just diagnosed,Anyone know any GF holidays abroad.answers much appreciated.

[parrotman]

[batman4catwoman]

Try gillisholidays.com

They do holidays in Italy for coeliacs and the food is amazing.

[fee333]

Just diagnosed too so will be keen to see any answers, love my holidays in the sun, be gutted if can't have them any more.

[pretender]

There are no reasons why a coeliac cannot holiday anywhere there are foods out there that cause no harm and do not have to be restricted to a GF way off life, think of your 5 a day and go from there

[Hidden]

Here's a link to ''Coeliac travel cards'' just scroll down the page click on the country that you're visiting and print off the ones you want. (They tell restaurant staff that you need gluten free food) Just check out the English one to see what they say.

celiactravel.com/cards/

They take the strain as you don't even have to speak the language.

[Penel]

Spain and Italy both seem good for coeliacs. There is much more awareness of the problem and there are many more gf products in the shops than in the UK. Don't give up on the holidays in the sun!

[philaustin]

I've been looking at this problem seriously since being diagnosed.

There should be a web site dedicated to the subject of 'Holidays for Coeliacs'

I tried lots of options and have come to the following conclusions:

1. If you have unlimited amounts of money you can obtain anything, anywhere in the world. You therefore can go for a holiday anywhere. There is a lovely hotel in Guernsey called 'The Farmhouse' where for £150 a night they will cook you a full english breakfast without gluten, for example.

2. If you are a lone venturer you can take some cards with you explaining what coeliac disease is and try obtaining food in different restaurants. It could be great fun, but you might not eat some days. I once found a restaurant on Kololi beach in the Gambia where the owner could speak english and she provided me with a bowl of boiled swede and carrot in place of the chips that would normally come with my meal every day. She couldn't communicate with the cooks in the kitchen because they could only speak Wolof and Mandinka.

3. Rent a villa. Get all of your GF food and drink in, and stay there for most of the time. I tried this in Cyprus and it wasn't much fun. Going out in Cyprus is all about drinking a few pints of the local Keo lager and having some kebabs, burgers, pizza or other gluten laden fast food. Not recommended.

4. Go All Inclusive. Had some good holidays in Jamaica and Cuba. Spoke to and emailed the chefs at the hotels and managed to get by without being glutened. Big restaurants with buffet style food are okay until people drop serving spoons from dishes containing gluten into dishes that wouldn't normally. You have to be on your guard all the time, which can be dangerous if you have had a glass of wine or two.

5. Try a cruise. There are gluten free cruises dedicated to Coeliacs but they can cost upwards of £2000 for 7 days per person and the entertainment consists of lectures from nutrition experts. I would steer clear of this because to me a true holiday is one where you don't have to think or worry about gluten.

There are cruise companies who have told me that they can cater for people with special dietary requirements. I would treat these the same as the big all-inclusive resorts, with caution.

6. I've heard a lot about Italy being a good place for coeliacs. Gluten free pasta and pizza are easy to make. Some Italians are very keen to adopt to survive in this great world recession, so will provide the food that you want, as long as you like Italian food. My own wife doesn't, unfortunately.

I can't blame you for wanting to go abroad for your holidays. Britain's holiday resorts are terrible for coeliacs. They just don't care. (Apart from expensive hotels where money buys attention). They just want to grab as much money as they can from the masses by supplying cheap lager and fast food.

Foreign destinations have the sun, at least. If all else fails you can survive on alcohol, sun, sea and sand and anything else that comes to mind if you're up to it. Not the healthiest holiday but if you are young enough your body can take it and you may even come back looking slimmer and tanned.

Incidentally, I may be thinking about reverting back to camping in the UK this year, because there are only so many alcohol fuelled holidays a human body can take. My wife will prefer it anyway because she is allergic to the sun. We'll just take all our food and drink with us and hope we don't get blasted into the the cliff face fence by a hurricane that destroyed our last trailer tent in Norfolk a few years back.

Hope I don't sound abusive, malicious, or misleading. This is my light-hearted view of the holiday world for coeliacs as I see it. Just sharing my true personal experiences, of which I have many.

Good Luck!

[RusticRita]

This also looks a really informative website from a gluten free traveller: glutenfreetraveller.com/ Don't forget to inform your travel insurance company you are GF, otherwise any health probs you might have if glutened abroad might not be met by them. Hope this proves useful

[Hidden]

spain is great and the canary islands...lots of food in supermarkets and restaurants very clued up. Take a box of food with you. Call the airline you're using to arrange.You will need a doc letter but mine is now 15 years old and still accepted. You don't pay extra for the food box and it's in addition to your luggage allowance. toaster bags can be useful too. Also, take plenty of food and snacks for at the airport and on the planes since they are notoriously bad for safe food. Apart from that it's a doddle, as long as you'll eat fresh fruit/veg/meat and fish.

[Jacks in reply to Hidden]

Yes, have found Spain brilliant - they have a lot of coeliacs and the owner of the larges supermarket is a coeliac family.

As for airlines - there have been humiliation attempts previously! so I'd love to know which airline was this good.

[parrotman]

thank you for all your comments and advice. found it all very usefull and entertaining philaustin.have been looking at some of the sites recommended. once again thanks.