Honeymoon with a coeliac!! (January 2013)

RQ2013

Hi All
I'm getting married shortly and have been giving the task of organising the honeymoon :eek:

To be honest there's so many choices I'm a bit lost.

To make matters more complicated my wife to be is a coeliac and so is a bit reluctant to travel to certain places for fear of getting sick/or finding it difficult to get anything nice to eat.

We would be looking to travel in January 2014 for around 2-3 weeks and our budget would be @ €6/7k.

We would like to avoid the States or Hawaii but ideally would like to travel somewhere where we can have a bit of an adventure/sightsee for @ 10 days and then have a luxury beach holiday chillout at the end.

I was looking at somewhere like Sri Lanka and the Maldives but I fear that they won't be the most clued in on coeliac disease and that the language barrier might be a concern when trying to explain etc.

So I'll throw the floor open to suggestions. Has anyone organised a "Gluten Free" honeymoon before or has any suggestions for places to visit.

All help greatly appreciated
Thanks
RQ2013

tinkerbell

If you are going to a luxury hotel, they will cater to your needs. If you are looking to go to a more budget hotel then they may not be able to offer a lot of variety for your wife to be. January is high season in the Maldives so prices sky-rocket. You could also try the Caribbean? Bermuda is fab as is St Lucia. How about you start on TripAdvisor and research some resorts in the Maldives and see what you could get for your budget?

There's no language barrier in the Maldives btw - they all speak excellent English, in fact a lot of the staff in Maldives resorts are from all over the world.

RQ2013

tinkerbell wrote: »

If you are going to a luxury hotel, they will cater to your needs. If you are looking to go to a more budget hotel then they may not be able to offer a lot of variety for your wife to be. January is high season in the Maldives so prices sky-rocket. You could also try the Caribbean? Bermuda is fab as is St Lucia. How about you start on TripAdvisor and research some resorts in the Maldives and see what you could get for your budget?

There's no language barrier in the Maldives btw - they all speak excellent English, in fact a lot of the staff in Maldives resorts are from all over the world.

Thanks for that Tinkerbell. My understanding of the Maldives is that it's a total relaxation place with not much to do on the sightseeing side of things... Would that be right?

Good to know that re language and the staff

tinkerbell

RQ2013 wrote: »

Thanks for that Tinkerbell. My understanding of the Maldives is that it's a total relaxation place with not much to do on the sightseeing side of things... Would that be right?

Good to know that re language and the staff

Yes, it's a relaxation place which in my opinion is perfect for a honeymoon It's your honeymoon - keep the sightseeing holidays for your future holidays

pwurple

I'm no wheat expert, but with a coeliac I would guess you need to avoid any food with soy sauce? So that's Asia out I guess.

Africa might suit. Zanzibar, Kenya, South Africa. Most of the food we ate there was vegetables and meat. Can't recall much bread there at all. Plenty to do and see in all those as well.

Iceland I'll throw into the mix. It's going to be fairly dark in january, but there's the aurora borealis to check out, the thermal springs (http://www.bluelagoon.com/) and loads of things to do that are hard to find anywhere else. Think glacier tours or snowmobiling up to a volcano with lava oozing past. It won't be cheap is the only thing, but you've a decent budget. Food was very fish, meat and spud based there as well.

RQ2013

Yes coeliacs have to avoid certain types of soya sauce alright.
Would never have thought of somewhere like Iceland... To be honest not sure if its what I'd consider a honeymoon holiday... January's here are bad enough... Could only imagine how cold Iceland would be

wadefuq

How about New Zealand... Not exactly honeymoon heaven but Will be summer time and plenty to see an do with similar food to ourselves... and for a the romantic side of things head off to an exotic island in the pacific for a few days

RQ2013

wadefuq wrote: »

How about New Zealand... Not exactly honeymoon heaven but Will be summer time and plenty to see an do with similar food to ourselves... and for a the romantic side of things head off to an exotic island in the pacific for a few days

New Zealand could be a shout alright.. Heard its a lovely country. The idea of combining it with holiday on one of the islands aswell sound appealing.

Definitely one to investigate further..

RentDayBlues

Having coeliac disease does not mean certain countries aren't an option, and to say Asia is out because of soya sauce is quite a sweeping statement. We honeymoon in Thailand and it was amazing, no issue with food at all. Each hotel we stayed in understood the condition, one even prepared special bread for me each morning and it was delivered without having to ask, they remembered! We included it on each of the bookings, so that was 7 flights and 3 hotels in 3 weeks and I never had a problem. I can't recommend it enough. There is a great app with a coeliac card translated into several languages, so if there is any issue with the language barrier this will help. If you're interested in hotel details pm me, hope it helps with your decision.

RQ2013

Thanks a million Rentdayblues... I sent you a pm. Really interested to find out how you got on etc.

pwurple

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Having coeliac disease does not mean certain countries aren't an option, and to say Asia is out because of soya sauce is quite a sweeping statement. We honeymoon in Thailand and it was amazing, no issue with food at all..

Yes, avoiding anywhere because of the food seems a little excessive alright. No destination is going to eat an entirely wheat diet. I guess they just want to avoid thinking about it as much as possible.

Anyway, if iceland and africa are a bit too adventurous, and maldives too unadventerous, australia / new zealand would probably be a happy medium. New zealand is more expensive to travel to, but certainly beautiful in january.

RQ2013

pwurple wrote: »

Yes, avoiding anywhere because of the food seems a little excessive alright. No destination is going to eat an entirely wheat diet. I guess they just want to avoid thinking about it as much as possible.

That's it exactly - we want the holiday to be about the holiday and not have to waste time having to try plan/worry about where is fine to eat without getting sick

hardCopy

The Ozzies seem to be very aware of gluten/coeliac, every restaurant I ate in there had Gluten Free and Dairy Free items on the menu. Bali seems to be a popular spot with the ozzies, maybe the resorts there would be similar?

How Strange

I used to be severely wheat intolerant although not coeliac which I know us far more serious. However holidays were always a nightmare and food was always something I had to think about in advance.

France was always bad because breakfast is bascically yeaterdays bread toasted. I used to end up eating wheat at some stage simply because you can't avoid it and I'd spend weeks after being very sick.

Italy was surprisingly ok. I avoided pasta and pizza obviously but there were always loads of risottos (ok for coeliacs?), fish and meat dishes and salads to choose from. They don't tend to mix their pasta and fish/meat dishes so I found it easy enough to eat out.

Thailand and Loas were fantastic. It was my holiday food heaven. Lots of rice and rice noodles. Most things cooked fresh to order. I never say a bottle of soya sauce on a table in either country. Lots of stir fries and soups. I've cooked a lot of Thai food since we had that holiday because it's yummy and wheat free and most recipes don't use gluten unless your wife to be can't eat rice then it's a bit trickier.

New Zealand was an unexpected revelation. They really seen to have it sussed for coeliacs down there. Every cafe and restaurant will have coeliac options on the menu as standard so noone of this business of asking what's in the food only to find a hidden ingredient which would trigger an attack.

NZ would be lovely in January as its summer.

Clareman

I know you said you didn't want to do the states, but they really are brilliant at dealing with people with a wheat intolerance and their menus often have as many coeliac options as vegetarian. A guy I worked with was coeliac and used to love travelling to the US as he could get a lot more options to eat, in fact, he even found Wheat Free beer in a few places.

RQ2013

Yes the States ( and Canada) are really good in terms of Gluten Free eating - We've travelled to most of the major cities there and would just like to try something new and different.

Based on the recommendations above it would seem that the following places warrant a more detailed search

-New Zealand
-Australia
-Thailand

If anyone has taken a honeymoon/ or just even travelled around the above places and has any suggestions of places to visit etc I would appreciate a PM

Or if anyone has any other suggestions feel free to make them

Thanks for all your help so far guys.. Have definitely given me plenty to go on