The 5 Best Places To Travel With Food Allergies

Hey there, I’m Corinna!

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If you’re looking for the best places to travel with food allergies, you’re in the right place. I help food allergy parents keep their kids safe and worry less. Our family currently navigates anaphylactic nut and peanut allergies and gluten intolerance, but we have also managed milk and egg allergies. Because of our experience with multiple allergies, I kept all of them in mind to come up with this list!

Our family is from Canada, but we love to travel and have been to Spain, Ireland, UK, France, Italy, Mexico, the Bahamas, all over the US (including Disney World and Disneyland), and all over Canada; much of that travel was before our kids were teens.

After all our experience traveling with food allergies, I created a workshop to give you all the practical knowledge we’ve learned. I’ve put it all into a short, but comprehensive Food Allergy Travel Workshop. I share practical tips to help you move from allergy fear to confidence while saving you time and money. After this workshop, you’ll feel ready to create safe, stress-free travel experiences that your family will never forget.

But sometimes parents wonder: Can you travel with food allergies?

Severe food allergies have been our way of life for over 17 years and we’ve learned that they don’t have to stop you from traveling or exploring the world. Traveling with food allergies is possible, and even enjoyable and I want you to feel confident!

But here’s a surprise…

No destination is consistent every single time.

This means that I can give you the best places to travel with food allergies but things can change. And even if they don’t change, and the locations are extremely allergy-friendly, it’s still best to be fully prepared so you can travel as safely as possible, no matter what happens.

That means doing the right research and asking the right questions EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

When you travel, you will encounter unexpected delays and times when you have to change your plans. If you have the practical knowledge you need, you’ll be ready so you never have to stress about finding safe food.

I want you to know that even destinations that are NOT on this list of the best places to travel with food allergies are also doable IF you take the right precautions and research well.

I don’t want you to be limited by the list below. Instead, take it as a loose guide, but instead, focus on learning the practical strategies and tools you need so that you can feel confident wherever you’re going!

It may seem like food allergy travel is daunting, time-consuming, and expensive; but you’ll get our best strategies to simplify planning, and save time packing, while also saving money with the Food Allergy Travel Workshop.

In a couple of hours, I’ll show you step-by-step how to take an allergy-friendly vacation or trip so you can make memories instead of stressing the whole time.

This Food Allergy Travel Workshop is perfect for any food allergies and any type of trip; whether it’s a road trip, beach vacation, Disney, or another country.

Also, please note that we try to research restaurants at HOME before we go anywhere so that we have a good list of options and don’t have to spend as much time finding safe food when we get there. You can learn how to research restaurants in the Dining Out With Food Allergies Workshop. This workshop is over 50% off if you buy it at the same time as the Food Allergy Travel Workshop.

**When you click the links above, you’ll go to the page where you can learn more about the Food Allergy Travel Workshop. You can trust these links.

With that in mind, let’s answer the question: What is the best country to visit if you have food allergies?

Our Best Places To Travel With Food Allergies

1. Disney World

If you’re looking for more international destinations, stick with me. I want to include Disney World as one of the best places to travel with food allergies because it’s a good starting point for travel, as a more “entry-level” trip.

We’ve been to Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disney World. All of them are quite good with food allergies (although Disneyland Paris is probably the least allergy-friendly).

In my opinion, Disney World is the most allergy-friendly. I like the allergy menus, and that there are options available for the top 9 allergens. That said, when you have multiple allergies, the options on their allergy menus can become limited.

Of course, if you choose to visit Disney World, always double-check ingredients every time, and always make sure you get the right order. Even Disney makes mistakes! If you’re thinking of traveling to Disney World, read this blog post first.

One of the downfalls of going to Disney World is some of the airlines required to get there are not very allergy-friendly. I find that some US-based airlines are not as understanding or willing to accommodate allergies. It’s important to check with every airline and ensure you understand their food allergy policies.

2. Ireland.

We honestly found Ireland to be very allergy-friendly in general, which is why I put it on my list of the best places to travel with food allergies. All restaurants are required to post an allergy menu. That said, we still took several precautions like using an allergy card to help us confirm that the kitchen took precautions against cross-contact. It’s important to ensure that they have kept their allergy menu current and they understand they need to ensure that traces of your allergens are not in the food.

The other thing we liked about Ireland is that they were happy to accommodate, and when we talked to the restaurant and hotel staff they weren’t confused when we talked about cross-contact. They mostly understood what we required and would let us know honestly whether their restaurant could accommodate us.

On our trip to Ireland, we flew with Ryan-Air, which is an Irish-based airline, and at the time of flying, they were accommodating to let us pre-board to wipe down the seats and even make an allergy announcement as long as we let them know in advance. Again, since then, things could have changed, so please always double-check.

3. London

We’ve been to London a few times, and we find it to be very allergy-friendly.

One thing to note about London is that there are many, many different ethnic cuisines. To make things simpler, you may want to stick with regular British pub food or research cuisines to see if they will work for your allergies.

Most restaurants in London were mostly able to clearly state whether they could accommodate our allergies or not.

The last time we visited London it had become even more allergy-friendly. Not only could we find MORE allergy-friendly restaurants available, but when we went to these restaurants we felt very comfortable that they knew exactly what they were doing when it came to food allergies.

We took a day-trip tour outside of London to see Stonehenge and Bath, and we ate at an English Pub in the countryside.  I was honestly nervous about this because when you’re on tours, things can be rushed, and it could be hard to find a safe restaurant if the one they bring you to doesn’t work.  But the tour gave us the restaurant name at the time of booking so we researched the pub and noticed it had a great allergy menu.  After emailing them, we were confident. Sure enough, when we got there they were excellent with food allergies.  This experience gives me hope that the rest of England is as allergy-friendly as London is, even though I don’t know for sure because this was our only experience.

We flew British Air when going to London. They allowed us to pre-board and wipe down our seats, BUT they were specifically not very good when it came to allergy-friendly menu items. Of course, we always bring our own, safe food to eat while flying, since this is the safest option, no matter which airline you fly.

We have also flown West Jet to London. They also allowed us to wipe down our seats, but as usual, my daughter did not eat any of the airplane food provided.

4. Italy

This is the only non-English-speaking country on my list. I mention Italy though because they seemed to understand food allergy requirements. By asking good allergy questions and using our allergy cards, we felt safe eating in Italy.

That said, we took a walking tour in Genoa, Italy, and we ended up having a few food tastings along the way. We didn’t realize this at the time of booking. When I talked with the tour guide, she understood that my daughter wouldn’t be able to eat the foods, but they did not ask about allergies at time of booking or provide a safe option that she could have. Honestly, though, I’m not sure we would have let her try the foods, even if they had offered, because when we travel, safety is most important, and we weren’t able to research these places in advance, or directly ask the provider about how they manage food allergies.

5. Canada

We live in Canada and in comparison to some places we’ve been, Canada is one of the best places to travel with food allergies. Keep in mind Canada is a huge country and you will get more allergy knowledge in the bigger cities and tourist areas.

More recently, we’ve noticed that more and more of the major Canadian chain restaurants have implemented an allergen procedure where the waiter can tell you if your allergen is in a meal that you’re ordering. It seems to come up on their Ipad when they input the order and you let them know of your allergy. This has been helpful for us.

Canadian labeling laws are similar to the US, and although these laws sometimes fall short, I find that Canada has quite a few allergy-friendly products in general.

We find that many restaurants will understand cross-contact, BUT unfortunately, some STILL do not (just like in ANY country). That’s why it is important when traveling with allergies to do your research and ask questions no matter where you go.

I find that the Canadian airline, West Jet tends to be fairly helpful about letting us board early to wipe down seats. Recently, they have implemented a policy where you must get a doctor’s note if you want them to make an announcement for others not to eat nuts. Again, my recommendation for any airline is to bring your own food no matter what allergy you manage since that’s the safest option.

In my opinion, all of these things make Canada one of the best places to travel with food allergies.

Conclusion

What country would you like to visit? Let me know in the comments below!

When traveling with food allergies, planning well makes it possible to go to almost any country or destination.

Because good planning doesn't just help you travel more safely.

It empowers you and your child to make good decisions, safely roll with changes that need to be made during your trip, and lowers food allergy stress.

If you want to learn how to make traveling with food allergies safer and stress-free, without wasting time or money, join the on-demand workshop. I’ll show you what we’ve learned after 17 years so you don’t have to learn the hard way.

**When you click the link or button above, you’ll go to the page where you can buy the Food Allergy Travel Workshop. I completely trust and recommend this workshop!

Other Food Allergy Resources

I’ve helped thousands of food allergy mamas and families travel with food allergies, but I also help with other lifestyle issues like navigating school and even getting over the fear of trying new foods.

Check out my full series of workshops here. You’ll find expert resources based on 17 year of research and practical knowledge from everything from navigating school, to navigating social events and dining out with food allergies.