Travelling when you have a food allergy or restrictions isn’t a piece of cake - often quite literally! There are lots of things you have to take into consideration that those without dietary restrictions may never even consider, from packing your own snacks to knowing the ingredients of certain dishes off the top of your head. And yet somehow these bloggers make it seem as easy as gluten-free pie. Here are the nominees for Best Gluten-Free Travel Blogger of 2020.

Our expert panel will be chewing over these travel bloggers to decide who most deserves the title of Best Gluten-Free Travel Blogger. The winner will then be nominated to run for the British Travel Awards’ Best Blogger Award, sponsored by Teletext Holidays. 

Gluten Free Cuppa Tea

Blogger Name: Becky Excell

Blog URL: www.glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk

Why Should I Win?

When you’re gluten-free/coeliac, eating out in a foreign country with a language barrier isn’t just scary - it could actually be dangerous for your health. That’s why I’ve always dedicated a huge part of my blog to creating safe gluten-free travel guides for all my followers. 

I make a point of going to every place myself. That way, I can personally try the gluten-free options, assess their cross-contamination procedures in person and let my followers know that it’s been tried and tested by… yours truly! For me, safety comes first when eating out - especially when abroad.

I’m also really proud of the travel content I’ve curated during lockdown when people can’t travel, hopefully keeping the travel bug (sounds like a bad term now!) alive. Lastly, I *massively* pride myself on the photography/videography included on my blog, which (hopefully) makes people feel like they’re there with me - so I really hope you enjoy them as much as I liked creating them.

Here’s links to some (not all!) of my gluten-free travel content that I’m really proud of:

• Gluten-free guide to Barcelona: https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2018/07/14/gluten-free-in-barcelona-spain-dairy-free/
• Gluten-free guide to Florence: https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2019/04/16/gluten-free-florence-guide-italy/
• Gluten-free guide to Rome (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgYkY3zkEX8
• Gluten-free guide to Paris (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-_J8uTXCOI
• Barcelona Travel vlog (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuf5fGlvVZs&feature=emb_title
• What I eat in a day in Florence (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3PUBwvioDM 
 

Lockdown/post-lockdown content: 

• 11 Gluten-free Recipes For Everyone Who Misses Travelling: https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2020/04/16/gluten-free-recipes-for-everyone-who-misses-travelling/
• 5 Gluten-free Pizzerias You NEED to Visit When It’s Safe to Travel: https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2020/05/19/5-gluten-free-bakeries/
• 5 Gluten-free Bakeries You NEED To Go To When It’s Safe To Travel: https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2020/05/19/5-gluten-free-bakeries/
 

My Proudest Achievements Over the Past Year

As always, my proudest achievement (before all this crazy COVID stuff happened) is always hearing how much my travel guides have helped people enjoy their holidays to the full and stay safe when eating-out abroad. That’s my goal after all!

But in a more literal sense, it has to be this: one of my followers messaged me to say they were talking to another UK diner whilst in a gluten-free restaurant in Barcelona. They were bonding over being gluten-free, obviously! Funnily enough, it turns out that my gluten-free Barcelona guide had sent them BOTH to that specific restaurant… then they started chatting about me and my blog! I’m sure you can understand how hearing that absolutely made my year!!

 

Adventures of a Gluten Free Globetrekker

Blogger Name: Sian Drew

Blog URL: www.glutenfreemrsd.com

Why Should I Win?

Hi, I’m Sian and I’m passionate about showing fellow coeliacs they can travel the world and still eat safely.

I’ve been lucky to visit over 70 countries across 6 continents, visiting 55 of these countries since my diagnosis with coeliac disease and a tree nut allergy 10 years ago.  

I’m a full time working mum to young twins but I never let that hold me back from travelling frequently, even alongside my dietary restrictions. 

As well as taking regular trips to the gluten-free paradises of Italy, Spain and Australia, I particularly love exploring more under the radar places. 

Aside from my global quest to find the world’s best gluten-free pizza (!), I share travel finds ranging from gluten-free in-flight meals, food labelling in Argentina, gluten-free Michelin-starred fine dining in London and where to eat coeliac-safe fish and chips by the British seaside. 

Don’t let your gluten-free diet hold you back from travelling the world!

My Proudest Achievements Over the Past Year

I’m proud that in the year before COVID-19, I travelled as a coeliac to Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, the (former Soviet Republic of) Georgia, Germany, Italy, Norway, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Vietnam and in the UK.

 

My Gluten Free Guide

Blogger Name: Laura Strange

Blog URL: www.mygfguide.com

Why Should I Win?

With gluten-free travel guides covering 60+ destinations, my blog is relied upon by thousands of coeliac and other gluten-free travellers to give them the confidence they need to travel abroad and within the UK. Each guide is based on my personal travel experiences and extensive additional research is done by me to ensure I am providing comprehensive, well-rounded advice and tips for each city or country covered. I want to make the gluten-free side of travel easy for people so that they can enjoy their holiday without having to worry about where they can get their next safe meal.

Travelling when you are gluten-free involves a lot of pre-research, and I am happy to be able to reduce that burden for my readers. Dietary requirements often restrict people or affect confidence, but I aim to show people that gluten-free travel is easy when you know how :)

My Proudest Achievements Over the Past Year

Travelling to 12+ countries with our baby girl, even though people told us travelling with a baby was impossible (turns out it is incredibly easy and we all had a wonderful time!). Publishing my 60th guide and receiving so much lovely feedback from people who have been helped by my guides. 

 

The Sightseeing Coeliac 

Blogger Name: Rachel Goldsworthy

Blog URL: www.thesightseeingcoeliac.blog

Why Should I Win?

I write a blog that specialises in gluten-free travel as I feel passionately that being diagnosed as coeliac should not stop the dream of travelling the world. I love to visit all destinations, however remote or off the beaten track they may be, and show others that it can be done! I see so many with coeliac afraid to eat out or travel, and as someone who never considered giving up, I wanted to show others how to do it. My blog not only seeks out places that are gluten-free, but places that have cross contamination measures in place to make them coeliac safe too. Often I travel out of my way to find gluten-free recommendations, only to find they are not safe at all. 

My day job is nothing related to blogging, but I wanted to start a blog anyway to show that anyone can do it. In the last year I’ve travelled to Cape Town - somewhere that is not known for its gluten-free options - have written a huge post on gluten-free travel in Europe by country and have just climbed Helvellyn while writing my Lake District staycation guide. I have written many more posts for different countries that I have travelled to that I will post when the world starts travelling again, and hopefully many people will be inspired to do so too and not let being coeliac hold them back! 

I should win this blogging award because of my passion to showcase that anyone gluten-free, even those with coeliac, should not let their diagnosis hold them back from travelling and living their dream. Rather than focusing on what I can’t eat, I’ve made it my mission to find all the tastiest and most impressive gluten-free treats from anywhere around the world and share them with the gluten-free community through my blog. 

Many thanks for considering me for the award. I welcome any opportunity to be able share my blog with more of the gluten-free community.

My Proudest Achievements Over the Past Year

My proudest travel achievements over the last year (or so) have been travelling successfully to Hong Kong and Cape Town, two cities that are definitely not known for their gluten-free diets. I also spent a month out in the USA - two weeks were working in New England completely off the tourist trail, at times in Connecticut, before going on a road trip through Texas. Whilst the US sounds easy to travel with dietary requirements - eating gluten-free as a trendy diet has been on the rise - but many restaurants do not take it seriously for cross contamination, so it was often tough in small towns. Lunch meetings with new colleagues in restaurants I hadn’t chosen and in a different country were a totally new test of character and I was so glad that I embraced the opportunity to go on the trip. 

During lockdown I completed Couch to 5k and I have just hiked Helvellyn - the third highest mountain in the Lake District. I needed to do something to counteract all the lockdown baking; during that time I won a Parma Violets baking competition and got featured in their recipe book with a gluten-free Parma Violet Battenberg.