My Why
Blog post description.
Amanda Kos
6/8/20262 min read
My Why
Why I Became a Gluten Free Focused Travel Advisor
When I was first diagnosed with possible Celiac Disease along with wheat, peanut, and sesame allergies, I honestly thought my life had changed forever.
At first, I couldn’t imagine eating out safely ever again… let alone traveling the world.
Travel had always represented excitement, freedom, connection, and adventure to me. Suddenly it felt complicated, stressful, and honestly a little scary. Every restaurant became a risk assessment. Every trip felt like it required military-level planning.
But slowly, things changed.
I learned how to advocate for myself. I learned how to research restaurants, accommodations, cruise lines, and destinations. I learned what questions to ask — and more importantly — what answers actually made me feel safe.
I became the person reading menus before flights, emailing restaurants months in advance, packing backup snacks, and mapping out gluten free bakeries before museums.
And somewhere along the way, I realized something important:
I still wanted to see the world.
When it came time to plan one of my own big overseas trips, I hired a travel advisor hoping they could help make the experience easier. She planned a beautiful trip… but when it came to food safety, I was mostly on my own. I still had to do all the gluten free research myself. We didn’t stay near many of the places I was excited to try, and I remember thinking how amazing it would be if someone truly understood this side of travel planning.
Then life presented me with an unexpected opportunity to change careers.
Friends kept encouraging me to help others plan trips the way I always planned ours. They saw how much research, detail, and passion I poured into every getaway. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized they were right.
If I was going to build a travel business, I wanted it to mean something.
I wanted people to immediately know they had found someone who understood.
That’s how Gluten Free Will Travel was born.
Starting your own business isn’t always easy. There are long days, hard lessons, and moments where you wonder if you’re truly making a difference.
But I’m building something bigger than vacations.
I’m building advocacy.
I want the travel industry to recognize that people with Celiac Disease and food allergies deserve to travel safely too. We deserve incredible meals, amazing experiences, and stress-free memories just like everyone else.
Today, I participated in a local gluten free event here in my city, and it reminded me exactly why I started this journey.
I got to talk with so many wonderful people navigating the same fears and frustrations I once had. But the most meaningful moments were with the kids.
Being able to tell little Celiac kids that they are not alone in this world… seeing their faces light up when they realized someone outside of their immediate family truly understood them…
That hit me hard.
Because I remember what it felt like to think the world had suddenly gotten smaller.
Now I get to help show people that it hasn’t.
The world is still out there waiting for them.
And that right there…
That is my why.