Gluten-Free Guidebook

Newfoundland’s capital city, St. John’s, is a place with a rich sense of history: European fishermen started fishing from its harbor in the 1500s, and its famous downtown route, Water Street, is the oldest street in North America. It’s also a city that’s changing fast: there’s construction all over town, new attractions have opened up in the past few years (such as The Rooms, which contains a museum, art gallery, and archives), and it’s got a thriving nightlife and live-music scene. The accommodations I found in St. John’s were as eclectic as the city itself.

The Park House Inn is a bed-and-breakfast on a quiet residential street that’s a short walk from downtown. The Second Empire-style mansion was built in 1870, and its sweeping spiral staircase, towering ceilings and elegant antique and reproduction furnishings make for a grand setting. While I loved my suite (which boasted a Jacuzzi tub), I was most impressed by the kitchen. I’ve encountered bed-and-breakfasts that consider “breakfast” to mean a couple of slices of toast with jam. At the Park House Inn, breakfast is made to order for each guest, and the staff is familiar with celiac disease. The cook carefully prepared cheese-and-vegetable-filled omelettes for me, serving them with seasoned potatoes and fresh fruit. I spent three nights at the Park House Inn and enjoyed every minute.

My trip was planned so that I would see different sides of St. John’s, so I transferred to Blue on Water for the next three nights of my stay there. Blue on Water is a boutique hotel that faces Water Street, and all you have to do to get to the heart of the action in St. John’s is step outside (George Street, the main pub-and-club thoroughfare in the city, is steps away). The hotel is luxuriously modern, and its stylish design is complemented by amenities like wireless Net access and CD/DVD players. Best of all was the ground floor restaurant, also called Blue on Water, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Again, the staff was familiar with celiac disease, and prepared excellent gluten-free breakfasts (and one outstanding gluten-free dinner) for me.

Staying at a classic bed-and-breakfast or a modern boutique hotel is a matter of individual preference — but I was glad to discover that both properties are skilled at taking care of gluten-free guests.

Park House Inn [address] 112 Military Road, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada [tel] 866-303-0565 or 709-576-2265 [web] www.parkhouse-nl.ca

Blue on Water [address] 319 Water Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada [tel] 877-431-2583 or 709-754-2583 [web] www.blueonwater.com

The town of St. Moritz, located in Switzerland’s Engadine Valley, is famous as a winter resort. It’s not just on account of the reference in the James Bond movie Goldfinger; the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics were held here. But when I visited St. Moritz, it was early September and the weather was still warm and summery. The town gets 300 days of sunshine a year (and it was sunny throughout my five days there), the valley was lushly green, and the lake was filled with sailboats. I know that winter is its most celebrated season, but I’d recommend visiting in summer, when the range of activities (golf, tennis, mountain biking) is wider. St. Mortiz is also a great starting point for day trips. From it, I took a train to Thusis, where I hiked through the Alps and saw Viamala, the place where Caesar made his historic crossing through the mountains. Closer to St. Moritz is the Valley of Fex, another great hiking spot (if you visit on a rare rainy day, you could visit the Nietzsche-Haus, where the German philosopher spent his summers, in Fex’s tiny town of Sils).

Because I was attending a conference in St. Moritz, I spent far too much time indoors. The conference meetings and events were spread among three hotels — the Kulm, the Kempinski, and Badrutt’s Palace — and all of them came through with celiac-safe meals for me. However, these are all top-notch luxury hotels with long practice in catering to their guests’ requests, and I had had advance discussions with them via phone and e-mail to ensure that they would be able to provide gluten-free meals.

One spot in St. Moritz that particularly impressed me was a place that didn’t have advance warning about my dining restrictions. The Hotel Misani is a three-star hotel that is a youthful, less-expensive alternative to the long-established local hotels. Its rooms are decorated in a mix of Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern styles, and each one is unique. The Misani’s main dining room is decked out in rustic local style with wooden panels on the ceiling and the walls, typical of the Engadine houses that date back a century. I had an excellent gluten-free dinner here, served by the Misani’s friendly staff. It was a nice reminder that luxury exists at all price points in St. Moritz.

Badrutt’s Palace [tel] +41 (0) 81 837 11 00 [email] reservations@badruttspalace.com [web] www.badruttspalace.com

Hotel Misani [tel] +41 (0) 81 839 89 89 [email] info@hotelmisani.ch [web] www.hotelmisani.ch

Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains [tel] +41 (0) [web] www.kempinski-stmoritz.com

Kulm Hotel [tel] +41 (0) 81 836 80 00 [email] info@kulmhotel-stmoritz.ch [web] www.kulmhotel-stmoritz.ch

I’m wary of Trip Advisor. Praise is often overstated and criticism can be downright nasty. I know from reader responses to my guidebooks that some people have funny ideas about what makes an establishment lovely or loathsome. (One man wrote to me, demanding that I remove a restaurant from Frommer’s Toronto. The reason? He’d picked up a “bad vibe” from a waitress there.) Still, Trip Advisor can be a valuable guide. It led me to Casa Arequipa, after all.

Arequipa is Peru’s second-largest city, a monumental wonder carved out of sillar, a ghostly white volcanic rock (the city lies at the foot of El Misti, a volcano best described as “currently inactive”). It’s known as La Ciudad Blanca — the white city. For all of its beauty, Arequipa is probably the most overlooked inhabited spot in Peru: the standard tourist itinerary allows a day at most to visit the city’s two top attractions: the Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria, home to the world’s most famous human sacrifice (Juanita, the Inca maiden whose well-preserved body was found in a frozen crevice of Mount Ampato), and the Monasterio Santa Catalina (the photograph above shows one of its cloisters). After taking in these sights, people decamp to the Colca Canyon or the Cotahuasi Canyon.

I spent four days in Arequipa in November, and I wish I’d had longer. My charming casa-away-from-home was a big part of the reason why. Casa Arequipa bills itself as a boutique bed and breakfast, and with only seven rooms in a renovated colonial mansion, the staff is devoted to caring for each guest. Breakfast is included in the rates, and it’s no buffet brush-off; meals are individually prepared. When I explained my dietary concerns to the staff, they responded with delicious omelettes, fresh ham and cheese, and fruit plates. They also surprised me with their thoughtfulness: one staff member called my next hotel to explain celiac disease to the staff there. Another staff member talked to the tour operator for my Colca Canyon trip, to make sure that I’d be able to eat at the restaurants we’d be stopping at on the way in and out.

Casa Arequipa has other charms, too: the rooms are decorated with antiques and decked out with modern amenities; the staff acts as your own private concierge service, making reservations for tours, meals, and spa treatments; and the casa is located in Vallecito, an upscale neighborhood that’s a 10-minute walk (or two-minute cab ride) to the Plaza de Armas, the historic town square.

One more thing: Casa Arequipa’s owner divides his time between Arequipa and Washington, D.C., where he operates a restaurant called Las Canteras. I haven’t checked it out yet – and I have no idea whether it will be as amenable to requests for gluten-free meals as the Casa Arequipa – but I’ll definitely be visiting it the next time I’m in D.C.

Casa Arequipa [address] Av. Lima 409, Vallecito, Arequipa, Peru [tel] 51-54-284-219 [email] reservations@arequipacasa.com [web] www.arequipacasa.com