How to holiday with allergies – tips for allergy-friendly holidays

Holidays can seem incredibly daunting if you or a family member/friend has food allergies. How will you cope in a different country? How will you get by with an unfamiliar language? How can you manage when the control you usually have is taken out of your hands? With the school holidays now underway, i thought it might be a good time to give some ideas and recommendations on how to have an allergy friendly holiday.

We’ve now been an allergy family for over 20 years, so we’ve had to consider allergies and their implications over many holidays to a fair few destinations, in all sorts of scenarios, from babies to teens and now young adults. I can’t say we are the most adventurous people, and our horizons are not as far as they used to be, but we have learnt how holidays can work for us.

I’m not saying I’m the ultimate holiday expert, but this is how we manage to holiday with limited stress and incidents. Hopefully, these tips can give you courage and inspiration to holiday well with allergies.

1. Research – 
   • Prior to booking any holiday I research the potential options (as well as the definitely no-nos) and search out any articles or blog posts to help me decide on a suitable destination. Will allergies be well catered for? Will I be able to buy what I need? Will we feel comfortable?
   • If you look under the recommendations tab on my website you will find write ups of some popular holidays destinations in Europe that may help you make your choice.
2. Booking –
   • We always choose self-catering. I know some people have had successful catered holidays but it’s not an option we’ve chosen to take. For us, with multiple allergies, we feel it’s too much of a risk, and if there is suitable food, it will be too limited in choice. Besides, I love to cook (you may have noticed!), actually we all enjoy cooking, so it’s not something we see as a negative to a holiday. Our preferred choice is a self-catered villa, although we have had holidays in EuroCamp style tents and mobile homes too. If we do stay in a hotel, it won’t be for more than one night as more than that feels tricky. (Although i have to say that Big S who only has a milk allergy has had many hotel holidays and be very well catered for).
   • If you wish for a catered holiday then I’ve heard really good things about Disney holidays, some all-inclusive resorts seem popular, as well as cruises. I’d recommend checking out Facebook travel with allergies groups for recommendations.
3. Packing – this is the important one! We tend to pack to cover for any eventuality. I have a packing list you can check out, but here are a few take outs.
   • Medication and Insurance – this is probably your most important item not to forget. Double check use by dates on Epipens and you may wish to get a Doctor’s letter to state why you are carrying them. We’ve done that in the past, and a couple of times it’s been useful, but only in smaller airports. Also make sure you have enough with you, you really don’t want to have to try and get an emergency prescription whilst on holiday. We tend to take 4 Epipens each, just in case. Since it’s important that adrenaline pens don’t get too hot you could think of an insulated cool bag to keep them in. Allerpack are really good. Otherwise, i place a cool pack from the freezer in my bag (not next to the medication, just near) to keep the temperature down.
   • Insurance – always get travel insurance and make sure it covers anaphylaxis/food allergies as some will have exclusions in place. Also, remember your EHIC if travelling to Europe.
   • Food – I always pack lots of items we are unlikely to find as well as things like sandwich bags for packed lunches and clips and foil to make baking trays safe. I will always take chocolate and biscuits as we’ve almost never found safe versions on holiday, plenty of packable breads such as wraps and pittas as that can be tricky to find (especially with a sesame allergy). Spices, sauces, anything you can make food more exciting in a safe way is welcome. You may want to take some Mr Freeze type ice pops you can pop in the freezer should you not be able to find any safe ice lollies. I will often pack an emergency bag of pasta incase i can’t find any without egg in the local shops. I also tend to pack easy sandwich fillings such as dairy-free margarine, dairy-free cream cheese, Tartex vegetarian spread and Marmite. (Fridge items such as cream cheese and margarine cope fine on a flight, in a bag in the hold, as long as they’re sealed and then in a zip lock bag for extra protection – they always come out cool and fine to use)
   • Allergy Translation cards such as Equal Eats make eating out much easier, and having a translation app that can translate photos of ingredients can be super helpful.
4. Travel – It is sad that not all travel welcomes people with allergies, so this is how i approach travel.
   • Choose airlines wisely – most are great with making announcements and not serving nuts, but some make a point of making it even harder for allergy passengers. I’ve heard bad things about Emirates and EasyJet, although we have had good EasyJet flights where they’ve made announcements etc. Even when announcements are made you may need to keep your wits about you and alert any non-compliance to the airline crew. On the whole, i don’t think people ignore the requests out of malice, just a lack of education and empathy, and education can go a long way to greater understanding. On our last flight, the crew made the announcement and then i saw someone open her nutty granola bowl and eat it as fast as possible which wasn’t particularly helpful!
   • Always alert the crew – keep your medication to hand and take some anti-bacterial wipes to clean your area.
   • Always pack food for your travel – i think airports, train stations, service stations etc. are probably the worst places to buy any safe food if you suffer from allergies, so plan on not being able to buy anything! It’s also worth preparing for delays. This summer we were delayed by 6 hours in an extremely small airport where the only think we could have bought was a fruit juice, if the delay had been any longer i really don’t know what we would have done. I’d packed sandwiches for lunch, but next time i’ll take an extra couple, just in case.
5. Get to know the local shops – whether you’re self-catering or not, it’s likely you’ll want to see what provisions are on offer and maybe top up with heavy items like dairy-free milk.
   • Make the shop a highlight! – we probably take this to an extreme, but we really enjoy checking out what is on offer in different countries, and often you’ll get some very pleasant surprises. France is fantastic for dairy-free yoghurt, Greece did pretty well for dairy-free cheese!
   • Keep it simple – no-one will mind if food is simple and repetitive, they’re mainly enjoying spending time together and relaxing. Don’t stress yourself with trying to make things that take too much time, or ingredients you can’t easily find, it’s your holiday too! We end up having salads and bread type meals every lunchtime and plenty of pasta and simple BBQs in the evenings.
   • Treats matter – i always take a cake or some homemade biscuits on holiday, plus plenty of safe chocolate and even a bag of sweets. A sweet treat can really lift tired spirits and you may not be able to have the ice creams and local goodies, so having a few nice treats can go a long way.
   • Take a few options – If you feel like it, have a simple recipe or two up your sleeve, you’ll find lots in my cookbook, the Friendly Baker, or how about my single serve brownie recipe the only needs a ramekin and a few simple ingredients?
   • If you find a safe treat, make it a daily occurrence – sadly things like the ice lollies or sorbets that everyone else is devouring with gusto can be unsuitable, so if you do find something, how about making it a daily extra special treat? We found slushy type drinks in Gozo (do not give to very young children), sorbet tubs on the beach in Italy, and safe Trolli sweets and sometimes sorbet lollies in France to be the extra little something we needed. Be wary of European Haribo, as it is now all may contain milk.
   • Snacks – always take plenty of snacks when out and about, you never know when you might need something and you won’t always be able to buy anything easily.
   • Make up for it when you get home – i will always recreate something the girls couldn’t have when we get home, whether it’s a hotel style breakfast buffet, a beautiful French fruit tart or the ice cream sundae.
6. Eating Out – over the years we’ve eaten out less and less whilst on holiday. At most we’ll go to a restaurant once during the holiday. The stress and anxiety over the food can make it not worth the hassle and we often find going for a fancy juice or mocktail (or cocktail these days!) is just as rewarding. But if you do decide to eat out, use allergy translation cards, choose simple dishes and go with the expectation that you most likely won’t get a dessert.
7. Try to relax and enjoy – yes travelling with allergies is extra complicated but at the end of the day it’s about having a great time together, making memories that last, and taking a breather from everyday life. I guarantee you that in years to come no-one will remember that they didn’t eat at that particular restaurant or have that ice cream, they’ll remember the fun times on the beach, the laughs around the pool, the trips to exciting and new places and the games of cards in the cooler evenings.
8. My Magic Holiday Formula – As I say, i’m not the expert, but for us, what works is:
   • prep thoroughly
   • pack well
   • plan for all eventualities
   • keep it simple
   • enjoy the moment
9. Happy Holidays! – let me know your top tips and i’ll add them to the list, so more allergy families can have lovely holidays too.