South Africa?

[soulcurrent]

Has anyone had any experience with gluten-free in South Africa? I'm thinking of going to Cape Town next year. I've read about some of the local eats and seems like there's a lot of bread heavy dishes but I can probably skip those fairly easily.

[lucia]

I went to SA last year. It was a great trip. I'm still in recovery and didn't want to stress my gut, and SA is one of the few places outside of North America and Europe where I felt safe traveling. SA is as industrialized as any Western country. Of the cities I visited (Jo-Burg, Durban & CT), Cape Town is the most progressive, and it was easy to find specifically gluten-free foods, servers who understand "gluten-free", and a wide variety of 'ethnic' (ironically, meaning non-Western) cuisine. You'd have no trouble whatsoever. I highly recommend "Africa Cafe" in Cape Town for a special night out where you can order scrumptious dishes from an 'all you can eat' gluten-free menu. Here's what I wrote at the time of my trip:

I just returned from a trip to SA, where I visited Jo-Burg, Cape Town and Durban. I wanted to comment that I found gluten-free food with no more or no less difficulty than in the states (and I live in NYC). I tried researching options before I left, and found little information online. Once I was there though, to my surprise, I found many options and a range of people who knew what "gluten-free" meant. (Of course, I also encountered many people who had no idea what I was talking about.)

Restaurants that catered to tourists in Cape Town had a high awareness of "gluten-free." I even had a gluten-free menu handed to me at one of these. Remarkably in Cape Town, I stumbled into a bakery with gluten-free products and also discovered a health food store with a wide variety of gluten-free products. In Durban, the owner of my (moderately-priced) b&b served me gluten-free bread. Generally, groceries in the cities I visited carried gluten-free products at about the same rate and the same cost (high) as in the states. But most importantly - and significant to someone coming from the states - foods were all labelled with allergen information. I ate prepared foods from Woolworth's a lot for that reason.

South Africa's ethnic diversity also made eating out easier. There are a wide variety of Indian restaurants (especially in KwaZulu Natal). And native African food does not use gluten. For example, traditional South African food features pap, which is corn-based. I also ate Ethiopian food and pan-African food, which were naturally gluten-free (in both cases, my server could confirm this).

I'd actually recommend SA as a place to travel for someone with gluten issues. The tourist track is well-equipped to deal with gluten intolerance, and generally the country is very hospitable to us gluten intolerant folks. Whatever frustrations I had there were equivalent to what I've felt in the states. Actually, slightly less so thanks to the SA system of labeling for allergens.

[Bonnie PA]

What can I do when travel company says they will refund my fully paid trip (which does not mean my airfare or trip insurance cost will be recovered) but refuse to allow me on trip because of celiac disease and food sensitivities? Lawyers are expensive and I could lose. I tried to convince them to simply give me plain meat and veg’s baked in aluminum foil. They’re flat out refusing to take me on trip.

[cyclinglady]

14 hours ago, Bonnie PA said:

What can I do when travel company says they will refund my fully paid trip (which does not mean my airfare or trip insurance cost will be recovered) but refuse to allow me on trip because of celiac disease and food sensitivities? Lawyers are expensive and I could lose. I tried to convince them to simply give me plain meat and veg’s baked in aluminum foil. They’re flat out refusing to take me on trip.

Can you find out if your trip insurance will cover the cost of the airfare?  Consider going and traveling on your own?  Get the airline to re-issue another ticket to another destination?  

If the travel company can not accommodate you safely, I would not go.  Is it worth it traveling and being sick?