The 2 Best Tips for Traveling With Food Allergies Internationally
There are lots of things that need to happen when you’re traveling with food allergies internationally. In this post, I’m talking about 2 must-do tips:
Research well.
Always have a back-up.
I’m going to give some ways to do these 2 things when you have food allergies, but first, here’s our vacation story.
In 2018 we took a family vacay over to Ireland. As far as food allergies and our overall trip, it actually went really, really well. Our family played, bonded, and learned, three things I love in a vacation. One of the biggest hiccups we had happened near the beginning of our trip. Yes, once again, it included finding safe food at the airport.
You might remember that on our last family vacay, I wrote about arriving in Orlando right at dinnertime when we were all hungry and how we couldn’t find anything safe to eat. I was bound and determined not to let this happen again. Besides, we were planning to spend 2 nights in the hotel attached to the Gatwick Airport so we needed to know if there were safe food options nearby. Unfortunately, things didn’t go exactly as planned (once again!)…
Before I get to that, there’s one question that many people ask that I want to address first:
Can You Take an EpiPen on a Plane When Traveling With Food Allergies Internationally?
The quick answer is YES, and you should. In fact, we take ALL our EpiPens with us in our carry on (and not in our checked baggage). The number we take depends on how long our trip is, but we usually bring between 4 and 6 of them with us on the plane.
Now back to our trip…
Tip #1: You MUST Research When Traveling With Food Allergies Internationally
Prior to leaving, I did some research in UK food allergy groups. Facebook groups are really great for traveling with food allergies because the locals are the best ones to help you find safe and trusted foods in their country. I not only researched allergy smart restaurants in the Gatwick Airport where we would be staying for 2 days, but I also found some safe restaurants that we used throughout our trip! A quick search on Facebook is all you need to do to find a group in many countries.
PRO Tip: Join allergy Facebook groups in the country you’re traveling to. These groups are super helpful to find allergy-friendly restaurants and products that the locals trust.
We arrived at Gatwick around 11 am local time after a full 7 hours of flying. Our family didn’t get much sleep on the flight (does anybody??), and for us, it felt like 1 or 2 am. So we were pretty tired, but nobody was hungry.
Those of us who were able to eat the meal provided by the airline did and we packed a safe breakfast for my food allergy daughter. Her breakfast was an apple, pepperoni sticks, and a couple of safe muffins. Once we arrived, we killed some time until we were able to check into our hotel that afternoon. We were super tired but we knew we should stay up as long as possible and go to bed as close to local bedtime as possible.
Unfortunately, we were all fading fast so we thought we would eat early (around 4 pm London time) and then go to bed early. Luckily we had our list of safe restaurants we’d be able to take advantage of right IN the airport, right??? Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. As we talked with the hotel staff member, he broke the news that EVERY safe restaurant we had researched was INSIDE passport control, which meant we wouldn’t be able to go there. Ugh!!
Tip #2: When Traveling With Food Allergies Internationally, ALWAYS Have A Backup
I was disappointed and wondered why airports seemed to cause us so much food allergy grief! Needless to say, we were left asking around at a few restaurants to see if we could trust any of them to safely handle our daughter’s food allergy. That said, I did learn a bit from the LAST time this happened. This time, we were prepared and didn’t wait until we were hangry.
We packed safe food for a reason and this time we let my daughter eat it and supplemented it with fresh fruit that we found at the airport pharmacy. Her meal was pre-packaged individual gluten, peanut, and nut-free mac and cheese. The rest of us got something quick from one of the restaurants in the airport.
Luckily, the lack of safe options near our accommodation at Gatwick airport only tripped us up the first night because we headed to Brighton the next day, and the restaurants we researched there worked out well. When we went through Gatwick on the way home, we just used another pre-packaged meal of safe mac and cheese.
Mac and cheeses by Annies saved us a few times on this trip! I realize these wouldn’t work for every food allergy family, but the idea is to have a few dry and individual food options so they are ok for customs. Another idea would be pre-made oatmeal which would be easy to make with hot water. Use your imagination and creativity!
You may need to watch for these dry, individual food options specifically when you’re grocery shopping. Many times, I stock up on these meals weeks in advance because the individual size options aren’t always available.
Hey there, I’m Corinna!
I help severe food allergy families keep their kids safe while living their best life at home, school, at social events, and while traveling. I believe that food allergy families and kids deserve delicious meals and safe & fulfilling life experiences, and it’s my goal to help you get there!
If you believe this too, make sure to sign up for my free top allergy-free recipe ebook.. You’ll get 5 days of recipes that kids love (including breakfast, snacks, and dinner) PLUS I’ll keep you in the loop about the allergy travel workshops I offer and ways to connect with hundreds of other anaphylactic food allergy mamas like you! Hope to see you there!
Conclusion
Researching the safe food options at your destination and around your hotel is super important when you’re traveling with food allergies internationally. This research is great, but you should also bring easy, safe foods that you can use as a backup just in case research doesn’t turn out like you thought (especially if a grocery store isn't readily available).
Thank goodness for pre-planning and packing for traveling with food allergies internationally! What tip helped you the most? Share in the comments below!
Are you going on a trip soon? If so, get a packing list for kids with food allergies so you don't forget a thing!
You can get it and all our tips for traveling internationally with food allergies in the Food Allergy Travel Workshop.
Learn more about it here.
