BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi, I have a fairly severe case of Celiac Disease (cant eat any wheat, barley, oats, rye, ect) which makes it hard for me to travel, especially to non-english speaking countries. I need all my food to be cooked seperatly and not come into contact with any gluten (flour). Even a tiny bit makes me very sick.

I want to travel to Egypt and I am wondering how much of a problem this will be for me, as I have heard that most of the staple foods are bread based. Do many people speak english there and will I be able to easily self-cater?

Thanks for your help.

Nice to hear that their is another celiac traveller out there! Unfortunately, I didn't know I had celiac when I was in Egypt and since that was 10 years ago I don't really remember too much about the food.

I did travel in Africa recently and one thing to keep in mind is that food in Egypt will probably be less processed than it is in North America which means there should be less hidden gluten and that the cooks in restaurants will probably actually know what is in their food, which is a plus.

As for the language situation, I would highly recommend getting a restaurant card translated into Arabic. You might be able to get this from a celiac organization. Worst case scenario you can ask an Egyptian to help you out with the translation when you get there. I've done this in other places and it has worked.

I found the Egyptian people to be very friendly and hospitable, so I expect they will do their best to help you.

Oh, and take a few gluten free energy bars or other snacks just in case you are having trouble finding GF food sometime when you are really hungry or tired...

The language issue shouldn't be a problem - in tourist areas of Egypt, English is very widely spoken.

But even if they understand (and in my experience, food allergies not as common outside of North America, so they may understand the words, but not really get the concept), finding stuff that's not even been in contact with gluten would likely be a challenge. Flatbread is served with almost everything, and is the main ingredient (along with a hard-boiled egg) in breakfast. There are common foods like kebab that don't include any flour, but it won't be a very balanced diet, and at that, I don't think anyone will be able to guarantee no contact.

I didn't look into self-catering, and I don't know how much luck you'll have with that. Buying food would be a fun experience, (though likely to get you ripped off more than once), but anything that needs to be cooked...well, nowhere I stayed had kitchens available, so it's certainly not the norm.

Sorry I can't be more encouraging. My peanut allergy is bad enough, I'd hate to have a serious problem with gluten, since bread is such a staple food almost everywhere.