TRAVELLING GLUTEN-FREE

Some weeks ago I was invited by the Coeliacs Association of Basque Country to take part in a meeting about Celiac Travellers. The objective was to share experiences and to encourage young celiac people to travel and to overcome their fears of following a gluten-free diet out of home.

It was an interesting meeting in which, from different points of view, we share the way we face celiac-disease when travelling around Spain or abroad. We were a young entrepreneur who has to spend some periods of time abroad, a professional sportsman diagnosed more than 30 years ago, a woman who has lived in different countries, a gluten-free travel agency and a person who likes to travel and does her best to cope with her gluten-free diet (me).

I focused my presentation on the resources I use when I have to prepare a trip. While preparing the presentation I realized that there are many of them available nowadays, mostly on the Internet, and I want to share them here:

•      Celiacs societies: Celiacs Associatios of Spain

•     To ask the embassy of the country we are going to for information about CS in that country.

•      Some sites of interest if we decide to rent an apartment:

–     http://www.housetrip.es/ (World)

–     http://www.abritel.fr/ (France)

–     http://www.gites-de-france.com/ (France)

•      Spanish Travel Agency focused on GF people: Destinos Sin Gluten

•      Internet websites:

–     Searchers for GF shops, hotels or restaurants:

•  Viajar Sin Gluten: a lot of gluten-free shops, bakeries, cafeterias, hotels and restaurants of Spain.

•   Celiaquitos.com: guide of gluten-free restaurants of Spain and other countries with opinions.

•   Celiaco a los 30: Maps of gluten-free shops, restaurants and bars with gluten-free beer.

•     Allergychef: gluten and allergens free restaurants. At the moment only for the province of Barcelona. 

•      Restaurantes SinGluten: map of gluten-free restaurants of Spain.

•     Glutenfree Roads: made by Schär, it contains gluten-free shops, hotels and restaurants of all over the world.

•      GlutenFreeTravelSite: places all over the world.

•      Specialgourmets restaurants for different allergies.

–     Blogs about gluten-free travel experiences:

•      Celiaquitos.com (Spanish)

•      Celiaco a los 30 (Spanish)

•      Caminar sin gluten (Spanish)

•      Restaurantes singluten (Spanish)

•      CeliacTravel.com (English)

•      Gluten-freeGlobetrotter (English)

•      Itsgottobeglutenfree (English)

•      Glutenfree Traveller (English)

•      SortirSans Gluten (French)

–     Social Networks (Spanish language):

•      Facebook: 500.000 establecimientos sin gluten

•      Vitamina 301

•      Faceliac (DSG)

–     Forums (Spanish language):

•      Lista CELIAQUIA RedIris

•      FOROSIN

•      LosViajeros.com

–     Smartphone Apps for celiacs

–     Where to find celiac restaurant cards:

•      FACE

•      CeliacTravel

•      CoeliacUK