Vegetarian and Gluten Free?

Just 6 months after KT's diagnosis we had a trip scheduled to Paris. I was VERY nervous and felt like we were traveling to the gluten capital of the world. One day it came to me that I was looking at it all wrong. I needed to approach it the same way I approached traveling as a vegetarian. Being vegetarian it always takes lots of planning before we travel anywhere. In the past I have taken suitcases of organic vegetarian foods with me to Mexico, Japan and Ireland. Whenever I had a trip planned, I would look up the local vegetarian restaurants and stores and made out a travel plan. I decided that traveling gluten-free should not be that much different from traveling vegetarian.

Some tips:

• I start with the vegetarian restaurants, thinking they would be most likely to be sensitive to our dietary needs and I am sure everything is vegetarian.
  

• I plan our sightseeing around the location of health food stores and vegetarian restaurants.

• The first visit in any city is to the nearest health food store to see what is available.

• I request "Gluten Free" meals on our flights. Opting for gluten free over vegetarian because the vegetarian meals usually contain lots of gluten- usually pasta, bread and cereals. I knew the GF meals would likely contain fish or chicken. So we take our chances that there will be enough extras on the tray to keep us entertained. Breakfasts are usually vegetarian and GF. Don't count on these meals because they are not always served.
  

• I pack lots of GF snacks in our checked baggage and carry on food for our travels.