Travelling abroad with multiple allergies

[Bellabella82]

My daughter is almost 2 and has multiple allergies- dairy, peanut, cashew, egg, sesame and possibly wheat. She also has eczema on her arms and legs. When she eats foods she is allergic to she either has an immediate hives reaction or eczema flare ups which can last hours or even a few days.

Can anyone recommend any countries, resorts or hotels in Europe which cater well for multiple allergies?

I’m thinking to go to Portugal, turkey, Spain or Greece if anyone knows any hotels or resorts in any of these countries which would suit us please share!

Self catering would be your best option.
Had you thought of renting a villa/apartment somewhere instead of going to a hotel?

We tried self catering in Butlins last month but found it not so relaxing having to go back to the accommodation twice a day to cook and prepare food. I wouldn’t mind as much doing that in the UK but not so much abroad.

My Dads assessment (he has coeliac disease) is that Tui seem quite competent but avoid Easyjet. He hasn't tried any other providers because he's always felt safe with Tui (cruises and hotel stays)

Honestly - it’s not going to be relaxing having holidays with a child with allergies. My daughter has several life threatening allergies, and her only EpiPen uses have been abroad. It’s possible to only eat something like plain chips, plain gluten free pasta in restaurants - fruit for breakfast, and I take a suitcase of bread, snacks, crisps etc but the safest way is self catering. My daughter is almost 17 now and it’s no better - I haven’t had a relaxing holiday in all that time. She’s been in hospital in Paris, Berlin and Rome due to mistakes or cross contamination. We have just done a 3 week road trip in America stayed in hotels but even then she only ate breakfast (fruit) in the hotels and I took loads of food with us and was preparing food on a piece of tin foil in hotel rooms. There are a couple of good instagram pages for allergies - dr Adam fox, the milk allergy dietician, allergy uk etc who give travel advice for abroad. You can get allergy cards, not quite frankly my advice is just don’t risk it.

I and my DD16 have traveled for years with severe allergies to nuts, (all nuts) sesame and shellfish. We have never had an issue. The US is very good and I travel there a lot. Cyprus was amazing though. We stayed at the Atlantico Mare last year, they were fab but actually any restaurant we went to was super. Also salt water swimming pools there for your little girl might work well with her skin. What might work also is hotels with apartments in like Sun Gardens in Dubrovnik or Pine Cliffs Portugal. But AI at the Cyprus hotel were fab.

Please don’t let allergies stop you travelling it’s honestly actually quite easy.

One other thing about her skin, if she flares up on holiday it also might be related to sunscreen, about 25% of the population is allergic to MI (Methylisothiazolinone) and you find it in many products including washing liquids, shampoo and sunscreen. This causes my eczema so worth checking.

Thank you so much! I’ve heard good things about Cyprus for allergies, good to have a recommended hotel name. Did you stay all inclusive at Atlantico mare?

I didn’t know this. Thank you for sharing this useful information!

Yes we did AI the a la carte restaurants were so vigilant about what we could and couldn’t have at Atlantico.

Is this Atlantica Mare in Ayia Napa? I just did a quick google search…

It's not quite the continent but we have just come back from Jersey and they seem very hot on allergies. I heard one waiter talking to a customer and he had a list of all the foods and everything that was in them. All the menus had multiple allergens listed. It's not cheap there but there's some lovely beaches. Of course it may vary re cross contamination.

Ikos resorts.

They’re £££££ but we met with the dietician on arrival, and just WhatsApped her personal number with food orders everyday and she sorted it. Similarly at the buffet they just asked what we wanted and cooked it fresh, and made picnic baskets if we went out for the day.

Complete peace of mind

Yes Atlantico Mare in Ayia Napa. It’s not cheap but she’s 2 so you can go out of season I hope. It was 18k last August there but we had two rooms and one of those was a swim up suite.

I would definitely also go to Ikos as I did consider them and spoke to them about the allergies but we are tied into the holiday season so ££££ but they have decent deals outside of it.

Wow this sounds amazing! When did you last travel there?

Also which country did you visit?

Unfortunately out of season can’t happen as I am a full time teacher.

Ok so book now, we found BA cheaper weirdly for Atlantico. And you can pay over time with them too.

@Bellabella82 this was at Ikos Olivia in May / June this year, but I think they have the same policy at all the resorts.

When you arrive you just ask to meet with the dietician 🙂

We went on a cruise with NCL last year. Ds who is now 25 is allergic to all nuts, peanuts, coconut and sesame. The head chef took him round the buffet every day and told him what he could have. He could order food a day in advance in the main restaurant and it was made in a separate kitchen. I was really impressed.

Also coming to recommend a cruise, we've done Cunard & p&o. Everything very clearly labelled on the buffet. For the non buffet restaurants you're given the menu the day before to say what you want and chef makes it allergen free for you. They were so hot on it they wouldn't let my husband order something with gluten in as the day before he'd asked for gluten free bread (dietary preference only, not an allergy for him). They took a lot of convincing that he was safe to eat it.
Suggestion to try P20 sunscreen, the original oil based one, not the sensitive skin one. We've tried all of them over the years and this is the best for us. We found it as I went on a group holiday and asked everyone to give me there left over suncream for me to test on her as it was getting so expensive to keep buying different ones. We DIY'd a patch test and this was the best one.

I don’t have any recommendations for hotels unfortunately, but definitely have a look on allergyUK at the allergy cards they do! They’re great.
Also agree that Dr Adam Fox on insta has some great tips for travelling abroad with allergies.

Most British and German oriented hotels have a decent selection of foods for different needs but better are cruises, they will cater for nearly anything you just need to prebook the special meal the day before

We go to Disney world specially because they are so good with allergies. We can actually relax there. Not Disneyland paris though, they were shit! DD lived on chips the entire time there.

I feel your worry! We have lived and travelled in Asia with serious nut, peanut and sesame allergies, so a tricky combo for those places. Contact the hotel in advance to get a feel for how good they will be, get allergy cards and accept that you might just need to have not the healthiest/boring food. Eg my kids had more McDonalds than I would have liked in Taiwan, but we felt it was worth it for the peace of mind.

Make sure you have meds as needed and scope out the system for medical help in advance (don’t think you’ll need it, but for peace of mind). We vetoed some places (eg remote islands that would need a transfer) but places like Cyprus etc should not be an issue for that.

Good luck!