Going on holiday with IBS/Gluten intolerance.

It’s all down to staff training. I’m not afraid to ask more than once if something on the menu is definitely gluten free.

I visited an RHS partner garden a couple of months ago with a group of friends and ate in their cafe. I was assured the falafel sandwich I ordered was gf but I felt uneasy and would have changed my order had it not been so busy and I didn’t want to hold everyone else up.

The meal may well have been gf but it was given to the wrong person. I was nearly half way through my sandwich when the waiter realised and gave a half hearted apology.

When I asked to see the manager and tried to get across how ill it was going to make me she just said, ‘Well, couldn’t you tell it was the wrong bread as soon as you started eating it?’

🤔🤔

kittylester I know there's still the cooking with self catering, but for me it's so much less stressful.

kittylester - I think you are wrong - self catering still liberates you from the mundane and day-to-day!

I always ask about chips as they are often coated.

Things seem to have got worse for gf provision recently with, it seems a return to the bad, old, early days of establishment catering for intolerance.

We went to a restaurant earlier in the week and there was nothing on the menu that was gf but they promised they could adapt most dishes. Adapting meant leaving things off or out, with no alternative. And no gf bread at all.

I have multiple food intolerances and allergies - gluten, dairy, nuts, soya, seafood, citrus, coffee, alcohol and various fruits and vegetables. It's certainly a nightmare eating out and regarding holidays I have opted for self-catering.

But I have also found that pubs/restaurants will be very accommodating if you explain very carefully in advance. In the past, chefs have checked the fridge to see what veggies they have, and sometimes I have even pre-arranged to take in some safe veg of my own which they will heat up.

Since my intolerances and my reactions have worsened, I haven't risked going abroad, but previously I printed out a list of my food problems in different languages to hand to the waiter.

NotSpaghetti

Can you choose self-catering accommodation? I think I'd go that way. A friend with IBS always does this.

Not much of a holiday!

I am lactose intolerant these days so on my last break I took long life lactose free milk with me - enough for 2 weeks when kept in the fridge. I used that for my cups of tea in the morning. I can drink coffee without milk but don't really like tea without milk.
I don't eat desserts these days so didn't need to worry about them. I also can't have anything with alcohol in it as I'm a recovering alcoholic so checked everything with the waiters and nothing went wrong. For me, it's a case of checking everything.

Can you choose self-catering accommodation? I think I'd go that way. A friend with IBS always does this.