The Best Gluten Free Translation Cards in 2024

If you’re gluten free, a gluten free translation card can be the deciding factor between a dream vacation or a disaster. This article covers the best gluten free translation cards on the market in 2024, vetted by a celiac traveler who has visited 50+ countries (hi, that’s me!).

Not all gluten free translation cards are created equal. I have gotten very sick when using certain cards, and now I only recommend a few companies.

Rather than give you a confusing list with dozens of companies, I am only recommending gluten free travel cards that I personally use as a traveler with celiac disease.

Read on to see my top gluten free translation card recommendations – and why!

What is a Gluten Free Translation Card?

A gluten free translation card communicates our dietary requirements to restaurant staff in a foreign language. They can be digital or printed.

Basically, a gluten free translation card fills the gap where your own ability to communicate your needs, and ask questions about cross contact or ingredients, falls short.

Why Do You Need a Gluten Free Translation Card?

The answer to this question is simple. Gluten free translation cards keep you SAFE!

It is hard enough to eat out gluten free at home. Add in a language barrier, unfamiliar cuisine, and the other stressors of travel, and you are looking at a high chance of getting sick on vacation.

Thanks to celiac travel cards, you can overcome the language barrier and eat safely.

The Top 3 Gluten Free Translation Cards (2024)

After 10+ years traveling as a celiac, I have tried many gluten free translation cards.

These are my top three gluten free travel cards, listed in order of preference:

1. Legal Nomads – 16 languages
2. Equal Eats – 49 languages
3. Select Wisely – 69 languages

What I mean by “order of preference” is that I always check Legal Nomads first. If a language is not available with Legal Nomads, I then check Equal Eats. And if the language is also not available with Equal Eats, I then check Select Wisely.

Below, I explain each gluten free translation card company in depth, including why I prefer some over others.

Why I Don’t Recommend the FREE Gluten Free Translation Cards

I learned the hard way that not all celiac travel cards are created equally. There are a lot of free (or even paid…) versions online where someone just used Google Translate to create a crappy version of “I can’t eat gluten.”

Well, that’s not going to help at all if the person reading the card doesn’t know what gluten is! (Which is very common in countries where celiac disease is not well known).

Years ago, I used a free celiac travel card in Nepal. I discovered there was a mistranslation, and it said we couldn’t eat spinach! Never again.

The $5-10 saved by using a free card is not worth the hours and days I spent sick on vacation when I used them.

The cards I recommend below range from about $8 – 18 USD. With inflation these days, you could easily buy a fancy latte for more than it costs to eat safely for an entire vacation in a foreign country!

Must-Have Qualities for a Good Celiac Travel Card

I have tried MANY gluten free travel cards over the years and only one company fits those requirements, and reliably keeps me from getting sick.

The BEST Gluten Free Translation Cards: Legal Nomads

The Legal Nomads gluten free translation cards are the ONLY cards on the market that discuss cross contact and are personalized to that country’s cuisine.

Every other card out there is just a generic statement, translated across many languages. The cuisine in Japan is VERY different from the cuisine in Mexico, so imagine asking the same questions both places!!

I use these translation cards myself so I can vouch for them first hand.

Additionally, I can vouch for the rigor and care that goes into their creation. Currently, I’m working with Jodi (the mastermind behind Legal Nomads) to create a Nepal gluten free translation card so I can assure you that an immense amount of thought goes into each card! 

My Second Favorite Gluten Free Translation Cards: Equal Eats

Equal Eats is my choice for gluten free translation cards if a language is not available on Legal Nomads. In my opinion, they’re the second best translation cards for celiacs on the market.

What I love about Equal Eats is that their cards discuss cross contact. Not many gluten free travel cards do this, and it’s SO important.

I also think the actual design of the card is great: it’s concise and easy-to-read. In some situations, it may even be better than Legal Nomads cards as those are quite lengthy.

Why Equal Eats is My #2 Choice

Unfortunately, Equal Eats cards are NOT personalized to each country’s cuisine. For example, the Vietnamese card and the Hungarian card say the exact same thing.

That is a problem because certain ingredients and dishes that are extremely common in (carrying on the example) Vietnam, are irrelevant in Hungary. For example, Knorr is a seasoning powder used in Vietnam that contains gluten and it’s VERY important to ask about. In Hungary, the Knorr brand is gluten free but it’s more important to ask about shared fryers and stew thickeners.

The Equal Eats card doesn’t take these (quite important) cultural and culinary differences into account.

However, having a gluten free travel card is better than not having one, which is why I do genuinely really like the Equal Eats card and I definitely recommend getting one in certain countries!

Browse Equal Eats gluten free translation cards here.

The Next Best Gluten Free Travel Cards: Select Wisely

What if you are going somewhere that speaks one of the languages that isn’t covered by Legal Nomads or Equal Eats?

Among my travels, that was the case in Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal.

Luckily, there is a third gluten free translation card company that I recommend. Meet Select Wisely.

Select Wisely offers travel translation cards for people with a variety of allergies. This makes them an especially great option if you have other dietary requirements besides gluten, such as dairy, shellfish, nuts, or even vegetarian.

Currently, Select Wisely offers gluten free travel cards in 69 languages. That is WAY more than any other company on the market.

Each card is professionally translated, so you don’t have to worry about mistranslations. 

This is what the Select Wisely cards say: I am allergic to wheat, rye, barley, oats, soy sauce, malt, flour and gluten including sauces, gravies, breads, cereals and foods made with these ingredients. Does this food contain wheat, rye, barley, oats, soy sauce or malt?

In my opinion, that’s decent. I like that they mention soy sauce and “allergy.” The downside is they don’t discuss cross contact in depth, and they aren’t put in the context of local dishes. That’s why they’re my third choice.

Browse Select Wisely cards here.

Find a Gluten Free Translation Card: 80+ Languages

Below I’ve listed all the gluten free translation cards that I recommend! You can purchase them easily just by clicking on the photo or the button.

Scroll through the options to find your gluten free translation card! You can also use the keyboard shortcut crtl/command+f and type in the language you need.

Catalan GF Card

Czech GF Card

Dutch GF Card

French (France) GF Card

French (Quebec) GF Card

German GF Card

Greek GF Card

Hungarian GF Card

Indonesian GF Card

Italian GF Card

Japanese GF Card

Malay (Malaysia)

Moroccan Arabic GF Card

Norwegian GF Card

Polish GF Card

Spanish (Spain) GF Card

Spanish (Latin America) GF Card

This card will be useful in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.

Thai GF Card

Vietnamese GF Card

GF Cards in 49 Languages – Equal Eats

Click here to buy your Equal Eats card and choose your language.

Their languages include: English, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

GF Cards in 69 Languages – Select Wisely

Click here to buy your Select Wisely card and choose your language.

Their languages include: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Belarussian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Mainland), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Dzongkha (Bhutan), English, Estonian, Farsi, Fijian, Finnish, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Laotian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Continental), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Rwanda, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog (The Philippines), Tamil, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and Zulu.

How to Use a Gluten Free Translation Card

You’ve chosen your gluten free travel card; now let’s talk about how to use it.

My advice is to order and download your gluten free translation card before your trip, so you’re ready when you arrive in the country.

The Legal Nomads gluten free travel cards that I recommend above can be downloaded straight to your phone. I always take a screenshot and save them in a “GF restaurant cards” or “GF translation cards” folder on my phone.

Then, when I find a promising restaurant, I show the staff the translation card on my phone. Often, they take my phone back to the chef or manager to discuss. Then, they’ll typically recommend a few dishes from the menu.

If I have additional questions, I use Google Translate to supplement. Google Translate frequently has wonky or incorrect translations, but once someone has read your translation card they will be more likely to understand.

Gluten Free Translation Cards: GF Travel Just Got Easier!

I hope this resource list of the best gluten free translation cards helps you on your travels.

Don’t see the language you need? Select Wisely offers a bespoke translation card service if you send in a request. Legal Nomads also has quite a few cards in the works in 2024.

You can always contact me, too, and I will do my best to connect you with the best gluten free travel card for your trip!

Even More Gluten Free Travel Resources

Endless Distances is FULL of gluten free travel tips, and tons of destination-based gluten free travel guides from around the world.

Read all my gluten free country and city guides here.

Discover my top 15 tips for eating out gluten free anywhere in the world.

Learn how I find gluten free restaurants that are safe to eat at.

Download my FREE guide to eating out gluten free – with 50+ cross contact question divided by cuisine!