Though I like to think sometimes I’m entirely footloose and fancy-free when it comes to traveling the world, the reality is my Celiac does make me cautious, and even a bit intimidated at times. So what do I do about it?  Research. Searching destinations, in general, is helpful when planning to travel, but I most like to know how many gluten free restaurants exist in a big city, or what the fresh food options are in the smaller towns and villages.  Really, I want to get an idea of whether it will be easy or difficult, to eat while I’m there.  For the longest time, I considered food simply a necessity to exist, but over the past few years I’ve really started to enjoy my meals – especially in new places.

In order to research the locations, I start by checking out my Find My Gluten Free app (link on my resources page.) If there are several restaurants listed, I’ll map them out near hotels I am considering and figure out a place to stay that will be convenient, either within walking distance or a quick trip on public transportation. I don’t only visit restaurants that are listed in the app, though, as part of the fun is stumbling upon new menus and discovering new preparations of gluten free food.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t plan out every meal along the way — we don’t even know every city we may be exploring throughout the trip, so I’m not that restrictive. What I want to have a confidence in, is whether or not there are a couple of restaurants in the area with safe food I can frequent day after day, if absolutely necessary.   And, the great news is, that although I’ve always had this “backup plan” in mind when I travel, I have never used it throughout the 14 countries I’ve visited.

In the times when my app lists very few restaurants for a particular destination, I’ll move to internet searches and even Yelp to see if there are at least freshly prepared fruits, vegetables and meats on the menu. If so, that tells me I likely can find options that may not be widely published, and I’ll do my best to help get the word out to other gluten free travelers.

I’m curious – how else do you research your trips?