender ever since we started to Couchsurf more and more with vegans and raw vegans who’ve shown us some great recipes over the last year, I’ve just never been able to settle on an answer for myself before I suggest it to Franca.
I just need to find something not too heavy and easily portable. Maybe I’ll give Smoojie a look over.
IT’s amazing the raw food you can make. I’m enjoying learning some delicious recipes. The tacos I make are sooo good!
Does that mean I can drop by for some tacos some time? 😉
Oh, this is my dream to travel with a blender! Although, until recently I didn’t even knew about smoothies at all! We are about to start our 21 day cleanse, may be the same as you did, but I seriously doubt our blender can make it. And how can we make it with our weekend trips.
If you don’t put spinach in your smoothie will Savanna still refuse it?
I am surprised how Liron likes some raw fruits and veggies. Yesterday we ate whole bowl of raw cauliflower popcorn together, and I am so happy to see it!
I’m trying to figure out what piece of machinery to buy at the moment (thermomix, blender…etc) so will check out the site for sure. i do hope you’ll share those recipes, sound delicious! Thanks!
Loving the self-labelled jam jars … so frigging cute! 🙂
I love the sound of those recipes.
I have just been diagnosed with IBS, would love to see some posts with the recipes included 🙂
Hmmm… you’ve got me tempted to try traveling with a blender now! I also have a gluten intolerance, which, as you know, totally sucks because most of the usual quick and easy breakfast foods are no longer an option. But I’ve been experimenting with smoothies, and they can be soooo yummy!
That chocolate tart sure looks tempting… 🙂
Very interesting, you gave me an idea.. Got to try this one.. thanks..
Yep, that chocolate tart looks divine! Cannot wait until you share the recipe 🙂
I now think that a blender in now a must on my travel luggage thanks to this post 🙂
These smoothies and snacks sound awesome AND healthy! Something I need more in my life! Any chance I could convince you to post the recipes for some (all) of these? I would love to try some of them!
Hi! I love your post! I am looking at getting an Optimum 9400 soon as my smaller blenders are failing from trying to blend spinach, kale, dates etc in superfood smoothies … but am unsure how it will go in my mobile home with how much power it will draw … especially using the blender on high for a few minutes to make soup. I would really appreciate any comments on this and the capacity of inverters / batteries needed for this to work? Thanks heaps!
You;ll need to get an inverter for when you are free camping and using your battery/solar power. We haven’t had to do that yet as we’ve stayed in caravan parks with electricity so its been fine. If you have the right intverter it won’t be a problem
And here I thought I was the only one! I bring my Keurig along with me on vacations and have even brought it camping. I know, camping with a coffee maker? I was the most popular person in the mornings so I must have been doing something right with that idea.
Neat idea! Although I’m not going to lie…I don’t see myself ever carting one of those around were it not for a camper van 😉
Hi Caz
How do you power your device. I am building my van and I want to bring my champion juicer and my blendtech. I am worry that I wont have enough power to used them. Any tips?
Have a good day
Hello, do you run on solar? If so, what’s your setup to be able to do it? Thank’s a lot.
WE didn’t run on solar when we traveled around Australia, which is when we wrote this post. We did when we traveled across the USA. We had about 6 solar panels on the roof and 4 heavy duty batteries, as our travel trailer (caravan) was 27 foot long with a residential fridge so we needed a lot of power.