7 Ways I’m Preparing To Travel as a Celiac For the First Time

It’s so hard to believe, but our honeymoon to Asia is only about a week away! (And so is our first anniversary… yes, we planned it that way. 😊) While planning for a big trip always takes a lot of work and preparation, I’ve been dealing with the unique experience of preparing to travel as a celiac for the first time.

In case you missed it, I was diagnosed with celiac disease in June. It was completely unexpected and has been a huge change to get used to over the last few months. Since Matt and I cook a lot… okay, Matt cooks and I help… it hasn’t been too bad. Honestly the worst part has been thinking about all the food I thought I’d get to eat in Asia, which now is not going to be nearly as spontaneous of an experience.

We’ve been spending so much time preparing for this trip — watching videos and noting places we want to go, trying to book hotels in the best areas, planning can’t-miss excursions, and more. But I’ve also spent hours and hours trying to prepare as best I can for the fact that I’ll be on a restrictive diet that isn’t well understood in the places we’re going.

Of course, I haven’t left for the trip yet, so I can’t say whether all of these things really helped or not. But it makes me feel better to have done all these things. (I will report back after the trip to let you all know the verdict.) So, here are the 7 ways I’m preparing to travel as a celiac for the first time.

1. Requesting a Gluten-Free Meal for the Plane

We’re flying on a quick flight from Madrid to Paris, and then direct from Paris to Tokyo. This will be a ~13 hour flight, and you always get a couple of meals on long flights like that. On all the other long-haul flights I’ve taken in my life, I’d noticed the option for “special meal” but never had to pay it any attention. This time, I made sure to request a gluten-free meal.

In order to do that, I logged into the AirFrance website and found my flight info in the “My Bookings” section. Then, I scrolled down to find the part where it listed what was included in my flight. You can see that I already selected my gluten-free meal, but you can still click on it to make modifications.

Since it’s my first time ever requesting the GF meal, we’ll see how it turns out! 😉

Also, keep in mind that you probably shouldn’t be changing seats on the plane if you’ve selected a special meal, because it’s tied to your seat number and they may not be able to find you if you move!

2. Downloading the FindMeGlutenFree App and Saving Lists

The FindMeGlutenFree app, or FindMeGF, has been one of the biggest lifesavers for me in the last few months. It’s a tool where the gluten-free community can contribute to a map and share information about eating GF at restaurants. Not only can you rate restaurants based on taste and variety of GF offerings, but you can also rate them on safety. And it’s a great way to discover places that are entirely gluten-free or have great protocols for gluten-free safety.

The app is free, but I decided to pay the $25 for a year-long subscription to the premium version — and a big part was because of this trip. When you have the premium version, you can more easily search destinations and you can even save other people’s “collections” of safe restaurants. I saved lists for Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Taipei, Seoul, and Busan. Not every collection has a ton of options on the list, but it gives you a good starting point. I’m super thankful for the community aspect of the app!

3. Joining Gluten-Free Travel Destination Groups on Facebook

I don’t like using Facebook, but there are some areas where it’s still indispensable. For example, there are Facebook groups like “Gluten-Free in Japan” where people who are living in, or traveling to, Japan can ask questions and post advice about gluten-free food.

From being in this group, I’ve been able to get suggestions for gluten-free snacks to buy in konbini (Japanese convenience stores), additional restaurants not listed in the FindMeGF app, and even suggestions for where to make reservations for the best GF dining!

4. Making Reservations at Safe Restaurants

I’d read a lot about the importance of making reservations at restaurants in Japan — and that was before you even add in the gluten-free aspect. One restaurant that I saw repeatedly mentioned in the Facebook group was Izakaya Shion — an entirely gluten-free restaurant in Tokyo that had soooo many people singing its praises. It turns out that they only have a handful of seats, so it’s important to make your reservation early! I did the same with another restaurant in Osaka that has a celiac-safe menu, only on certain days of the week.

Making these types of reservations makes me feel more confident, and less like I’m going to miss out on important staples of each culture’s cuisine. Even if I can’t eat it for every meal, like someone else might be able to, I really appreciate these restaurants that are willing to make accommodations so that I can enjoy new food experiences too. 🙂

5. Mapping GF-Friendly Restaurants on a Google Map

Maybe this is overkill, but I’m a planner, so we’ll see whether it was a genius idea or way too much work.

Using the places I’ve found on the FindMeGF app, recommendations from the Facebook groups, and also my own research on other people’s blogs about travel as a celiac, I made my very own Google Map with everything plotted out.

The colors and symbols all mean something different: green is for completely gluten-free restaurants; dark pink means 5-heart safety rating on FindMeGF; light pink is for 4- or 4.5-heart safety rating; and orange if it’s something I read from someone else online. There are quite a few symbols, but the noodle icon means it’s Japanese food, the crossed utensils mean it’s not Japanese food but other real food that could constitute a meal, and a birthday cake means it’s a bakery (for example.) I also have some grocery-cart icons for stores that are likely to carry GF pre-packaged snacks.

My plan is to have this available on my phone at all times, so that way when we’re out and about I can pull it up and see what’s nearby when we’re hungry. Of course, I’ll need to use my Airalo eSIM card for this! (I think it’s going to be working overtime.)

(I’ll share all my maps after this trip if the plan works out well.)

6. Creating a Pinterest Board With Pictures of Safe* Snacks

I don’t know Japanese or Mandarin, and while I can read a little bit of Korean thanks to Duolingo, reading food labels in convenience stores is going to be tough. And while it seems like wheat allergies are fairly common, so labels may say “wheat free,” it’s not going to list barley, rye, oats, etc.

I’ll be doing my best to take pictures of labels and translate them with my phone. But I thought it might be easier to have some starting points — foods that are more likely to be gluten-free. And once again, I have the gluten-free community to thank for this. Some people have posted pictures of GF-snacks in the Facebook groups or on their own blogs. I’ve been pinning those pictures to new Pinterest boards so I have a visual reference when I’m starving and stop in a 7-Eleven for a snack.

However, I’ve also learned that the formulations and ingredients change frequently, so I’ll definitely still be translating labels before I buy anything. But knowing to look at things like “red salmon and salt onigiri” first helps a lot!

7. Downloading Gluten-Free Translation Cards in All Three Languages

This is one of the biggest tips I’ve read from other celiac travelers, and there’s no way I’m going to skip out on this: making sure I have detailed gluten-free translation cards. These cards typically say something along these lines:

I have celiac disease, which means I cannot eat gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. Soy sauce also contains wheat flour, which means I can’t eat anything that has soy sauce in it. I will become very ill if I eat these foods — similar to an allergy. It’s also important that all utensils, pans, cutting boards, and other food preparation tools are free from gluten-containing residue.

Etc.

Typically, the cards will then go on to explain what you can and can’t eat in that cuisine, just to make it helpful for those who have probably never heard of celiac disease before.

I bought my Japan card from LegalNomads, who I read have one of the best Japanese ones, but they don’t have one for Taiwan or South Korea, so I’m still shopping around.

I’m hoping I have to use these cards as little as possible. In Japan, for example, I think I have more than enough restaurants to keep us covered for most meals, plus plenty of pictures of konbini snacks. But in South Korea, particularly when we visit Jeju Island, I’m expecting to need to use it a lot. But I feel so much more equipped for the trip knowing that I have them on hand!

(Bonus) 8. Trying To Learn To Recognize Important Words in Each Language

When I’m inspecting food packaging or ingredient lists, I’m hoping that I can remember these characters in each language! It seems like in each language, the second part is the same for each word. And I noticed that wheat and barley start with the same character in both Japanese and Mandarin?!

Japanese

• Wheat: 小麦
• Barley: 大麦
• Rye: ライ麦
• Oats: オーツ麦

Taiwan (Traditional Chinese)

• Wheat: 小麥
• Barley: 大麥
• Rye: 黑麥
• Oats: 燕麥

Korean

• Wheat: 밀
• Barley: 보리
• Rye: 호밀
• Oats: 귀리

 

Whew, there you go. That’s how I’m preparing to travel as a celiac for the first time. It’s a lot, but I’m really hoping all the preparation pays off. And if it does, I’ll have a good blueprint for handling celiac travel to other places in the future.

What are your best tips for travel as a celiac that I missed? Are you going to take any of these ideas for your next trip? Let me know in the comments!

-Cathy

This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links at no additional cost to you.