Cairo, Egypt

Just returned from week in Cairo. Another gluten free success!

I did tons of research on vegetarian options but we did not use any of it because we had had a Guide assigned to us that took care of everything for us because of the business my husband was doing there.

Actually, I am not sure this post will be much help to anyone visiting there other than to know that it is possible to have a great trip and eat vegetarian and gluten free.

We stayed at the Marriott in Mirage City. This is one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in. There were several restaurants in the hotel and food was available around the clock. The chef fixed us whatever we wanted. There were not any gluten free breads available but we ate VERY well, maybe too well! Our favorite was the Italian Restaurant, believe it or not. They had great soups, salads and the best gnocchi I have ever had.

We carried gluten free crackers with us everywhere. This came in handy for KT at the long dinners.

We ate almost all of our meals in the hotel, only one was on a Nile boat KhulKhal and it was ordered for us by our guide and was a very nice rice and vegetable dish.


Places we visited:

• Pharaonic Village, A living history museum that recreates life in ancient Egypt. A great place to take children!
• Great Pyramids of Giza
• Cairo Tower
• Egyptian Museum
• Khan el-Khalili Market

Our only struggle on this trip was the airline connection through Paris CDG airport. We had a 5 hour layover between the US and Cairo. There was very little that was suitable to eat and we were starving. My advice is not to connect in Paris- London or Amsterdam have much better options for veg and gluten free foods.

Chicago Itinerary

Another City, another success! 100% Veg and Gluten Free!

Here is our trip info from Chicago.

ARRIVE SUNDAY 8 AM

• Breakfast at Whole Foods (Huron & State)
• Walk to American Girl Store (Chicago and Michigan)
• Lunch at American Girl store (GF Pizza and GF Cupcakes!)
• Take bus to Art Institute
• Wall through Millennium Park
• Check into Hotel (City Center at Ohio and Fairbanks - not sure I would stay there again, not bad just better choices available.)
• Dinner at Big Bowl (Ohio & Rush, great gluten free/veg options)
• Walk a couple blocks to Whole Foods (bought GF banana bread, fruit, soy milk for breakfast and snacks like chips, power bars and water, cookies)

MONDAY

• Ate breakfast in the room (soymilk, fruit, banana bread)
• 9:00 AM took Bus 2 to Field Museum (there is NOTHING you can eat at their cafe, we took snacks)
• Took a Bus up Michigan Ave
• Ate lunch at Noodles and Company (On two things you can eat, it was okay- not a place I would return to. Fast food pad thai is not my favorite. There is a Whole Foods not far from the museums, but would be easiest to get to if you had a car:)
• Back to the American Girl Store
• Bus #66 to hotel
• Dinner at Wildfire (Awesome!!!! You may need reservations but this was worth every penny we paid! They even had Gluten free beer and burger buns!) http://www.wildfirerestaurant.com/
• Back to Whole Foods for breakfast items...

TUESDAY

• Breakfast in hotelroom
• 10:00 AM Swirlz Cupcakes (took red line to Fullerton)
• Walked to Nature Museum and Zoo
• Planned to have lunch at Adobo Grill but they were not open for lunch so we ate at Chipolte
• Walked down to Museum of Modern Art, American Girl Store again:)
• Navy Pier and Children's museum (could have spent 3 days at this place)
• Ate salads at McDonalds
• Dinner at Big Bowl
• Wholefoods again to buy snacks and breakfast

WEDNESDAY

• 10:00 AM Architecture Foundation and Exhibit
• 11:00 AM Museum of Science and Industry (took lots of snacks because this is far away- but we did not eat much because we were so distracted by the amount of things to do at this museum)
• Lunch at Chiplote
• Museum of Modern Art again
• 5:00 took car to DaLuciano's (Amazing! you must try this place. Be sure to call for reservations. Carnivore Husband had meat ravioli with meat sauce and fried calamari, I had eggplant parmesan and my daughter filled up on garlic bread before she even got her pasta primavera but mysteriously had room for GF tiramisu and cream puffs!) 8343 W Grand. Our driver took Grand straight there, took about 45 minutes from our hotel. Was perfect on the way to the airport, only about 20 minutes to the airport in a cab.
• 8:30 PM flight home.

We did not eat at all of the places we planned, some where too far away when we got hungry. Next trip we will eat at VegeDiner, Balanced Kitchen (GF and Vegan) and also Adobo Grill.

Here is a list of restaurants in the Chicago area: http://csagc.park-ridge.il.us/restaurantlist.htm