Best Places To Travel With A Nut Allergy
Hey there, I’m Corinna!
If you’re looking for the best places to travel with nut allergy or peanut allergy, you’re in the right place. I help severe food allergy parents keep their kids safe without missing out on life. Our family currently navigates anaphylactic nut and peanut allergies and gluten intolerance.
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; all before our kids were teens.
If you want to know everything we’ve learned, I’ve put it all into a Travel Planning Pack Printable and Workshop so you can confidently travel with allergies too. Learn more about this powerful tool here.
I believe that food allergy families deserve safe and fulfilling lifestyles, and it’s my goal to help you get there! Severe food allergies have been our way of life for over 16 years and we’ve learned that they don’t have to stop us from traveling or exploring the world.
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 16 years of research and practical knowledge from everything from navigating school, to travel and dining out with food allergies.
Best Places To Travel With A Nut Allergy That You May Not Have Thought of Before
Here’s a surprise…
No destination is consistent every single time. This means that I can give you the best places to travel with nut allergy or peanut allergy or ANY allergy BUT to fully enjoy your trip with food allergies, you must also be fully prepared. That means doing the right research and asking the right questions EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Not only that but when you travel, you will come across unexpected delays and times when you have to roll with the punches. If you plan well in advance, you’ll be ready for anything so you never have to stress about feeding you or your child safely.
I want you to know that even destinations that are NOT on this list of the best places to travel with a nut allergy are also VERY doable IF you take the right precautions and research well.
So I don’t want you to be limited by the list below. Instead, take it as a loose guide, but instead focus on learning how to make traveling with allergies safer in general so that you can fully feel confident wherever you’re going!
It may feel like the research is daunting and time-consuming, but, I’ve outlined exactly how we plan and pack for a stress-free allergy-friendly vacation in my Food Allergy Travel Workshop.
In about 1-2 hours, I’ll show you step-by-step how to plan an allergy-friendly vacation or trip so you can make memories instead of stressing the whole time.
This workshop is perfect for families or anybody with anaphylactic food allergies who want to go anywhere from the next state (or province) to a beach vacation, to Disney, and even to another country.
NOTES: for this article, you can assume that the places I list are similar for peanut allergy as well as nut allergy. I fully understand these are different allergies, but for the most part, the handling of both nuts and peanuts has been similar in the places listed below.
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 we research restaurants so we feel confident in the Dining Out With Food Allergies Workshop.
**When you click the links above, you’ll go to the page where you can learn more about the Food Allergy Travel Workshop or the Dining Out With Food Allergies Workshop. I completely trust and recommend these workshops!
Now let’s get to the list of best places to travel with a nut allergy.
Disney World.
Ok, you may have already heard that Disney is very allergy-friendly. And yes our family agrees! We are big fans of Disney in general. We’ve been to Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disney World. All of them are quite good with food allergies, but we have to say that the most allergy-friendly of them all is Disney World.
We love that there are allergy menus, and many options available for nut and peanut allergies. That said, when you have multiple allergies, the options on their allergy menus can become limited.
Of course, as I’ve mentioned before, if you choose to visit Disney World, it’s always important to double-check menus every time, and always make sure you get the right order. Even Disney makes mistakes sometimes!
One of the downfalls of going to Disney World is some of the airlines that are 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. The ones I have tried to avoid in the past due to their allergy policies are United Air and American Airlines. I have heard that Southwest Air is fairly allergy-friendly, but we haven’t flown them ourselves. We usually fly Canadian-based airlines like Westjet, which we feel more comfortable with in general.
2. Ireland.
We honestly found Ireland to be very allergy-friendly in general. All restaurants are required to post an allergy menu so there are no hidden allergens. That said, we still took several precautions like using an allergy card to help us confirm that the kitchen took precautions against cross-contact.
If you want a full understanding of how we research a restaurant for food allergy safety, I have a full Dining Out With Food Allergies Workshop that walks you through each step. By the end, you’ll know what to look for so you feel confident and in control dining out around the world. Learn more here.
The other thing we liked about Ireland is that they seemed to understand allergies for the most part and were happy to accommodate. 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.
We even found a nut-free ice cream shop where they were happy to take allergy precautions for us!
We have flown 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.
3. London
I realize that this is a city vs. a whole country. But I add it here because we’ve been to London a few times, but not too many other places in the UK. In general, London is very allergy-friendly.
One thing to note about London is that there are many, many different ethnic cuisines, so when it comes to nuts, you may want to stick with regular British pub food which doesn’t have a lot of nuts or peanuts and/or research other cuisines to see if they will work for your allergies.
While London was a bit harder to find a variety of nut and peanut-free restaurants, they were mostly able to clearly state whether they could accommodate our allergies or not. See the update from Summer 2023 below.
I always find that English-speaking countries are easier for us because there isn’t a language barrier.
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, so this didn’t affect us too much.
**UPDATE AS OF SUMMER 2023*. We re-visited London this summer. I have to say it has blown me away. 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, and we ate at an English Pub in the countryside. We researched the pub beforehand and it had a great allergy menu. When we got there they were also 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).
This time we flew West Jet. They 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 the cuisine is fairly nut-free. Definitely stay away from pestos which often has nuts and bakeries where they tend to use a lot of almonds and Nutella (made from hazelnuts). Also, Nutella is common everywhere, not just in bakeries. Gelato may also be off the safe list since many varieties have nuts, and cross-contact could be an issue.
Of course, there are important steps to take to ensure the restaurant understands cross-contact and how to cook for food allergies. I have a full workshop that walks you through each step, but when going to any non-English speaking country, a chef card helps to communicate your allergy(ies). Even after researching the restaurants, we used chef cards regularly in Italy. The chef card is like a helpful last step after all other research is done.
In Italy, my daughter especially loved the wood-fired pizzas and pasta. So yummy!
5. Canada
We live in Canada and in comparison to some places we’ve been, I feel like we are a fairly allergy-friendly country, especially for those with nut and peanut allergies. Many restaurants will understand cross-contact, BUT unfortunately, some do not (just like in ANY country). That’s why it is important to do the right research no matter where you go.
Canadian labeling laws are similar to the US, and although these laws sometimes fall short, I do find that Canada has quite a few nut and peanut-allergy-friendly products in general.
I find that the Canadian airline, West Jet tends to be fairly helpful about letting us board early to wipe down seats and will even make an announcement for others not to eat nuts if you complete the required paperwork in advance. West Jet does not usually serve nuts but does have foods that may contain nuts and peanuts. Again, if you bring your food, this won’t be a problem and is my best recommendation anyway. That said, there is a comfort when you know that there won’t be nuts served on a flight if you have a nut allergy.
In my opinion, all of these things are put together to make Canada one of the best places to travel with a nut allergy and one of the best places to travel with a peanut allergy and other top allergies too.
Conclusion
When traveling with any food allergies, taking the time to plan well makes it possible to travel to almost any country or destination in the world.
Because good planning doesn't just help you travel more safely.
It empowers you and your child to make good decisions, safely roll with the punches during your trip, and kick food allergy stress.
If you want to learn how to make food allergy travel safer and stress-free, sign up for my on-demand workshop. I will show you what we’ve learned after 16 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!
What country would you like to visit? Let me know in the comments below!
