Strategies for Dealing with Food Allergies when Choosing a Vacation Package

Traveling with food allergies is daunting enough when you arrange for your own apartment and buy your own food. But if you're paying for a vacation package, especially one that includes meals at a resort, those food allergies can become a real drag if the resort doesn't offer allergy-friendly meals. But you can still travel, luckily, if you try out a few strategies.

Allergy-Friendly Resorts, of Course

The most obvious thing is to ensure the resort in the vacation package is allergy friendly. More and more hotels and resorts, even overseas, are now adding allergy-friendly menus to their kitchens. Some have become super friendly, offering meals free of several major allergens as well as other foods to which people might be merely sensitive and not truly allergic. Other locations will create a menu for you if given enough notice.

Mix-and-Match Packages

Sometimes you can find vacation packages that are very basic—for example, they might include airfare and resort lodging—with additional services like meals available for extra fees. These packages let you skip paying for meals you might not be able to eat, though you should be sure there are markets or other restaurants that can prepare allergy-friendly meals nearby. This can be difficult if you are at an isolated resort, but if you are at one that is near a reasonably sized town, you should be able to find several markets and restaurants that could work for you.

Tailored Travel

Vacation packages don't have to be resort based. You can work with specialized agents to create a tailored travel plan that lets you travel with groups while still having a lot of independence, including the ability to choose where you eat so that you don't have to pay for set hotel meals. This is similar to the basic resort packages mentioned previously, but these may be city based rather than focused on a contained compound. For example, you could get a package deal that includes airfare, hotel, and wine tours while the rest of your time, money, and food choices remain yours.

The travel industry is becoming more and more aware of special dietary needs, so now is a great time to start looking into vacation packages. Whether you want to travel with groups touring museums in a city or be on your own at an all-inclusive tropical resort, you now have lots of options. Talk to a travel agent or resort representative today about arranging for your next vacation.