The Gluten Free Food & Drink Guide

I recently stayed at the Glencoe Guesthouse in Keswick to climb the highest mountain in England the celebrated Scafell Pike.
I found the accommodation on the Internet through Google search and chose it as it looked nice on the website and was a reasonably priced B&B compared to others in the area.

The accommodation was well presented and the breakfasts were served early [maybe a little to early if you need a lie in after a long day on the hill - my only gripe!] There was no problem with catering for my diet, they made me sandwiches with my bread, and other facilities were available in town, Keswick has an abundance of good restaurants.

Recommended.

http://www.glencoeguesthouse.co.uk/

We recently had a weeks holiday in the Lake District and one lunchtime eat at the Brittania Inn at the village of Elterwater. They were extremely helpful towards my Gluten Free diet and made me fish, chips and peas which was ’spot on’.

The menu looks unpromising to start with as lots of it contains pastry but if you ask at the bar they are very pleased to offer you good alternatives.

http://www.britinn.co.uk/

Recommended.

My family and I recently spent some quality time in southern Spain near Malaga. We visited the coast often as well as inland venues such as Frigliana and were lucky enough to ski on the Sierra Nevada nr Granada. Here we eat at the Restaurante La Cuna which had a great menu and was very efficient. I had beef with salad, a huge pepper and chips here which was cooked to perfection. The skiing was excellent as there was fresh powder snow deposited overnight and my 4 yr old enjoyed a two hour private lesson with an enthusiastic Spanish ski instructor.

Food is usually no problem for the Coeliac in Spain as the dishes are usually prepared fresh and often the menus are in English, you just need to take care and ask [ if it contains gluten ] if in doubt.

On the coast we eat at Nerja a town famous for the Balcon de Europa, the restaurants on the Burriana beach are excellent with the Montemar a favourite of mine serving fresh fish cooked on an open fire every day. here you will find seafood Paella being cooked on giant pans 3m wide.

Have no fear, Spain really is a great place for family holidays and good gluten free food.

I have been on many Ski holidays and have found some companies cater for special diets pretty well.

Ski Esprit are one company that offer holidays for families with childcare requirements but are not suitable for individuals/ couples, their sister company Ski Total cover the other end of the spectrum offering accommodation suited to adult groups.

A holiday with Esprit in Val Gardena, Italy was excellent this January giving me no room for complaint! Matt the chef was great ensuring I was catered for at all times, even to the point of cooking gluten free cake for afternoon tea.

The skiing in Val Gardena was pretty decent too, if you enjoy a relaxed resort, though not very challenging but great for the kids.

Food in the valley was good with a reasonable choice on most menus.

More on this later.

I recently flew to Austria on a Monarch chartered flight. I arranged for a Gluten Free meal to be provided on the outward journey.
This was made available on the flight, and turned out to be surprisingly fresh and edible for an in flight meal.
Be warned though, that this airline provide cups and cutlery with a non GF bap wrapped inside, you could easily mistake this bap as part of your GF meal.
The meal consisted of a chicken breast, potatoes, carrots and broccoli.

The return journey included a very different meal that consisted of just a GF bap, a tub of marg, 10 grapes and a kids packet of Sunmaid raisins!

Someones avin a larrrf!