Luckily many travel destinations are becoming more and more familiar with coeliac disease, an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Most countries in Europe along with the USA, Australia and New Zealand have many gluten-free dining options. As do some countries in Southeast Asia whose cuisines largely use rice as the main grain, such as Vietnam and Thailand.

We’ve listed our 10 top tips to make your life easier while traveling abroad with coeliac children.

1. Plan before you go

The internet is a wonderful thing, so use it to its best advantage and research your destination before you go! There are many dedicated gluten free travel sites that list the best places for a coeliac traveler to eat, so take a look! There are lots of places that are gluten-free friendly, you just need to know where to find them – and if someone has done that hard work and found them for you, take advantage!

2. Pack gluten-free essentials

Whether you’re staying in a hotel or going self-catering, packing a few essential gluten-free items in your suitcase is never a bad idea. Things that travel well and come in handy are gluten-free crackers, gluten-free cereal bars, gluten-free biscuits and gluten-free crisps. By taking these tasty gluten-free snacks with you, you’ve always got something to fall back on if you’re stuck. You know that your child likes what you’ve brought, so will be happy with eating the alternative.

3. Carry a medical note

If your child is medically diagnosed with coeliac disease or needs a gluten-free diet, it’s a good idea to carry a letter from a medical practitioner stating any prescription medication being taken, as well as advising of your medical condition which requires special dietary food. Most countries have a customs website with regulation information. Make sure to check the site for any restrictions on bringing food and medication into the country.

4. Ice cream!

Finding gluten free desserts in restaurants can be tricky, with the usual variety of cakes and other baked goods being popular choices for restaurants to serve. Ice cream is always a great option and many countries in Europe (and beyond) have dedicated ice-cream parlors that serve up delicious, you guessed it, ice cream! So instead of waiting to have a dessert at the restaurant, make it an event to go to the local ice cream parlor afterward. Many children will be thrilled with this in itself, but those with a gluten intolerance or allergy will be even more so as they are included in something that everyone else can eat!

5. Communicate the allergy

If you are staying at a hotel it’s worth asking at the front desk when you arrive who’s the best person to speak to regarding your child’s gluten allergy. When you do speak to said person, explain the situation and find out dining options for your child. I have always done this while staying at hotels and never had any problems. The staff always seem willing to help, especially so if it’s for a child!

6. Avoid cross-contamination at buffets

Buffets are a minefield when it comes to cross-contamination. Not only for coeliacs but for people with any type of food allergy. Try to opt for accommodation that doesn’t have buffet meals. Equally, don’t feel limited by restaurant menus, it’s often possible to discuss other options.

7. Carry translation cards

When visiting a country where you don’t know the native language, carry translation cards describing the medical condition to avoid any confusion and unnecessary stress when arranging gluten-free meals. Learning helpful words and phrases before arriving is also useful so that you recognize them on food labels and menus and to help you explain which foods your child cannot eat in more detail if necessary.

8. Book a gluten-free airplane meal

If you’re traveling long-haul (or any flight where you’re provided with a snack or meal), make sure you reserve a gluten-free airplane meal for your child. To be sure they will have a special meal for your child on board, you need to do this before your flight! Booking a special meal can usually be done by logging into the online booking section on the airline’s website, where you will see a variety of dietary meals that airlines offer and are available for you to pick. Please remember for most airlines you must do this before you travel.

9. Travel insurance

When applying for travel insurance, those with coeliac disease should disclose their condition. Having coeliac disease shouldn’t affect your insurance cover. A number of companies provide insurance without adding a surcharge for coeliac disease, protecting you in the event you need medical care while overseas.

10. Medication

If your child requires any medication, be sure to take enough for the trip, there may not be a gluten-free equivalent of the medicine in the country you’re visiting. Alternatively, if you’re on holiday for a longer period or traveling long-term, make sure you know which ingredients to avoid. Or have your local pharmacy back home on speed dial so you can have them check for you.

No matter your holiday destination, follow these travel tips to make your gluten-free family holidays worry-free!

  

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When on our big trip through Asia, we encountered this problem when we wanted to travel to Sri Lanka. We read on the internet that we needed to show proof of exit to enter the country. But how do you do that if you have no idea about your future plans? We really didn’t know how long we wanted to stay, so this posed a problem. After searching the internet we found an easy solution: find an airline which will give you a 24-hour time period to pay for the booking you make with them.

What is proof of onward travel?

Proof of onward travel, an onward ticket, proof of return travel or proof of exit, however you want to call it, means that you can show evidence that you’re leaving the country. In some countries, proof of onward travel is a visa requirement or otherwise required by immigration, but it might also be that the airline requires it and won’t allow you to board the plane without it. Airlines want to avoid having to pay for your return trip if you’re denied access to the country for whatever reason. If you can’t provide proof that you’re leaving again, they could think you’re planning to overstay your visa.

Many travelers found themselves having to buy super expensive onward tickets just so they could enter the country. Sometimes it’s enough if you can show a ticket out of another country at a later date (if you’re planning to travel there overland) or a train or bus reservation to cross the border. Please, do your research!

Finding an airline that allows reservations with delayed payment

So how do you go about finding such an airline? We used Skyscanner to check which airlines were flying from Bandaranaike International Airport (Colombo) and then we checked the payment options for each one. Cathay Pacific was the first one we checked that allows ‘book now, pay later’. They give you the possibility to pay for your ticket within 24 hours after you make your booking (they call it Pay Later). One thing to note is that this only works if the departure date and time for the ticket you want to reserve is at least 72 hours away.

UPDATE June 2019: Cathay Pacific doesn’t offer this option anymore. There are other airlines that still allow you to pay later. It’s also good to know that US law allows you to cancel your flight to or from the USA at no additional cost (even non-refundable flights!) withing 24 hours of booking, provided it’s booked seven days or more in advance.

Book now, pay later. How does it work?

There are more airlines out there that offer this ‘book now, pay later’ option. Just Google it and you’ll find them. When you have found the airline of your choice, go to their online booking page and find a flight for the latest date that your original visa will allow you to stay in the country. Price or other details don’t matter, you won’t be using the ticket. Proceed with making the booking, include some nice food and seat choices if you like a comfortable flight with a nice dinner (you’ll never use it, but still…).

After filling in all your details and passport number go to the payment page of your booking. Check the box that gives you the option to makes it possible to pay for your booking within 24 hours of your initial booking (don’t put any payment information, they don’t need it). Finish the rest of your booking and check your e-mail. In your inbox you’ll find a message from Cathay Pacific with your full booking information just like you would get if you already paid. Print the details out and put them with your other travel documents and you’re good to go. You can now forget about Cathay Pacific because after failing to pay for the booking within the 24 hours they will automatically cancel the booking.

Renting an airline ticket

We provided a free solution for your ‘onward ticket’ problem. Another option is to use a service such as TopOnwardTicket or OnwardTicket and rent an airline ticket. What? Rent a ticket?? Yes An airline ticket rental service, brilliant, isn’t it? You pay them a fee and they buy a refundable airline ticket for you with their money. You use the rented ticket, and the ‘proof of onward travel’ it provides, to enter the country and after a maximum of 48 hours the ticket is canceled.

Super cheap or refundable tickets

Of course, if you don’t feel comfortable with either of the two solutions above, you can always book a super cheap ticket out of the country. Depending on which part of the world you’re traveling at the time, there are always budget airlines like AirAsia or Easyjet that offer tickets that don’t break the bank. Since you won’t be using the ticket anyway, things like flight time or departure time don’t matter. Just select the cheapest option available. Make sure to check multiple dates using Skyscanner or Kiwi to see which option is the cheapest.

Another thing you could do is buy a refundable ticket. It often happens that you have to wait a long time to get your money back though, so this is only an option if you don’t have any money issues. Also, make sure to check the small print, so you know that you’ll actually be refunded in cash instead of flight coupons or such.

Using a fake onward ticket generator

This is something we thought of before we knew any better. Obviously, this could get you into real trouble if you have to show your ‘ticket’ to an immigration officer. Lying at immigration could have you end up in jail. We wouldn’t recommend this solution, but it IS an option so we thought we should include it. There are services that let you create a fake flight itinerary. Use at your own risk!

Did this post help you solve your “proof of onward travel’ problem? Or have you already found your own solution? Let us know in the comment section and help your fellow travelers.

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I’m not (yet) seeing how we can combine tropical, scuba destinations, short term and affordable travel and a home base in Holland, but hopefully we can come up with a solution! We have a rental apartment in Haarlem, that we would keep as a base. Because it’s social housing, it’s affordable, but we aren’t allowed to sublet. So while traveling we would still have substantial costs back in Holland.

Our wishlist

(luckily we’re not asking for much ;-))
[check_list]

• Relatively cheap to reach
• Cheap to stay (accommodation and food)
• Good wifi
• Enough time for me to work
• Sunny and warm
• Scuba diving destination

[/check_list]

Here are 7 ideas that I’ve come up with that tick at least a few of the boxes.

Budget travel tip #1: Long term home base abroad

Very often you get a discount if you rent for a month or more, and moving around is expensive. So it makes sense to choose one location and stay there for an extended period. If we’re in the same place for a few weeks we can establish a routine with Jace, and if we choose a location with good wifi, working shouldn’t be an issue either. So this option might work. Downside is that even with the discount the costs of the accommodation might still be high and now that Jace is almost three, we have to pay for his transportation (plane, train, bus). So we would have to look at destinations that are relatively cheap to reach AND offer affordable accommodation. Airbnb.com is an obvious choice to look for accommodation, but good alternatives are Flipkey.com, Homeaway.com, 9flats.com and Wimdu.com

Budget travel tip #2: House exchange

As mentioned before, in Holland you aren’t allowed to sublet if you rent social housing. But, you can arrange for a house sitter. Officially you can’t ask for rent, but you might be able to exchange other services. It would be a great solution if we could do a house exchange! Haarlem is a great city to visit and our apartment is in a pretty strategic location, close to a supermarket and other shops, very near a bus stop to the city center, about 10 minutes away from the center by bike, free parking in front. Our apartment is quite small (about 40m2), which might be an issue, but the major downside to this idea is that the minimum period is three months for an official, housing corporation approved, house sitter. Also both parties need to be in Holland at the same time for an appointment at the housing corporation to sign a contract. If we had a house of our own, this would be a lot easier, for instance with Guesttoguest.com or Homeexchange.com

Budget travel tip #3: House sitting

This seems like a great option to stay in a new place for a while, with minimum costs. We might have to spend a bit more on transport to get there, but accommodation would be free. Since it most likely involves pet sitting too, we would be at home a lot and should be able to minimize our spends on eating out and sightseeing. Of course with Jace we want to make sure that there’s enough to do and see in the direct area and that it’s easy to reach stores etc. We might be able find a house sit a bit closer to home for the first time, so we can travel there by car and have our own transport while we’re there. I’d love to give this a try! There are so many house sitting websites though that it’s hard to choose, Trustedhousesitters.com is one of the biggest, but Nomador.com also seems like a good option.

Budget travel tip #4: Work exchange

Mau could make use of this building and renovating experience in exchange for accommodation and food. The challenge might be to find a place where they wouldn’t mind hosting a family though. And I would have to have enough time to work, so I can make enough money for us to live and pay rent at home. I guess for the hours Mau would have to put in, it’s not really worth it. He’d make a lot more here in Holland for the same work. But still, it might be an interesting option, as it would be a whole new experience. HelpX.net and Workaway.info are great sites for this.

Budget travel tip #5: Buying a campervan

Some friends of ours are away most weekends in the summertime in their Volkswagen campervan. Their pictures always look amazing. Such freedom! We recently connected with a Dutch family with a baby boy who sold their house and are now traveling around Europe with an RV. What an adventure! Of course since I dislike the cold so much, we would have to make our way really far south in the winter and it would be quite costly to return home for shorter periods. But budget airlines might offer a solution there. Of course camping grounds aren’t free either, but if we stay in one location longer we might get a discount and save on gas too. This option wouldn’t allow us to go to those tropical diving destinations, but it’s still worth looking into some more.

Budget travel tip #6: Scoring deals by booking long in advance

We generally don’t like to plan ahead. You never know what will happen and we like to be able to change our plans whenever we feel like it. But, we can save loads if we would book a lot longer in advance. Plane tickets are much cheaper and you have a lot more choice in accommodation. It would also really help our motivation to know that we have travel plans coming up. The way we’ve traveled the past year and again when we were in Vienna, Prague and Berlin in May was to only book a day or two in advance. I feel we were lucky to get the apartments that we did, but I’m sure we would’ve had a lot more choice and more affordable options had we booked ahead. We might have to become a bit more organized (oh oh….).

Budget travel tip #7: Setting price alerts & watching deals sites

It seems that flexibility is also a great way to score travel deals. Platforms like
Secretflying.com, Booking.com and lots of airlines often have great deals, but you have to act fast. Mostly that doesn’t mean you have to be able to leave the same day, but you do have to decide quickly if you can leave on a certain date, even if it’s a few months away. Since we’ve never traveled that way it would be a big change for us. But I think we definitely have to start paying better attention to these kinds of websites!

Now that I’ve written this post I definitely feel a bit better! We need to do some more homework, but it seems we have a lot more options than I originally thought. Of course it’s so much easier to feel depressed, and sit around and complain, but if we want things to change we need to take action! Hopefully these ideas will help!

Booking.com

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