Every resort on earth says yes to "do you have gluten free options." Here are the questions I ask instead, who to ask them of, and how to tell a real answer from a polite one. Steal the whole script.
Hi friends! 👋
I want to give you something I use constantly, because I think it will save some of you a genuinely miserable vacation.
When I call a resort about a celiac or food allergy client, I am not asking "do you have gluten free options." I stopped asking that years ago. Every property on earth says yes to that question. The kitchen that has a dedicated prep area and a separate fryer says yes. The kitchen that keeps a bag of gluten free bread next to the regular toaster ALSO says yes. Same word, completely different trip.
So here is what I actually ask instead. Steal all of it.
This is the part most people skip, and it's the part that matters most.
Do not ask the reservations line. Reservations exists to book rooms, and the honest answer from a reservations agent is almost always a well meaning yes, because they genuinely do not know what happens in that kitchen at 7pm on a Saturday.
Ask to be put through to the food and beverage director, or the executive chef, or whoever owns dietary requests on property. If nobody will connect you, that is information. Write it down.
A reservations agent will tell you yes. A chef will tell you HOW. Those are different answers and only one of them is useful.
Not "can you do gluten free." Where. Physically where.
You want to hear about a separate area, a separate surface, separate equipment, or at minimum a protocol for clearing and sanitizing a space before your food is made. What you do not want is a pause, followed by "the chef will take care of you."
This one is short and it tells you an enormous amount. Shared fryer oil is one of the most common ways people get glutened at a resort, and it is invisible on a plate. Fries are the classic trap.
If the answer is no, that's fine, it just means fried food is off the table for the week and you now know that BEFORE you're standing at a buffet feeling like the difficult one.
Buffets are where all inclusive trips go sideways. Shared serving spoons, crumbs migrating between trays, a well meaning guest putting the bread tongs in the fruit — none of that is anyone's fault and all of it will still make you sick.
The answer you want is that someone can plate for you from the back, or that there's a separate service option. "You can just avoid the bread" is not a protocol, it's a shrug. I go into this more on our accessible and gluten free all inclusives page.
I know. It sounds so small. It is not small. A shared toaster is a crumb machine and it undoes an otherwise careful kitchen.
This is my favorite question and almost nobody asks it.
You want a name, or at least a role. Someone who knows you're coming, who is briefed, and who you can ask for by name on night one. Without this you end up re explaining your medical situation to a different server at every single meal, which is exhausting and also raises the odds that one explanation gets missed.
The second half of that question is the whole question. "Yes we're trained" means nothing on its own. Trained in what? Cross contamination? Ingredient labeling? What to do when a guest reacts?
A property with a real program will be happy to tell you. A property without one will get vague fast, and vague IS your answer.
Always. Every time.
Not because you're building a legal case, but because a written answer forces specificity in a way a phone call doesn't, and because you'll want it when you arrive and the person you spoke to is on holiday.
Here's the part that surprises people: the answers expire.
I think of a property's dietary program as three separate layers, and they change at completely different speeds.
What's built — the dedicated prep area, the separate fryer. This is the most stable layer, and it's still not permanent. Kitchens get renovated. Equipment gets moved.
What they stock — certified gluten free products in the pantry this month. This changes with suppliers, with cost, and with whoever does the ordering.
What people do — the chef who meets you on night one, the manager who briefs the floor staff. This is the least stable layer of all, because it walks out the door when that person changes jobs.
An answer you got in February can be genuinely wrong by August, and nobody will call to tell you. So I reconfirm close to travel dates, every time, and I'd encourage you to do the same if you're booking on your own.
I get asked constantly for a list of celiac safe resorts. I don't publish one, and I want to be straight with you about why.
A list is a photograph of one moment. It doesn't know the executive chef left in March. It doesn't know the property changed management companies. It can't ask, and it can't update itself, and someone could find it two years from now and trust it with their health.
I'm not willing to have my name on something that might send one of my celiac friends into a kitchen that WAS careful in 2026. The questions above will serve you far better than any list I could write, because you can ask them about any property, at any time, including three days before you fly.
That's genuinely most people, and it's a lot of phone tag in a time zone that isn't yours.
It's also, more or less, my whole job. I make these calls for a living, I know which answers are real ones, and I put it all in writing for you before anything gets booked. You can read how the whole process works on our celiac and food allergy travel page, or if you want it handled, message me and we'll talk about your trip.
And if you're doing it yourself? Go for it, seriously. Screenshot this post and work down the list. 💗
Share this so friends can know — I'd love for fewer people to lose a vacation day to a shared fryer.
Yours in service,
Shannon McEvoy
Founder, Defying Limits Travel