Travel to Netherlands and Germany with Significant Food Allergies

[Chaplin]

Over the last few years my wife has developed, or determined that she has some significant food allergies. We are able to eat well and healthily at home thanks to research, trial-and-error, and not eating out, except for a local Thai place that we get take-out from about once per month. Travel is more of a challenge.

These aren't anaphylactic-level allergies and insensitivites, but they are bad enough to ruin the following day - not something we want if we're on a two or three week trip, especially on days when we might be changing location, although we would like plan on only two or three location changes.

Over the last few years we haven't travelled a ton, but when we do we try to locate ourselves somewhere we can do our own cooking. Airbnbs have worked well for us, but in our area they are being regulated almost out of existence. I support that due to the incredibly low vacancy rates and extreme house prices in our area since it's bad for our society overall, even though it make our local travel situation more challenging as hotels with full kitchens aren't as common or pleasant. Restaurant meals are doable, and most do a really good job of dealing well with allergies, but it's still a gamble and takes a lot of the fun and spontaneity out of travel. We've had relatively few problems with restaurant meals in Canada and the US, but adding a language barrier might add to the challenge. For travel to see family this Christmas my wife dehydrated a bunch of meals to bring with her just in case, but that's less of an option for a longer international trip.

I've travelled fairly extensively and still prefer the train pass, backpack, and hostel approach when alone, but I'd like to plan a family trip for March Break 2025 to Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich that allows us to avoid food allergy issues without meal-planning dominating the trip, and without having to carry much so we can travel lightly. The three-city itinerary is based on flights always seeming cheaper into Amsterdam so I'd like to start there, and since I haven't really been since 1984 I'd like to check it out again... Berlin has been on my list for a long time but I never made it despite spending almost a year on the continent post-Berlin Wall. And I have friends in Munich that I would like to visit. Alternatively, I also have a friend in Grenoble I would like to visit, but keeping the moving around to a minimum seems like an important part of this plan.

So, does anyone have any advice or suggestions for traveling to these cities with the allergies/sensitivities listed below, in terms of where to stay, shop, and eat in order to make meal planning fade mostly into the background?

Gluten - not diagnosed celiac, but assume that's what it is
Lactose (wife) - lactose-free milk and cheese has been fine
Whey (son) - all milk products seem to be a problem, but not as severe as any of my wife's allergies
Grapes - including raisins and wine
Chickpeas
Pea protein (maybe)

Aside: I feel like if you showed up at customs to enter France or Italy they would reject you if you couldn't eat bread/pasta, cheese, and wine.

Given how many of these ingredients hide (wheat is in soy and other sauces, acquafaba (chickpea water) in desserts, etc.), combined with different approaches to food labeling, I'm wondering how well we would do in grocery stores let alone restaurants. Any advice here would be welcome.

Specific questions for both The Netherlands and Germany:
1. How easy is it to get reasonably-priced accommodation for 4-7 days that includes a functional kitchen so we could cook our own meals?
2. What's the general availability of foods labeled well enough that we could find dairy and gluten-free options to cook?
3. How well do restaurants handle food allergies (and how to best communicate the specifics)?

I speak French so maybe we should go to France instead, but I also lived in France and can totally see a lack of willingness to accommodate these restrictions...

[reeshau]

EU regulations require menus to list 14 allergens, as noted here.  So, gluten and dairy should be easy.  (Of course, a Street vendor may not be following this)

One thing to possibly check: cow herds in the EU have different enzyme profiles.  I know several lactose intolerant people who found ice cream nirvana in Europe.  If your family can tolerate A2 milk, you might be fine.

The 14 allergens are:

celery
cereals containing gluten – including wheat, rye, barley and oats
crustaceans – such as prawns, crabs and lobsters
eggs
fish
lupin
milk
molluscs – such as mussels and oysters
mustard
tree nuts – including almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts
peanuts
sesame seeds
soybeans
sulphur dioxide and sulphites (if at a concentration of more than ten parts per million)

[Chaplin]

EU regulations require menus to list 14 allergens, as noted here.  So, gluten and dairy should be easy.  (Of course, a Street vendor may not be following this)

One thing to possibly check: cow herds in the EU have different enzyme profiles.  I know several lactose intolerant people who found ice cream nirvana in Europe.  If your family can tolerate A2 milk, you might be fine.

The 14 allergens are:

celery
cereals containing gluten – including wheat, rye, barley and oats
crustaceans – such as prawns, crabs and lobsters
eggs
fish
lupin
milk
molluscs – such as mussels and oysters
mustard
tree nuts – including almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts
peanuts
sesame seeds
soybeans
sulphur dioxide and sulphites (if at a concentration of more than ten parts per million)

Thanks, that's really helpful! I forgot to mention cashews, but the Tree Nuts category you listed covers that. Given that those are required to be labeled on menus is it also true of product labels in grocery stores? ETA: This: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/product-requirements/food-labelling/general-rules/index_en.htm#inline-nav-1 seems to answer that pretty well. Good stuff.

I'd like to see if my wife is game to try A2 milk here - I think it's possible to find it, even if we wouldn't necessarily buy it regularly. My son's milk allergy is different from my wife's as it's whey not lactose so I don't think it will help him, but his is not as severe as he can have baked goods with small amounts of milk and only suffer minor effects.

[lucenzo11]

My wife does not eat gluten, avoids lactose, and is somewhat picky about other foods (like seafood) so when we travel we almost always get a place with a kitchen. That means either an airbnb or a hotel that has a kitchen in the room. For short stays we've sometimes gotten away with just a kitchenette but for longer stays I want at least a stove or hotplate and an oven. We then go to the grocery store to buy our food. Especially when traveling internationally and there are limits on what we can bring across borders.

I completely understand being anxious when trying a new restaurant and having to communicate allergies, especially when a mistake may mess up your vacation. We end up eating out very little which is a bummer for me at times because I feel like we miss out on some of the culture, but we do save a lot of money by not eating out. Domestically, we'll use findmeglutenfree to see if there are any gluten free restaurants of bakeries around which could help you out as a place that is aware of gluten free is sometimes aware of other allergens too. It appears this is an international app too and has entries in Europe; however, internationally we mostly assume we'll just be shopping and eating on our own. We usually stick to very basic foods like fruits and veggies, rice, and other foods that we are sure won't have her allergens in them. She was in Portugal and did find some foods labeled as gluten free which she was happy to see.

[reeshau]

Also, a tool tip: get a global plan or local SIM for your phone, and load Google Translate.  While reading a sentence from it can be fairly amusing, an ingredient list is all nouns, so can be great for checking details on a menu.  It can also help in a pinch with asking about allergens.

I'm a big proponent of not fearing the language barrier.  But having a backup plan is night and day different!

[MaggieD]

I can’t speak to where you’re headed, but I do have to say after one of your comments  that Italy, even in less touristy areas, was easier than most areas of the US!  They have a super high awareness of Celiac disease there, and even with the language barrier it was the easiest place I’ve traveled for gluten free.  We went (not exclusively) to dedicated gluten free bakeries and restaurants, and otherwise  felt safe with the level of knowledge at any random place.  Regular grocery stores had large gluten free sections as well.

[MayDay]

I can't speak to what you can find, but I'll tell you what my dad who has Celiac does in Europe (and elsewhere).

He brings enough dehydrated backpacking meals to have one for dinner every night in the hotel room. He brings an electric kettle to boil the water if the hotel doesn't have one (likely you have a good chance of European hotels having kettles).  He also brings them in his carry-on for the plane rides as airlines haven't been able to convince him that they really don't have any cross contamination, and also because there is always a chance they don't have your special meal after all.

He also brings with him (or researches ahead to ensure a local health food store will have them) things like GF crackers or rice cakes or whatnot for lunches. And he brings GF instant oatmeal, things like that. Then he buys fruits, cheese, etc after arriving. He plans to eat all his meals from the above and not eat out - but bonus of he either happens to find or specifically seeks put a safe restaurant. He just goes in assuming that won't be the case and is pleasantly surprised if it is.

As a bonus, this obviously saves a lot of money!

ETA: we did happen to shop at a small grocery in Amsterdam last spring that has a huge GF section. I actually brought my dad some things home to try. And bumped into other Americans with Celiac who were getting food to eat on their vacation. This grocery was in the touristy area between the main train station and the big art museum, so if you plan to be in that area you'll definitely be able to find options!

[elaine amj]

I travelled quite a bit (although only in North America) with my DH who at various points was on pretty restricted diets over several years.

One suggestion - maybe readjust your thinking of how the vacation would look like compared to your past.

Maybe travelling light will be easier for the actual travel but cause more hassle at your destination and it will be worth it to haul along more bags.

We had always travelled light before. But we changed up and started travelling with a lot of stuff as it made things easier at our destination. Even when flying, we’d actually prepare, freeze, and vacuum seal blended vegetable soups my DH would eat every day (yes, even for a 2 week trip).

I’d also pack all the critical kitchen supplies (a high quality immersion blender is heavy!), seasonings, etc. And some basic food (canned or dry) like shelf stable almond milk that would make cooking easier. I didn’t always like to spend that much time hunting down staples in grocery stores (plus it’s more expensive when u don’t have the time to hunt deals) so found it was well worth it bringing as much as possible with me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Gremlin]

I'm not from Europe, but have travelled to Europe quite a bit with family in tow.

A couple of comments.

1.  Ingredient lists and allergens are standardised across most of the EU.  A lot of packaging will have multiple languages.  If not, a smartphone and Google Translate will really help.

2.  Most Dutch speak English better than I do (and I'm a native speaker).  Germans are not that far behind.  But before I leave, I print and laminate a one page piece of paper that describes the allergies that we have in the native language of each country we were going.  I'd get the translation checked off by a native speaker before I printed it.  If there was any doubt, I could pass the laminated page to the waiter/chef/server at the deli and they could understand in their own language.  This worked exceptionally well on multiple holidays to multiple countries (with one exception being in a small restaurant, in a small village in Sichuan Province in China where the entire restaurant staff were illiterate).

3.  One thing to bear in mind, depending on your sensitivity threshold, is that different countries have different thresholds for allergen labelling.  I'm Australian and our threshold for a product being "gluten free" is less than 3 to 5 ppm.  The EU standard is less than 20 ppm, whilst they also have a "Very Low Gluten" labelling at less than 100 ppm.  Personally, I can manage 100 ppm so I find the EU GF foods can often be tastier than the Australian equivalents, but I know someone who is sensitive to foods that are ~10 ppm, so they can eat GF labelled foods in Australia, but not in the EU.

4.  Amsterdam is an expensive city.  Last time we were there we stayed in Leiden, which is a beautiful little city in its own right.  It was 30 mins by train from Amsterdam itself but quite a bit cheaper to stay for comparable accommodation.  We found it was easier to find a family friendly apartment, where we cooked several meals, in a family friendly area here than in central Amsterdam.  Amsterdam is well connected by trains and there are several small cities within a 15 to 30 minute train ride from Amsterdam Centraal that could be worth considering.  I didn't find Berlin and Munich quite as expensive as Amsterdam.

5.  How old is your son?  My boy had a laundry list of allergies growing up including cassein (milk protein), legumes (beans, peas, pulses), nightshades (tomatoes, capsicum/peppers, chillies, potatoes), fish and shellfish.  But he was advised by his pediatric gastroenterologist that once he hit puberty he'd be fine with them all except fish and shellfish.  And that's proven to be true and is relatively common for boys.  Not so much for girls apparently.

[Chaplin]

My wife does not eat gluten, avoids lactose, and is somewhat picky about other foods (like seafood) so when we travel we almost always get a place with a kitchen. That means either an airbnb or a hotel that has a kitchen in the room. For short stays we've sometimes gotten away with just a kitchenette but for longer stays I want at least a stove or hotplate and an oven. We then go to the grocery store to buy our food. Especially when traveling internationally and there are limits on what we can bring across borders.

I completely understand being anxious when trying a new restaurant and having to communicate allergies, especially when a mistake may mess up your vacation. We end up eating out very little which is a bummer for me at times because I feel like we miss out on some of the culture, but we do save a lot of money by not eating out. Domestically, we'll use findmeglutenfree to see if there are any gluten free restaurants of bakeries around which could help you out as a place that is aware of gluten free is sometimes aware of other allergens too. It appears this is an international app too and has entries in Europe; however, internationally we mostly assume we'll just be shopping and eating on our own. We usually stick to very basic foods like fruits and veggies, rice, and other foods that we are sure won't have her allergens in them. She was in Portugal and did find some foods labeled as gluten free which she was happy to see.

Thanks for the thoughts, I'll check out the app. I agree that in many places food is a part of the experience, but we can pass on that, or I can do a separate trip, or just return a few days later and do a few days of solo travel. We'll make it work.

Also, a tool tip: get a global plan or local SIM for your phone, and load Google Translate.  While reading a sentence from it can be fairly amusing, an ingredient list is all nouns, so can be great for checking details on a menu.  It can also help in a pinch with asking about allergens.

I'm a big proponent of not fearing the language barrier.  But having a backup plan is night and day different!

I've never been overly concerned about a language barrier, but wanted to see how big a role it might play in making travel with food allergies easier or harder. Many years ago in Spain I was in a group of four that included one jew and one vegetarian, we ended up with three pork entrees... All of the responses in this thread point to us being able to enjoy the trip just fine.

I can’t speak to where you’re headed, but I do have to say after one of your comments  that Italy, even in less touristy areas, was easier than most areas of the US!  They have a super high awareness of Celiac disease there, and even with the language barrier it was the easiest place I’ve traveled for gluten free.  We went (not exclusively) to dedicated gluten free bakeries and restaurants, and otherwise  felt safe with the level of knowledge at any random place.  Regular grocery stores had large gluten free sections as well.

It's fascinating to me that found Italy the easiest, and great to hear!

I can't speak to what you can find, but I'll tell you what my dad who has Celiac does in Europe (and elsewhere).

He brings enough dehydrated backpacking meals to have one for dinner every night in the hotel room. He brings an electric kettle to boil the water if the hotel doesn't have one (likely you have a good chance of European hotels having kettles).  He also brings them in his carry-on for the plane rides as airlines haven't been able to convince him that they really don't have any cross contamination, and also because there is always a chance they don't have your special meal after all.

He also brings with him (or researches ahead to ensure a local health food store will have them) things like GF crackers or rice cakes or whatnot for lunches. And he brings GF instant oatmeal, things like that. Then he buys fruits, cheese, etc after arriving. He plans to eat all his meals from the above and not eat out - but bonus of he either happens to find or specifically seeks put a safe restaurant. He just goes in assuming that won't be the case and is pleasantly surprised if it is.

As a bonus, this obviously saves a lot of money!

ETA: we did happen to shop at a small grocery in Amsterdam last spring that has a huge GF section. I actually brought my dad some things home to try. And bumped into other Americans with Celiac who were getting food to eat on their vacation. This grocery was in the touristy area between the main train station and the big art museum, so if you plan to be in that area you'll definitely be able to find options!

Great to hear! My wife used to carry some similar dehydrated meals, but this year we got a dehydrator and she prepared many for herself and took them with us when we visited family in the Toronto area. At the very least it will be a way to bring the first few days worth of meals with us so it's not the first thing we have to do upon arrival.

I travelled quite a bit (although only in North America) with my DH who at various points was on pretty restricted diets over several years.

One suggestion - maybe readjust your thinking of how the vacation would look like compared to your past.

Maybe travelling light will be easier for the actual travel but cause more hassle at your destination and it will be worth it to haul along more bags.

We had always travelled light before. But we changed up and started travelling with a lot of stuff as it made things easier at our destination. Even when flying, we’d actually prepare, freeze, and vacuum seal blended vegetable soups my DH would eat every day (yes, even for a 2 week trip).

I’d also pack all the critical kitchen supplies (a high quality immersion blender is heavy!), seasonings, etc. And some basic food (canned or dry) like shelf stable almond milk that would make cooking easier. I didn’t always like to spend that much time hunting down staples in grocery stores (plus it’s more expensive when u don’t have the time to hunt deals) so found it was well worth it bringing as much as possible with me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Elaine, I really appreciate your perspective and experience. Maybe the trade-off of carrying more but having fewer concerns about finding places to eat is worth making. We're certainly already planning on just locating ourselves in a few "home bases" rather than flitting around. It's a better way to experience a place as a place rather than just a collection of thing to see anyway.

I'm not from Europe, but have travelled to Europe quite a bit with family in tow.

A couple of comments.

1.  Ingredient lists and allergens are standardised across most of the EU.  A lot of packaging will have multiple languages.  If not, a smartphone and Google Translate will really help.

2.  Most Dutch speak English better than I do (and I'm a native speaker).  Germans are not that far behind.  But before I leave, I print and laminate a one page piece of paper that describes the allergies that we have in the native language of each country we were going.  I'd get the translation checked off by a native speaker before I printed it.  If there was any doubt, I could pass the laminated page to the waiter/chef/server at the deli and they could understand in their own language.  This worked exceptionally well on multiple holidays to multiple countries (with one exception being in a small restaurant, in a small village in Sichuan Province in China where the entire restaurant staff were illiterate).

3.  One thing to bear in mind, depending on your sensitivity threshold, is that different countries have different thresholds for allergen labelling.  I'm Australian and our threshold for a product being "gluten free" is less than 3 to 5 ppm.  The EU standard is less than 20 ppm, whilst they also have a "Very Low Gluten" labelling at less than 100 ppm.  Personally, I can manage 100 ppm so I find the EU GF foods can often be tastier than the Australian equivalents, but I know someone who is sensitive to foods that are ~10 ppm, so they can eat GF labelled foods in Australia, but not in the EU.

4.  Amsterdam is an expensive city.  Last time we were there we stayed in Leiden, which is a beautiful little city in its own right.  It was 30 mins by train from Amsterdam itself but quite a bit cheaper to stay for comparable accommodation.  We found it was easier to find a family friendly apartment, where we cooked several meals, in a family friendly area here than in central Amsterdam.  Amsterdam is well connected by trains and there are several small cities within a 15 to 30 minute train ride from Amsterdam Centraal that could be worth considering.  I didn't find Berlin and Munich quite as expensive as Amsterdam.

5.  How old is your son?  My boy had a laundry list of allergies growing up including cassein (milk protein), legumes (beans, peas, pulses), nightshades (tomatoes, capsicum/peppers, chillies, potatoes), fish and shellfish.  But he was advised by his pediatric gastroenterologist that once he hit puberty he'd be fine with them all except fish and shellfish.  And that's proven to be true and is relatively common for boys.  Not so much for girls apparently.

Lots of good stuff in there, thanks! The Canadian standard for labeling "gluten free" is also 20ppm, and things labeled as such here have been ok for my wife so that's a nice alignment. My son is now 15, and while his dairy allergy isn't limited to lactose, it's much less severe than my wife's. He can have most baked goods and not suffer too many consequences. It's hard to say if it's easing off in severity. About a year ago a protein bar with whey protein had him feeling poorly within minutes of eating half of it. I do hope his allergy goes away or diminishes, but fortunately it's not terribly limiting even if it stays at its current level.

[merula]

I've never been overly concerned about a language barrier, but wanted to see how big a role it might play in making travel with food allergies easier or harder. Many years ago in Spain I was in a group of four that included one jew and one vegetarian, we ended up with three pork entrees... All of the responses in this thread point to us being able to enjoy the trip just fine.

This is pretty specific to Spain, for a lot of historical anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim reasons. At one point, it was basically the whole country but in the past 5-10 years it's become pretty rare in larger cities. Many traditional Spanish recipes will still have pork products even when you wouldn't expect it, but it's always labelled on restaurant menus in big cities or places that cater to tourists.

Bottom line, I wouldn't extrapolate from Spain to the rest of Europe.

[Chaplin]

I've never been overly concerned about a language barrier, but wanted to see how big a role it might play in making travel with food allergies easier or harder. Many years ago in Spain I was in a group of four that included one jew and one vegetarian, we ended up with three pork entrees... All of the responses in this thread point to us being able to enjoy the trip just fine.

This is pretty specific to Spain, for a lot of historical anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim reasons. At one point, it was basically the whole country but in the past 5-10 years it's become pretty rare in larger cities. Many traditional Spanish recipes will still have pork products even when you wouldn't expect it, but it's always labelled on restaurant menus in big cities or places that cater to tourists.

Bottom line, I wouldn't extrapolate from Spain to the rest of Europe.

I wasn't trying to slight Spain or even imply that it was intentional, I just thought it was an amusing anecdote of the challenges of food and language. It's an interesting point though - did many Spanish recipes or dishes end up with pork as an ingredient as a sort of test or provocation?

[merula]

I wasn't trying to slight Spain or even imply that it was intentional, I just thought it was an amusing anecdote of the challenges of food and language. It's an interesting point though - did many Spanish recipes or dishes end up with pork as an ingredient as a sort of test or provocation?

Oh, I didn't read it as a slight at all, sorry if I gave that impression. It was at one point intentional, but now it's basically just part of traditional dishes

In the late 1400s, Isabella and Ferdinand drove out all the Muslims and Jews as part of the "Reconquista" and established the Spanish Inquisition. Those who converted to Catholicism were allowed to stay, but there were concerns about whether these were true converts (Conversos for Jewish converts and their descendants, Moriscos for Muslim) or secretly still practicing their old faith. One of the roles of the Inquisition was to check this, and one of the main ways to do it was to look for pork sausages or ham legs hanging in the rafters or incorporated into dishes. So, a lot of rice, bean or vegetable dishes ended up "traditionally" made with pork products as a way for Conversos/Moriscos to prove that they were no longer keeping with the former faith's dietary rules. (Those who were in fact only posing as converts created whole new dishes that mimicked pork ingredients, including a dried poultry sausage that looked just like pork to hang in the rafters, and slow-cooked Shabbat stews that looked like Catholic Spanish dishes.)

Up through Spain's fascist regime, Jews and Muslims were not welcome in the country, and most of the tourism was from Britain and Germany, so there weren't many objecting to unlabelled pork being found everywhere. However, in recent years there has been more migration from North Africa, in 2015 there was a law granting citizenship descendants of Sephardic Jews who were driven out and there's more diverse tourism to Spain, so there are a lot of factors pushing towards more disclosure or omitting those ingredients from dishes.

[Dutch Comfort]

If you travel to the Netherlands, also consider renting a holiday home on a recreational park. They all come with a kitchen/coffee machine/microwave, sometimes even with an oven, so you can prepare your own meals. Around Amsterdam you can find several like:

https://www.europarcs.nl/vakantieparken/nederland/noord-holland/poort-van-amsterdam
https://www.europarcs.nl/vakantieparken/nederland/noord-holland/spaarnwoude
https://www.landal.nl/parken/volendam

Usually you rent these for 3-7 days.
If you need any translation help for your food allergies in Dutch, just let me know. Happy to help.

[Chaplin]

If you travel to the Netherlands, also consider renting a holiday home on a recreational park. They all come with a kitchen/coffee machine/microwave, sometimes even with an oven, so you can prepare your own meals. Around Amsterdam you can find several like:

https://www.europarcs.nl/vakantieparken/nederland/noord-holland/poort-van-amsterdam
https://www.europarcs.nl/vakantieparken/nederland/noord-holland/spaarnwoude
https://www.landal.nl/parken/volendam

Usually you rent these for 3-7 days.
If you need any translation help for your food allergies in Dutch, just let me know. Happy to help.

Thank you! Those parks look great - like what I would call a time share here, but better.

[Dee18]

I recently spent 10 days in Amsterdam, half of which were in a place that had a microwave and fridge, although no silverware, bowls, etc.  It was listed as a studio with microwave and fridge and I mistakenly assumed that they would have bowls, etc, needed to use the microwave...so be sure to check!.  I was absolutely thrilled with the food in Amsterdam, including at the small groceries that seemed to exist on every other block.  They had excellent prepackaged small portions of fresh fruit, salads (including many with some kind of protein), heatable meals, etc. At restaurants I had one fabulous soup after another and excellent fish. Waiters always seemed to know the ingredients.  Almost everyone spoke English so there was no language barrier.

[Fomerly known as something]

Oh FWIW,  Italians understand Gluten intolerance.  They are more than happy to accommodate.  (Coworker with severe Celiac did just fine over there)

[Chaplin]

I recently spent 10 days in Amsterdam, half of which were in a place that had a microwave and fridge, although no silverware, bowls, etc.  It was listed as a studio with microwave and fridge and I mistakenly assumed that they would have bowls, etc, needed to use the microwave...so be sure to check!.  I was absolutely thrilled with the food in Amsterdam, including at the small groceries that seemed to exist on every other block.  They had excellent prepackaged small portions of fresh fruit, salads (including many with some kind of protein), heatable meals, etc. At restaurants I had one fabulous soup after another and excellent fish. Waiters always seemed to know the ingredients.  Almost everyone spoke English so there was no language barrier.

Great to hear, and thanks for the heads-up.

Oh FWIW,  Italians understand Gluten intolerance.  They are more than happy to accommodate.  (Coworker with severe Celiac did just fine over there)

I guess the incidence or awareness of gluten and other intolerances has really increased in most places. The dairy plus gluten plus some random stuff (chickpeas, grapes, some pea protein) makes it a bit trickier than just gluten, but this thread has certainly reassured me that we'll be able to enjoy a trip. I was fairly sure we could make it work, what I wasn't sure about was whether taking care of food would occupy too much of our mental energy.

[RetiredAt63]

Re the dairy - A2 milk has the casein A2 version, while most Canadian milk has the casein A1 version.   People who don't do well with lactose-free milk are most likely sensitive to the A1 casein.  A1 is a relatively recent mutation that is common in Canadian dairy cows.  A2 milk is available here, maybe your son could try it before the trip?

[Chaplin]

Re the dairy - A2 milk has the casein A2 version, while most Canadian milk has the casein A1 version.   People who don't do well with lactose-free milk are most likely sensitive to the A1 casein.  A1 is a relatively recent mutation that is common in Canadian dairy cows.  A2 milk is available here, maybe your son could try it before the trip?

I plan to have him it out soon, thanks!

[elledub]

I’m so glad you posted this question. I’m planning a trip to Germany and Austria with my son this summer and was just starting to ponder food allergy strategies. My normal is to drive and bring all my own food. Flying makes it a bit more complicated. The last 2 overseas trips I did I got sick and took about 6-weeks to recover. It’s so nice to hear you are planning forward like this for your wife and son.

[Chaplin]

I’m so glad you posted this question. I’m planning a trip to Germany and Austria with my son this summer and was just starting to ponder food allergy strategies. My normal is to drive and bring all my own food. Flying makes it a bit more complicated. The last 2 overseas trips I did I got sick and took about 6-weeks to recover. It’s so nice to hear you are planning forward like this for your wife and son.

I'm glad it was helpful for you. Planning a trip is a big part of the fun - I hope yours is great!

This thread has made it clear that my travels in Europe are long enough ago that my mental image is different from the current reality. It sounds like with a bit of care we can mostly leave food issues in the background and just enjoy the trip.