10 Tips for Planning Road Trips

Even with anaphylactic food allergies, we have managed vacation and road trips for years. 

Food allergies do make trips a little more work, but yearly road trips help us refresh, reconnect, and make sweet memories. 

It's definitely worth the extra time and effort!

When hubby and I start planning our next excursion with the kids, we go through an easy checklist to make it as easy and safe as possible. 

Maybe this list can help with your next trip, as well!

10 TIPS FOR PLANNING ROAD TRIPS

This list isn't exhaustive so be sure to also check with your allergist for more ideas on how to travel safely with your food allergies. 

Here are some things to think about before heading out for a road trip with food allergies:

1. CHOOSE AN ALLERGY-FRIENDLY DESTINATION

We always like to research a place carefully before planning to road trip there. 

Will there be hospitals on the way there and back and at the destination area?

Is there a grocery store for grabbing safe food?

Will we have a fridge and microwave for making allergy-friendly food. 

Some places are safer than others when it comes to having safe food and emergency care available. 

And once we have a really good experience somewhere, we tend to go back again and again! 

Having food allergies lends itself well to finding traditions and routines that feel safe. 

2. POSSIBLY INVITE OTHERS

Sometimes it's nice to travel just as a family. 

But sometimes it can be helpful and fun to have extra people come along.

Grandparents, siblings, cousins, friends...we've road tripped with them all at different times. 

Decide what's best for the family and food allergy safety on a trip-by-trip basis. 

It's fun to mix it up and try different vacation buddies. 

We love finding super helpful, understanding, allergy-aware people to travel with. 

Other times, we love just going as a family of four. 

3. DECIDE THE BEST TIME TO GO

Think about when it's busy peak season or a slower season for the destination.

Less busy times are great for food allergy families as we can better focus on food allergy safety with less crowds. 

But peak season can be safe, too.

It just takes a little extra energy and effort when places are busy. 

We find we save money going in the off-seasons, as well!

Having a flexible home school schedule made road trips extra easy and relaxing for us. 

4. PLAN WHAT ACTIVITIES EVERYONE WANTS TO DO

Ask each family member what they look forward to doing on the road trip. 

Explore? Play? Relax? 

Then find activities in the area that are in line with everyone's wishes. 

Hiking. Amusement parks. Quiet places. 

Plan the activities out ahead of time to ensure everyone has a happy trip. 

The less decisions that have to be made during the trip, the less stress everyone will feel. 

And the more time there is to enjoy the fun and time with each other! 

Less stress also means more brain power for navigating food safely. 

We leave a little time for spontaneity but not so much that we get nothing fun done. 

5. PACK SPECIAL FOOD

Oftentimes road trips with food allergies means packing our own safe food. 

And even though road trips are more about fun over food, the kiddos feel like they are really on vacation when they get to eat special things. 

That doesn't mean we have to brave eating out. 

We just like to make sure there are special allergy-friendly treats that we don't normally buy for home. 

Pack those favorite expensive brands that are normally hard to splurge on. 

Even if we load up on our favorite tried-and-true brands, though...

my son usually takes a bite out of most every package at home before we are on the road. 

This gives us a little extra peace-of-mind.

6. HAVE A GAME PLAN FOR FOOD

Always make sure there's plan for how to feed your family safely while away from home, before leaving.

For the car rides, we often have a cooler of safe food for the road. 

When camping, we make sure we have what we need to cook on a fire or grill. 

When staying at a hotel, we make sure there's a microwave and mini fridge. 

When staying at a condo, we make plans for utilizing a full kitchen. 

It's handy to have a full meal plan ready before we even hit the road. 

Packing food from home, knowing the grocery store options at the destination, and bringing necessary kitchen tools from home are all important to the meal plan. 

Having a master vacation meal plan to use year after year is even more handy and saves me even more time and energy. 

Don't save the food planning and research for after arrival, that can make vacation really hard. 

If we plan to brave restaurants on the road trip, we usually research them days before leaving home. 

7. COMMUNICATE WELL AMONG THE ADULTS

Before the road trip, talk plans over with the adults coming. 

Have at least one other adult in on the allergy-safety plan. 

Waiting to talk food and plans over while on the road and away from home can be extra stressful. 

Sometimes we include our son in the planning, for learning life skills.

Other times we leave him out of the planning, if it doesn't matter, and we just want him to focus on having fun. 

It's definitely the job of the grown-up's to keep things calm, cool, and collected. 

We find that making important food decisions and being on the same page before leaving helps us not fall into emotional spur-of-the-moment, risky decisions during the trip...like if we are going to chance eating out or not. 

8. TAKE SAFETY MEASURES SERIOUSLY

Make sure to plot out where all the hospitals and emergency rooms are along the way. 

We also make sure we eat only in areas where there is medical care nearby. 

Just as important, make sure all medications are packed according to your food allergy action plan. 

We make sure we have 4-6 epi autoinjectors and our inhalers for trips. 

Also make sure you know who has the injectors while out and about. 

And be mindful of keeping epi's at room temperature when in extreme cold or hot weather. 

9. BRING CLEANING SUPPLIES

Bring along products for sanitizing surfaces and hands while on your adventures. 

We like to have baby wipes for wiping hands and removing allergens.

And sanitizing wipes are perfect for cleaning surfaces in hotels and condos, like light switches and door knobs.  

10. KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Aside from food, we focus on other aspects of the upcoming trip with excited anticipation.

Our family loves to get amped up for the adventures we will have together!

Beaches. Mountains. Roller coasters. Shows. Shopping. 

There's so much more to a fun vacation than eating food. Thank goodness!