Gluten Free In The Dominican

[punkinrice]

Hi All

My sister is getting married in the spring in the Dominican Republic at Dreams, La Romana. It is an all inclusive resort.

I am newly diagnosed with celiac, and have no idea if this resort is accommodating, or how to go about eating gluten-free there. Anybody been there, or have suggestions? Any suggestions welcome! Thanks

[punkinrice]

Hi All

My sister is getting married in the spring in the Dominican Republic at Dreams, La Romana. It is an all inclusive resort.

I am newly diagnosed with celiac, and have no idea if this resort is accommodating, or how to go about eating gluten-free there. Anybody been there, or have suggestions? Any suggestions welcome! Thanks

Please, I am new at this, and so scared to go and get sick. Has anybody travelled to an all inclusive resort...and how on earth do you navigate it when you have no control over the cooking?!!? I am afraid I might eat nothing but bottled water and Lara bars or get sick in a strange country

[DB12]

Hey, I went to a wedding at an all-inclusive in the Dominican, the Melia Caribe Tropical, and did not get sick, so it can be done. I was very careful. I upgraded to their better level of service because it had a sit-down restaurant where I could order breakfast, lunch, and dinner and not eat at the buffets. I called ahead to the resort and they suggested this. The buffets were a nightmare of cross-contamination opportunities, in my opinion -- too many people. The good news is that there are a lot of options, and it's all-inclusive, so just ask for what you want. I printed off some Spanish language gluten-free menu cards, which I showed to our waiter the first day--from then on he remembered that I needed gluten-free. He was happy to check with the kitchen on stuff that was questionable.

Breakfast was easy, with eggs, fruit, and yogurt. I would take an extra container of yogurt and a banana and stash it in my room mini-fridge for snacking. For lunch and dinner, I skipped all the "american" food and did the traditional dominican food, grilled fish or steak with rice and beans or peas and steamed veggies. Their traditional food preparation style doesn't use a lot of processed stuff, so it seemed safer. I had yummy paella, seafood, and flan and ice cream for desserts. I took my own crackers to eat with the cheeses they offered. It was only four days, so I didn't worry too much about nutrition, just ate what was safe! I skipped most of the frozen drinks (not sure what's in the mixes), although they made me a mudslide with bailey's and ice cream. I also skipped salads, as I was worried about germs from the water. The resort will tell you to only drink bottled water, and you want to be sure to do that, the groom at the wedding got tourist tummy from drinking out of the faucet. I took along a bunch of Kind bars, nuts, and other gluten-free snacks and only ate a few, mostly when we didn't feel like leaving the beach for lunch. Hope this helps.