Gluten-free travel poses a tricky challenge

Photo copyright Tiffany Janes

For most people, thoughts of travel include dreams of vacations, upcoming business trips and maybe an occasional visit to see in-laws during the holidays. However, for the gluten-free set, leaving the house for more than two hours constitutes a trip of sorts. People on restrictive diets of any kind have a tough time making sure they always have something safe to eat.

Since gluten is in so many foods in the U.S., people who can’t tolerate it can often find themselves stuck eating a plain salad with no dressing when dining out on the fly. They might even have to consider a candy bar, corn chips and a soda a meal, if they leave home for long and don’t plan accordingly.

Having celiac disease (or gluten intolerance) makes it hard, but not impossible to eat out. Since travel and eating out tend to go together, traveling can be a mine field for those who don’t take the time to prepare for any trip, well in advance.

It is common for people with celiac to avoid traveling anywhere when possible, and for others, dread about the impending trip creeps in long before the flight takes off. There are ways however, not only to eat out safely when traveling, but to eat like gluten-free royalty in the process.

Good planning makes any trip more enjoyable and that is even more true for people following the gluten-free diet. Long before any bags are packed, there is much work to do, to find out where one might be able to eat safely (yet interestingly) no matter the destination.

National chains with gluten-free menus have many locations around the U.S. and most people who can’t eat gluten tend to stick with such chains, whether dining out in their home town or traveling. Not all chain locations are created equal though, so it’s important to know if said places actually have anyone working there that know what gluten is, before showing up and hoping for the best.

For more discriminating gluten-free travelers, thinking outside the box in regards to gluten-free dining options, can pay off in a big way. This is more likely to happen if one is patronizing a higher end restaurant, than an impersonal chain. There are also many moderately priced gluten-free friendly gems dotting the U.S. and the trick is to find out about them well before hitting the road.

The first place to start is checking for a local celiac support group in the area they're visiting. Such groups might have a gluten-free friendly restaurant list on their website. They might even know about a 100% gluten-free restaurant in their area. While those are few and far between, they do exist even in this country, which is light years behind several parts of the world regarding gluten-free and celiac disease knowledge.

One of the best ways to find fabulous gluten-free dining options is by checking for a local gluten-free dinner club in the area. Those groups can often steer visitors to the area, to amazing gluten-free meals (forget plain meat, veggies and rice), complete with desserts that are not limited to crème brulee and ice cream. Gluten-Free City Guide is a great resource listing many support groups and dinner clubs all over the country. For places not listed there, do a Google search using the terms “gluten-free dining” and the area you’re visiting to see what pops up. One day gluten-free travel in this country might be as easy as it is in Europe but for now, it takes a bit of work on the part of the celiac traveler to enjoy any type of trip to the fullest.

For more info: Check out the latest edition of Let's Eat Out! to learn how to eat out safely with food intolerances all over the world.  The fabulous book by Kim Koeller and Robert La France will be reviewed on this web page soon! Visit Meetup.com to  find gluten-free dinner clubs hosted through that website.