At the end 2022 I decided to take inspiration from Sarah who writes the Endless Distances blog and post a travel review for the previous year which I loved writing and taking time to reflect on my travel – it’s so therapeutic to write about your previous travels and think about the year ahead. I of course also highlighted the best gluten free eats from around the World that I’d eaten, and whilst I love writing these posts I didn’t think they would have that much interest but quite a few new coeliacs reached out saying that my 2022 post highlighted that gluten free travel is still possible and had given them some hope. This makes my heart so happy, as it was the main reason for starting my blog at all.

As I get started on writing where I went in 2023, please remember that all these types of posts are just a highlights reel and never show what is going on in real life.

2023 Travels

Dublin – Ireland, January

I started the year by spending a couple of days in Dublin on a business trip, my second time in the city. We had a great time, and managed to squeeze in a drink at Temple Bar which was so much fun. Both visits to Dublin, both in January and August have had such bleak weather that I actually preferred the city in January whilst it was still all decorated in fairy lights. Dublin has some great gluten free eats, when you know where to find them including amazing fish and chips, and Chinese!

My blog post on Dublin was my most read city guide last year and I have just updated it with some photos from 2023, and some followers tips for changes since last January which I’ve just added in to keep the post as up to date as possible.

Malaga, Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona, Spain – February

In February I spent two weeks working in Spain and Portugal with the weekend in the middle spent in Barcelona. Whilst this trip was great, it was so busy visiting all these locations and working that I spent most of the weekend just relaxing in Barcelona having visited the city before. However, since my last visit was in 2005 and pre coeliac I did manage to fit in some gluten free hot spots and revisit the Sagrada Familia including going inside which wasn’t an option on my last visit.

I’m not normally too bothered about seeing the inside of buildings but this is an absolute must. The stained glass windows are spectacular and I was so glad to be able to do this.

Spain is a fantastic country for gluten free, and it made eating during the trip so much easier and more exciting than other business trips that I have been on. I really should get onto writing up my gluten free travels for Spain – which will probably be the theme to most of this post as I can’t keep up. Feel free to reach out for any tips!

Porto and Lisbon, Portugal – February

The following week I spent time working in Porto and Lisbon, two cities I absolutely love. I have never got around to writing all my gluten free guides for Portugal, but I do have this round up post for gluten free local cuisine after spending ten days road tripping in 2021. Both cities make the most wonderful city breaks from the UK or in my case formed a longer trip across Portugal. I find the APC website (the Portuguese coeliac association) so useful with their accredited restaurants, and hotels too for Portuguese travels.

Seville, Spain and Gibraltar – March

The beginning of 2023 saw a lot of time spent in Spain! We cancelled our long haul two week holiday in early 2023 due to health at the time and instead spent a week in March travelling in Spain and Morocco for some sunshine. Seville was lovely and warm at this time, and we had a fantastic couple of days in the city before driving to the coast and visiting Gibraltar. I would actually in hindsight have had a few more days in Spain, post Seville with a car for some adventures in cities such as Cadiz rather than driving straight through. I highly recommend for a warmer short haul city break in March.

Tangier to Marrakech, Morocco – March

Most people when they travel to Morocco seem to do it as a city break to Marrakech, or perhaps a sun holiday on a resort. When we do it, we travel over from Spain by ferry and drive to Marrakech! Unpopular opinion but we didn’t love Marrakech, even in March I found the heat overwhelming in the medina and it was just so hot and busy. We however loved being off the beaten track and enjoyed our time in Casablanca and Rabat more. I doubt I will write a guide to Marrakech or Morocco as our trip was short, but I recommend this guide by Sarah on her website. I managed on our short trip on finds in the supermarkets and cooking, food I’d taken with me, naturally gluten free options in hotel restaurants and eating tagine only when I ate out! I would revisit Marrakech though, but by staying in the city itself in a Riad rather than outside in an air b n b so that I could tackle the medina and the blazing heat more easily in short bursts, and add on a trip to the Sahara.

Nice, France – April

In April we spent a long weekend in Nice for Paul’s birthday and honestly I don’t know why we hadn’t been before. We loved being by the sea and having a lovely few days with friends. Again, if you have more time travelling along the Côte d’Azur would be an amazing way to spend your time.

France, is notoriously bad for gluten free compared to other European countries but in a short trip to Nice I didn’t have any problems finding food with some planning.

Ljubljana, Slovenia – May

In May I had to work in Slovenia, which meant spending time in Ljubljana and doing visits across the country. The timing of this trip meant I could extend it into the weekend, for a trip to Lake Bled one of my favourite places and I couldn’t be more grateful for those unexpected couple of days!

In Bled, we stayed in the most beautifully located Grand Toplice Hotel and it was worth the extra cost for the views. We decided to just chill here for our one full day here, having pic nic meals out on the balcony. Every penny spent on this hotel was worth it as we could still enjoy Lake Bled without being out in the rain.

The rain in Slovenia in May was torrential. This meant despite being driven around the country for work by a locally based colleague, I didn’t get to see much of the view! However, we road tripped around Slovenia in 2009 (my first trip after being diagnosed as coeliac) and really loved it. Luckily my colleague was happy to eat with me at a couple of gluten free cafes and I also managed to spend a night at the 100% gluten free B+B in Ljubljana which had a fantastic restaurant.

Whitby, UK – May

We spent a few days in May in Whitby, our first visit to the Northern coast in the UK and we enjoyed beautiful weather and a great weekend with friends (and two puppies) for a 40th birthday celebration. It was super chilled, playing games, spending evenings in, with time spent at the beach and Whitby Abbey, with plenty of fish and chips thrown in! We all had such a good time we are hoping to go back for a few days this year too.

Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Poznan, and Warsaw, Poland – June

June was a busy month for me for business travel, with a lot of time spent in Polish cities and I also ate surprisingly well everywhere. I have previously only been to Krakow which was for a wedding so it was great to see more of the country even though it was a flying visit through each place. I would definitely love to spend more time in the country. From the cities visited on this trip, Gdańsk was the most beautiful and top of my list for a city break. I didn’t see much of Warsaw though so this is the most likely place I’d return to first.

I wouldn’t hurry back to Poznan, as most of the city is being dug up so definitely one for a few years time.

Paphos and Nicosia, Cyprus – May

Everyone thought I was really lucky going to Cyprus for work in May. In reality I wouldn’t choose to work in that heat – out of season temperatures all the way for me! It also became a really stressful trip after my flight was cancelled resulting in me travelling a day later and still trying to fit everything I needed to do in. However, I did get some vitamin D and enjoy some fantastic food so I can’t really complain.

London, UK – July

I don’t normally travel so much during the summer months when Europe gets far too hot for me and much busier with school holidays. I instead enjoy the sunnier time in the UK and this year spent quite a lot of time with friends and family in the city.

Copenhagen and Herlev, Denmark

I worked in Denmark on an overnight business trip and found it really hard. Business travel can be off the beaten track, and generally when this happens in Europe I can usually get some emergency gluten free snacks and Mc Donald’s. In Denmark, I got through by a quick trip to H.U.G bageri before we left Copenhagen and a meal at Max burgers which I knew could cater from our time in Sweden. The rest of the time was pretty difficult and I would need to be better prepared if I returned for a longer trip for work outside of Copenhagen.

We have been to Copenhagen before though, and we loved it. We really enjoyed our time at Tivoli Gardens theme park too.

Bergen to Oslo, Norway – August

We decided to go away for a couple of days last minute in August and decided to visit Norway. Europe had some extreme weather this year in the summer months with some countries being blazing hot and being faced with wild fires whilst others were struggling with torrential rain and flooding. In the end we settled on Norway as we wanted less extreme temperatures and to be honest even the week before this trip the trains stopped running outside of Oslo due to flooding but luckily we had no issues, and gorgeous sunny days. I always travel with insurance that I’ve paid extra for that covers everything including acts of nature, political unrest and Covid.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – September

In September I spent two weeks working in our Malaysian offices, which was the best experience but so stressful at the same time. Whilst I fully advocate for all travel, and generally I have focused on the travel itself rather than the food for this round up so far business travel in Malaysia is challenging.

I’m so glad I went, lucky that I stayed in large hotels often attached to huge shopping centres with more choice of restaurants than some locations I’ve worked from in Europe and I was very grateful for colleagues who would try and go to restaurants that we thought would be easier for me, but it was definitely a trip filled with anxiety over getting sick and that brought a lot of attention over what I could or couldn’t eat everywhere I went! I managed through translation cards, colleagues learning what I could have and translating for me, naturally gluten free food with no sauces and choosing the safest option on any menu and packing extra snacks and meals.

Singapore – September

During our Malaysia trip we spent the Saturday in the middle of the trip in Singapore. We crammed in as much as possible and walked about 30,000 steps and was elated to eat at 100% gluten free restaurants during the day after so much plain simple food in Kuala Lumpur!

New York – Philadelphia – Washington DC – Connecticut – Boston – Vermont – New York, USA – October

Don’t ask about our crazy route (based around NFL games and my brother joining us for five days in the middle of the trip) but we spent two weeks road tripping through New England in October.

We had super sunny days and really enjoyed travelling from New York where we flew into, down to Washington DC for the Thursday night NFL game via time on the coast at Atlantic City and Berlin, Maryland. Our timeframe was only possible having been to New York and Washington before but if not I highly recommend this itinerary just over a longer period of time with time in the cities built in.

Our route was planned so that we could stay at the 100% gluten free B+B in Maryland and it was honestly amazing and one of our favourite stops on the trip.

We then drove to Boston, where the next NFL game was planned for the Sunday afternoon to watch the Patriots. We travelled through Connecticut, stopping at Six Flags theme park before staying in Boston and also visiting Salem. A bucket list tick for October !

After my brother left us, we spent a week driving through New England leaf peeping! Honestly I don’t think we timed any of it that well, being too early for much of New Hampshire and too late for Vermont. We still saw some pretty good fall colours, just more yellows rather than red! The most colour we saw was actually on the drive back to the airport.

Germany – December

My birthday weekend happens to coincide with the entirely gluten free Christmas Market held every year in Sasbachwalden so obviously this was where I went for my birthday this year! It’s actually in a small town in the Black Forest so it’s a bit more difficult to get to than the Christmas Markets in large cities. We ended up staying in Basel, Switzerland and driving to the market along with spending time at Europa Park (a huge theme park decorated so festively with loads of fairy lights and Christmas trees – highly recommend).

I really want to go back now in the summer to for all the roller coasters as the park is huge. We also visited the waterfalls and cuckoo clock attractions in Tilburg that ended up being covered in snow. A fabulous festive and wintery weekend.

2023 Travel Favourites

Favourite Travel Moment: Swimming in Oslo Harbour

It’s hard picking out one moment, but I think swimming in Oslo harbour from the floating sauna has to go down as a pretty unique and memorable experience. One no one was particularly sure about doing, but we all ended up loving the experience.

Favourite New Place: Maryland, USA

Despite the long travel list for 2023, I have actually visited many of these places before reducing my new places list to Seville, Gibraltar, Morocco, Nice, Whitby, all the cities I visited in Poland and Maryland, USA. I had an incredible time in all of these places but I think my favourite new place was visiting the state of Maryland. Perhaps influenced by my accommodation and the sunny weather but we had the best time in Maryland where I had no real expectations and hadn’t made many plans.

Favourite Place I returned to: Lake Bled, Slovenia

This makes my favourite place that I returned to a much harder decision as so many of these places are beautiful. I loved being back in South East Asia for the travel and culture, and I loved travelling in Spain for the ease of finding gluten free options but I absolutely loved the two nights we spent at Lake Bled.

Favourite Country: Norway

These lists are so hard to pick one option, but I think I am going to choose Norway. I found plenty of gluten free options and the country is stunningly beautiful. It’s just a shame that it’s so expensive!

Worst Travel Moment: Air Bn B experience in Marrakech

Don’t worry it worked out ok but honestly I would be very hesitant to book an air b n b in Morocco again. We did so so that we could have our own pool, and actually the new apartment was beautiful. However, it was basically in the middle of a building site with high walls, security cameras and it didn’t feel very safe so it would definitely not come recommended. We also chose it due to having the car, but actually we should probably have dropped the car off and stayed inside the medina of Marrakech so that we had some accommodation to break up the time spent in the sun and hustle and bustle of Marrakech.

Biggest Travel Regret: Not spending long enough in some destinations

We try to fit in as much as possible with our annual leave and sometimes that means we don’t stay as long as we want to at places. My biggest travel regrets for 2023 were only spending one day in Oslo (so many guides said one day was enough but we really should have spent two and missed things out that we wanted to do) and not having longer on our Seville and Morocco travels. We should have split this into two trips, but crossing from Spain to Morocco was part of the experience so maybe we should have just gone for longer. Either way there’s plenty of Southern Spain and Morocco left for us to explore.

Scariest Travel Moment: Driving to Boston

I didn’t really post much about our time in the USA on Instagram, but we had a pretty scary time driving from Six Flags in Connecticut to Boston as the accelerator pedal completely broke off in our car – as in completely sheared off whilst we were driving on a four lane freeway into Boston. It was super dangerous, and extremely unbelievable that even the police and tow truck drivers barely believed it until they had the pedal in hand. We were coming out of a tunnel into Boston, in one of the most dangerous places for the car to stop and I’m so grateful that it didn’t lead to a serious accident and that we had police help so quickly. Absolutely unbelievable that this happened and we still struggle to comprehend that this actually happened to our hire car!

Best Accommodation: Hotel in Lake Bled

For actual hotels I am going to pick Grand Toplice Hotel in Lake Bled. It honestly made our trip being able to sit and look at the lake for so long, even in the rain and was worth every penny. This photo was the balcony of our room.

Best Gluten Free Accommodation: The Inn Berlin, Maryland

However, I’m going to add this as an additional best accommodation category because The Inn Berlin has to have all the shout outs it can get, we loved our stay here.

The breakfasts served by Maya were fantastic, and were so large that we didn’t need lunch. You have to visit!

Runner Up

Dezela Okusov – Ljubljana, Slovenia

All gluten free accommodation deserves to be recognised and the other place I stayed at this year was Dezela Okusov in Ljubljana. They served up a simple (but safe and worry free) breakfast and the gluten free restaurant on site was amazing.

I had two excellent meals here – fried chicken and potato salad and ribs and chips. It would be a tough choice to decide which was better!

Best Gluten Free Meal: Tianns – Singapore

Having spent a week eating plain food in Kuala Lumpur and generally feeling pretty anxious about the food situation, I had the best day in Singapore eating at 100% gluten free restaurants.

At Tianns I could have gluten free fried chicken, try kaya jam toast and have dessert!

Runners Up

Gluten Free Crabcakes: The Hobbit, Maryland

Maya recommended her favourite local restaurants when we stayed at The Inn Berlin which led us to The Hobbit. A restaurant with the most spectacular views and sunsets. I had an incredible scallops and truffle starter followed by Maryland crabcakes. It was all absolutely delicious but could probably also have won the most expensive meal of the year award as it didn’t come cheap!

Worst Meal: H3 – Lisbon, Portugal

I had some pretty plain and basic meals in Kuala Lumpur playing it as safe as possible but all were edible. So, on that basis I’m going to pick H3 in Lisbon as my worst meal. A burger place recommended online for being able to cater for gluten free options, I firstly would say it wasn’t that easy to order and the chips weren’t gluten free resulting in them serving me crisps. Crisps with my naked burger. The most random meal ever, and on top of that it was served luke warm so it was pretty disgusting and I didn’t eat it.

Best Starter: La Trattoria – Lisbon, Portugal

The burrata was unreal. A must order. I loved my meal at La Trattoria, and would recommend a visit despite not being local Portuguese cuisine.

Runners Up

L’Arrosseria Xativa – Barcelona, Spain

We visited for the paella, which whilst very good , the restaurant will be remembered for its starters. Jamon and patatas bravas – both absolutely delicious.

Best Gluten Free Bagel: Modern Bread and Bagel – New York, USA

The smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel I had in New York from Modern Bread and Bagel was exceptional.

Best Gluten Free Pretzel: Glutenfreie Kostlichkeitan GmbH-Basel, Switzerland

I also wanted to note the gluten free pretzel bought at Glutenfreie Kostlichkeitan GmbH. The other things I bought were ok but this salty pretzel was unreal and it’s so rare to find something like this!

Best Gluten Free Sandwich: Whole Kitchen – Singapore

After a week of plain food, imagine biting into this incredible crispy, cheesy, melty, truffle toastie in Singapore. It was heavenly.

Runners Up

Jay’s Steak and Hoagie Joint – Philadelphia, USA

I may or may not have added this in just so that I could show off the gluten free Philly cheesesteak that I got whilst driving from Boston to Connecticut. They had so many gluten free options and the gluten free cheesesteak was huge!

Conesa – Barcelona, Spain

Being able to get a sandwich on the go is just something every coeliac dreams of, and why places like Modern Bread and Bagel and Jays Joint are just so well loved. I also wanted to mention Conesa in Barcelona, which is a sandwich shop that you can just walk into and get a sandwich! It doesn’t look very gluten free friendly at all from first impressions, but they make all the gluten free food separately downstairs and it was so nice to just be able to eat here!

Best Gluten Free Pizza: Grosso Napoliano – Barcelona, Madrid and Seville, Spain

I was so lucky to eat here three times this year. Once on my trip to Madrid, and twice in Seville. I was really excited to go back in Seville, but I wasn’t expecting Paul to enjoy a gluten free pizza restaurant enough to suggest going back again on the same trip! An offer that I couldn’t refuse.

Best Gluten Free Tacos : Poce Madre – Bergen, Norway

Worry free tacos are the best kind of tacos and we loved our experience at 100% gluten free Poce Madre in Bergen. Definitely pricy but the food was fab.

Best Chinese: Out of China – Barcelona, Spain

This restaurant is frequently recommended for a trip to Barcelona for a very good reason. It’s so good, easy to eat gluten free and you’ll find things like dumplings that you can hardly ever eat. Worth planning a trip to Barcelona for!

Best Gluten Free Pastry: H.U.G Bageri – Copenhagen, Denmark

It’s always so great to find a gluten free bakery, but the goods aren’t always that good. However, that’s not the case for H.U.G bageri as everything I bought was amazing, especially the cinnamon roll which I dream about daily.

Best Sweet Treats

Gluten Free Kremsnita: Lincer – Lesce, (Near Lake Bled), Slovenia

I first had kremsnita in 2022 in Croatia and it is the most light, delicate, custardy dessert that you could imagine so I was thrilled to find it at the 100% gluten free restaurant in Lesce near Lake Bled. I loved it and it was worth the travel alone!

Gluten Free Pastel de Nata: Rice Me Deli – Lisbon, Portugal

A must have on any trip to Portugal. Daily.

Gluten Free Lemon Meringue Pie: Gula Sana – Barcelona, Spain

I can not resist a lemon meringue pie, or anything with soft fluffy meringue or custard it seems!

Best Local Meal: The Windmill – Orton Waterville, Peterborough

I don’t think I ate out that much in Milton Keynes this year, and some of the times I have haven’t gone well. I’ve had issues even in the most highly recommended gluten free places. Due to this I’m going to pick a local meal in Peterborough where I grew up and where my brother still lives.

I visited The Windmill with my nephew as it has a huge play area and is within walking distance of my brothers house and where he wanted to go for lunch. Having done no research I was going to make the most of it whilst my nephew played. However, that wasn’t the case as they had a dedicated fryer and gluten free fish and chips! A very welcome surprise.

I need to get back out and about at some MK restaurants this year!

Best Local Sweet Treats: Chouxly Scrumptious – Milton Keynes, UK

However, some gluten free treats that I’ve enjoyed multiple times over the past year are the choux buns by Chouxly Scrumptious. With a coeliac owner they have gluten free days and can make any order gluten free in advance with notice so these are a special treat that I would definitely recommend.

So that’s a wrap for 2023! I have so many places yet to write up so feel free to reach out for tips in the meantime. I have no idea where 2024 will take me. Zagreb and Florence as the city breaks mentioned on my 2022 travel favourites are still top of my list, as is a Eastern Europe road trip but as always with last minute trip planning I could end up anywhere!

Wishing you a very happy 2024, with lots of travel aadventures and no gluten.

Finally, if you made it this far, thank you and thank you for following my blog – a huge passion project to encourage people to keep travelling even if diagnosed as coeliac. However, it costs me money to run this blog, so if you find any of my guides useful please consider buying me a virtual coffee on my kofi link – it all goes on the cost of running this site and I’m very grateful for any help in covering that.

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