Machu Picchu is high on many people's "Bucket Lists." The problem is...traveling to other countries, especially remote areas, can leave you feeling vulnerable from a dietary perspective. Will you be able to communicate your gluten free needs in another language? Will locals even understand what "gluten free" means? Even if they can offer a meal with gluten free ingredients, will they have the ability to keep your meal from getting cross contaminated during preparation? Will the tours you take even be able to accommodate special dietary needs? Will you be stuck eating fruit and snack bars brought from home for many of your meals? These are the questions that swirl through our minds as we dream of those exotic destinations we want to visit someday. Well, now "someday" is here. Our latest "gluten free getaway," designed by gluten free travel specialist Ellen Morse, covers the highlights of Peru, along with Machu Picchu. You'll spend a week touring Cuzco, Lima, UNESCO World Heritage Site Machu Picchu -- along with other ancient and colonial towns in Peru. This is a spectacular itinerary! Best of all, Ellen and her local partners in Peru have vetted the hotels and restaurants where you will stay... Read more →
International Destinations
Well, we have another amazing travel adventure to entice you with...a visit to Iceland, the land of extreme contrasts. You'll have a chance to visit all the unique natural wonders of this island country, from geothermal baths to icy glaciers. It's another itinerary put together -- with all the gluten free details researched for you -- by Ellen Morse of Gluten Free Travel-Us. She is constantly on the lookout for ways to combine the most popular travel destinations with a safe gluten free experience. This time, she worked with the owner of a travel company in Iceland who also happens to be gluten free. All breakfasts are included at the hotel she will recommend, and the vetting has been done to ensure you'll be food-safe. In addition, she has restaurants she will recommend for your other meals. With all the work done for you, you can relax and enjoy the journey, experiencing the warm hospitality of the Icelandic people and all their country has to offer. Iceland affords such a rich and unique experience, with sights you won't find elsewhere...at least not all in one place! Its stunning topography includes geothermal hot spots, lava fields, volcanic craters, black sand beaches,... Read more →
Every couple months, we work with Ellen Morse of Gluten Free Travel-Us to bring you a new gluten free itinerary. We try to offer something for every type of traveler: ever-popular destinations like Italy...newer "hot spots" like Cuba...once-in-a-lifetime experiences like The Galapagos...and "up-and-coming" destinations that have been gaining favor. Chile is one of those destinations. Due to the stable nature of its government, its unique history, and its gorgeous topography sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains, Chile is a destination you'll want to consider. And because its seasons are opposite ours in the northern hemisphere, it's an especially great place to visit during October through April, when average temperatures in Chile are in the 60s. Near-perfect weather, in my opinion! Chile offers incredible scenery and natural beauty. You'll fall in love with its awe-inspiring topography of forests, mountains, beaches, lakes, volcanoes, fjords, canals, and islands. Plus, its history -- dating from the native Incans to the Spanish Colonial period to a thriving modern country -- offers a fascinating blend of cultures. Increasingly recognized for its vineyards, Chile is also the perfect destination for oenophiles who enjoy tours and tastings at scenic wineries. For travelers with safety top-of-mind,... Read more →
You probably remember my Blog post detailing my family's trip to Italy this past summer. It was so fantastic, from a gluten free dining perspective, that I wrote a book about it (Gluten-Free in ITALY : Your Worry-Free and Gluten-Free Travel Guide to Italy), available on Amazon. But I'm often asked...of all the places we dined in Rome, Florence, and Venice, which was our favorite spot? Who had the best (and safest) gluten free offerings? In Rome, at least, I'd have to say it was a small chain of restaurants known as Mama Eat and Mama Frites. It was pure serendipity that we ended up eating at these two restaurants while in Rome. I'd heard about both restaurants and had included them on our list of places to potentially try while in Rome. However, I wasn't sure if it would work out, based on where we planned to be sightseeing each day. As luck would have it, after touring the Vatican for several hours one morning, a nearby gluten-free friendly restaurant where we'd planned to have lunch closed for renovation. We were starving, but we decided to continue with our day's plans and head south to Trastevere, an ancient and... Read more →
Every so often, our family makes a new version of a "homemade" gluten free pizza. We've tried many brands, and to be honest, we don't have a favorite...they actually all turn out pretty well. But to be honest, many times we go with our favorite ready-made frozen gluten free pizza (or frozen shell, which we top with our own sauce and toppings). We love Against the Grain pizzas (and plain shells) and have also enjoyed Udi's frozen pizzas when cooked on the grill. But traveling in Italy this summer inspired us and had us looking forward to trying a new mix for gluten free crust...a mix from one of our favorite restaurants in Florence. "How is this relevant to me?" you ask. How would you get your hands on this mix without going to Italy? Well, as of a couple weeks ago, it's available on Amazon.com! (A 3-pack is priced well at $12.84.) We purchased two boxes of the mix (which also comes with fresh-packed tomato sauce in a tin can and a packet of oregano) after dining at the restaurant...before we knew it would be available in the States via Amazon.com soon enough. So we had the pleasure of... Read more →
This week, we are sharing a post from the mom of two kids (and wife of hubby) with Celiac and gluten sensitivity. You'll get a chuckle out of her all-too-familiar trials and tribulations as she and her family fly across the world on a somewhat regular basis. She has some great tips that you may not have thought about...and others that are definitely great reminders as we all begin the summer travel season. An expat living in Singapore now, you can find Karen Horan's contributions to the Celiac community in southeast Asia on the websites listed at the bottom of this post. Enjoy...and send us your own stories of gluten free travel! My official title is “Global Domestic Engineer, specialty ‘Human Development’. I have two full time clients who are currently 10 and 13 years old. By my calculations I have roughly 10 years left of full time work, then I can become a consultant on an ad hoc basis. My teenage client was diagnosed with Celiac Disease when she was just 3 years old and her younger brother and father are both gluten intolerant. After many years in my job, I was feeling pretty good at handling a medically... Read more →
Today, we share another guest post from an experienced world traveler...this time it's Celiac blogger Gail from 50 Beds and Counting, a blog in which she discusses transitioning to retirement, travel adventures, learning how to build an active retirement life, and living with Celiac as well as heart disease. She shares her latest adventure, a 5-week trip beginning in Hong Kong and traveling to Sydney, Australia aboard the Celebrity Millennium cruise ship. When I was diagnosed with Celiac more than eight years ago, I was concerned how this illness would impact traveling. I worried my travel dreams would be curtailed by my fear of finding healthy, safe food away from home. As it turned out, mostly I didn't need to worry. When I retired in 2014 (PhD clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and educator), my initial plan was to ramp up my travel schedule -- and I did. My husband and I have enjoyed international and domestic cycling trips, hiking tours, regular old walking around and sightseeing vacations, and cruises to far flung locales like Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, South America and more. Many of these experiences I've chronicled in my blog 50 Beds and Counting. One of the many advantages... Read more →
In this post, we welcome Katherine Tolley, a Celiac currently living in Barcelona, Spain... In the fall of 2013, after a year of reoccurring mononucleosis, an aggressive case of pneumonia, and a constant, unexplained fever and feeling of vertigo, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. I was somewhere between my junior and senior year of college, living at home, and doing everything possible to help heal my body – especially my digestive system. A semester abroad studying the arts was a requirement for my design degree, and I was terrified after my diagnosis to even leave the house for fear of cross-contaminated food and more illnesses. I had been planning on studying in Barcelona, Spain, but as the time drew nearer and I read more about their cuisine (Tapas! Fried calamari! Churros! Toasted bread rubbed with fresh tomatoes and olive oil!), I become increasingly nervous. After months of research and printing gluten-free dining cards in various foreign languages, I packed my suitcase full of gluten-free oatmeal packets and set off for the unknown. And to my never-ending delight, what I found across the Atlantic was a country that understood my needs far better than almost every place I had been... Read more →
Today, we are featuring a guest post from Zoë, who is currently living in Tel Aviv. She found out about five years ago that she is allergic to wheat, soy, and nuts (what she considers the worst combination of allergies for Israel!). Zoë started the Gluten Free Tel Aviv website when she realized that there was a big hole that needed to be filled. Although there are many Hebrew resources for the gluten free, information in English is much more difficult to find! So she created Gluten Free Tel Aviv to be the English language resource and community for travelers and residents alike. Here, she shares a very thorough list of Israeli specialties that are typically gluten free, along with some of her favorite dining spots where you can find them. Hello from Tel Aviv, Israel! I moved here only a few months ago and was overwhelmed with the whole new ALPHABET I had to learn! When I lived in Germany last year, at least it was easy to recognize “Gluten Frei” on the packaging, while here I had to memorize ללא גלוטן. To make things even more challenging, there are also two types of font here (kind of like... Read more →
As you may know, my husband and I love to travel as much as our busy schedule allows, and we almost always include our kids. Writing this Blog and managing GlutenFreeTravelSite and the Dine Gluten Free mobile app have given me the opportunity to share two of my greatest passions...traveling and finding safe and wonderful places to dine gluten free wherever we go. Our son's diagnosis with Celiac 11 years ago has made things a little more challenging when traveling, to be sure, but this post I'm sharing today, written by gluten free travel agent Ellen Morse and the 2016 Family Friendly Cruise Travel Planner, reminded me that including our kids on all our journeys is worth every bit of extra effort. Not only does it create memories and quality family time, but it teaches our kids valuable life lessons. I loved reading this wonderful post, and I wanted to share it with you. Seven Valuable Life Lessons and Skills Taught by Travel: 1. Travel helps children develop decision-making, and builds confidence – As you travel, a wide variety of choices present themselves. Gone are the routines of home; instead, children have the opportunity to make choices about which new... Read more →
In her quest to present a world of travel opportunities to her gluten-free clients, travel agent Ellen Morse of Gluten Free Travel-Us has just developed a gluten-free, worry-free itinerary for the Galapagos Islands, with a chance to explore the treasures of Quito, Ecuador en route. Ellen was diagnosed with Celiac herself decades ago, so she is more familiar than anyone I know with the challenges that travel can bring. As more people have gotten diagnosed with Celiac -- and as they've become more comfortable with the thought of traveling -- Ellen has found her niche. She has used her worldwide knowledge and contacts developed as a travel agent to make travel safe even for Celiacs like herself. Ellen has shared many of the itineraries with us on our Gluten Free Getaways page...opportunities for travel to Prague, Croatia, China, Japan, India, and Costa Rica. She even has two itineraries (one leisure and one more adventurous) for biking through the Tuscan and Piedmont countryside of Italy. Of course, she is also extremely well-versed in helping gluten-free clients plan trips to other popular cities throughout Europe. Her newest itinerary, probably the most spectacular, is an opportunity for travel to the Galapagos Islands --... Read more →
Have you been on wonderful vacation recently? Perhaps you relaxed at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean...took a fun cruise...enjoyed a European adventure...or something else even more exotic. We'd love to feature YOUR gluten-free travel experience with the followers of this Blog. If it was a positive experience, it's great inspiration for fellow gluten-free travelers! Too many gluten-free folks still believe they can't travel while safely following their gluten-free diet. I've made it my mission for the past 8 years to prove them wrong! Let's show them how many amazing (and safe) options there are available now! Of course, we always welcome you to submit your travel reviews to our website, GlutenFreeTravelSite.com...whether it's a restaurant you dined at on vacation, market or bakery where you found exciting gluten-free offerings, a hotel or resort that offered delicious gluten-free fare, or a cruise line that treated you like royalty. However, we'd love to give you, our followers, an opportunity to have a "guest post" on this blog, in which you can lay out your entire vacation experience. We welcome as many details as you'd like to share: where you stayed, where you dined, what you might do differently, and how this vacation... Read more →