The official start to summer is almost here! Are you looking for a vacation that will ease your mind and give you the freedom to enjoy family without stressing over exposure to gluten?
See below to learn how we got our family vacation down to $24 per person, per day, total!
Gluten-free RV vacation
A couple years ago, we decided to take an impromptu family vacation and began looking up RV rentals. To our surprise, they were so much cheaper than we ever imagined! The base price for an eight-sleeper camper was $50 a night, for a minimum of three nights. Of course there are always taxes and fees that creep in, but even with insurance, taxes, and mileage, it was going to only be a total of $400. Now that is incredible — when you have a large family, traveling somewhere for three nights and four days for $400 is unheard of!
Eating gluten free while traveling can often feel like a daunting task, and prepping food for a family with members eating both gluten-free and non-gluten-free diets can add more pressure. Our family kept all of our food 100% gluten free so there would be zero cross-contamination worries.
My greatest surprise was that when you rent an RV (at least where we rented), they don’t supply any dishes. To some people, that would be a negative, but for a gluten-free family, that was music to my ears: bringing all of our own supplies meant all of it was 100% safe.
Meal planning
Prior to our trip, I sat down and scheduled out every meal — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for three days — and then I went grocery shopping. I tried to choose realistic meals that I knew my kids would eat, that would be easy to prep, and that wouldn’t require a lot of ingredients and dishes. For instance, we bought precooked Costco bacon so we could heat it on the stove or in the microwave. I also got a rotisserie chicken and shredded it up and put it in a baggy. Preparing as much as we could before we left was key to our mealtime success. We had tons of fruits and veggies for quick and easy snacks and sides.
Here is a sample of what our menu looked like:
Breakfast: Bacon, eggs, hash browns, and fruit.
Lunch: Sandwiches, chips, and veggies.
Dinners: Hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos.
Snacks: Popcorn, chips and guacamole (prepared before leaving), banana splits with yogurt, and gluten-free granola with a cherry on top. You can make it so fun and so easy!
Dessert: Hot cocoa with marshmallows and gluten-free S’mores.
Once I prepped all of the food the morning of our trip, we picked up the RV and loaded everything in — pots, pans, spatulas, and any other kitchen gadgets I would need.
In total for all of our groceries, the cost was $109.54, which I call a win. If we would have chosen to go to a hotel in a city, the cost of the hotel and eating out every meal would have been at least quadruple what we spent. And what’s more, we were able to eliminate the stress factor of potentially being “glutened.”
We just spent lots of time together, not worried about gluten. We played board games, went on a lot of hikes, and spent the nights in the comforts of our RV.
Our total for a six-person gluten-free RV vacation
Just to recap, our three-night gluten-free RV vacation cost:
- $400 for the RV, tax, insurance, and gas
- $60 for a total of three nights/four days for the campsite
- $110 on groceries
Total: $570, which averages $143 per day, divided by six people: $24 per person, per day
A gluten-free vacation awaits
This was literally the best vacation we ever had in terms of not worrying about being glutened. So as you are planning out your next vacation, think of renting an RV and having a pure gluten-free vacation!
Coral Barajas
Coral Barajas is an award winning author, creator of @glutenfreewithcoral, and host of the No. 1 gluten-free podcast, Gluten Free You and Me. She provides hope, inspiration and resources, and through her advocacy, she has created a safe and uplifting community for all gluten-free warriors.
