I chose to travel to Greece as a post year-of-college vacation with one of my best friends from school. It was definitely more on the relaxing resort side, but we made sure to venture on many excursions to explore the places we visited that much more. Greece had always been listed on our bucket lists, so when we both decided to study abroad during the summer, we chose to take this trip between the end of her program and the start of mine.

We visited Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini during this trip. The Aegean Sea views in Greece are unmatched and the culture and quaint traditional towns were such a unique experience and so beautiful. The Mediterranean lifestyle and cuisine ended up being something I could navigate pretty well with my food allergies to dairy, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts. I can’t say enough great things about the places we visited in Greece and I would recommend it to anyone who loves beaches, mountains, exploring towns, and learning about new cultures.

This is how I went about planning my trip.
Online Research:
- Google - General research on locations, hotels, excursions, and restaurants.
- Expedia - To research and book excursions and hotels.
- Get Your Guide - To book excursions
- Viator - To book excursions
- Hotel Websites
- Helpful for restaurant menus and communication about allergy needs.

Personal Recommendations:
- Purchase an allergy translation card from Equal Eats.
- Visit Athens, but make sure to spend more time exploring the Greek Islands.

When packing for this trip, I was also preparing for two other countries following my visit to Greece, so I packed enough snacks, medication, and everything else to last through the whole longer trip.

I packed clothes for hot weather and cool evenings, great walking shoes, international technology adapters, safe snacks, toiletries, and allergy medication.

Upon doing more research, I realised that I should make sure to have fall-back allergy safe snacks to last or be used in place of some meals if necessary. I ended up packing a suitcase of safe dry foods and snacks to help my comfort level when travelling so far away from home. I definitely play things more on the safe side with my allergies, so I relied on these packed foods as reliable options throughout each travel day.

Similar to allergy safe snacks, packing toiletries that are safe for me was just as important. I didn’t know whether I would be able to find safe brands without allergens in them, so I packed enough toiletries to last the whole trip. These included: Makeup, face wash, lotion, sunscreen, hand soap, shampoo/conditioner, mouthwash, toothpaste, deodorant, hand wipes, hand sanitizer, and anything else that I didn’t think I could find abroad. All of these were packed in my check bag because I didn’t want to risk having to throw anything away at the airport.

Medication wise, I packed 2 main sets of EpiPens and several boxes of Zyrtec to carry in my personal bag on the airplane. Along with that, I had 2 more sets of Epis and more Zyrtec, Benadryl and my Inhaler in my carry on bag. I also have medication that needs to stay at a controlled temperature, so I used a 4AllFamily medical cooler with a battery pack during my whole trip and it kept my medicine safe the whole time. I chose to pack too many meds rather than running the risk of needing more at some point. To support all of these medications, I carried a letter from my doctor stating the reasoning for me needing to carry these allergy meds with me just in case I ran into troubles at airport customs.

In addition, I made sure to have my Greek Equal Eats card listing all of my severe food allergies and protocols. Downloading the GoogleTranslate app was useful for translating food labels with their photo feature as well.

There were many modes of transportation during my trip. I started by flying to London on Delta, then Athens on Aegean Airlines. I was able to notify Delta in advance about my food allergies, then I spoke to people at the airport about pre-boarding for every flight. Once I landed in Athens, I took a taxi to my hotel and we used taxis during our whole trip to get from airports, ports, and towns to our hotels since we weren’t always within walking distance of our desired destination. We used Ferry Hopper to book SeaJets ferries to travel from Athens to Myknonos and Myknonos to Santorini. We flew back to Athens from Santorini on Aegean Airlines again and I continued my trip from there.

I had no issues taking allergy medication through security which was amazing. However, my temperature controlled medical cooler was flagged during security in London and they asked to open it which was not possible because the medicine would have been ruined, so they asked for my prescription, which I made sure to carry and they re-scanned the cooler a couple times based on their protocols. So, my advice in this situation is to make sure to have the proper medical documentation and prescription information on hand with you when travelling with all medications because you never know country to country whether you will run into any issues.

This next piece of advice is related to something that I had an issue with when travelling between different airlines on my trip. Make sure to check the carry on size and weight for bags and compare each airline’s guidelines. For example, the carry-on suitcase (filled with safe food) that I was allowed to have on Delta was double the allowed weight for Aegean, so I had to take necessary medication out and check my safe food which made me very uneasy. Make sure to account for these bag side differences in advance to avoid what happened to me with having to rearrange quickly while trying to board the plane at the same time.

Snacks As previously mentioned, I packed a suitcase filled with safe snacks and foods to last through a large portion of my trip (see picture below). For my travel day to get to Greece, I packed extra snacks in my carry-on bag as well as pasta to eat before and during my flight since I am not comfortable eating the food that planes serve to passengers. My favorite snacks for travel:

MadeGood Granola Bars and Granola Bites (my personal favorite)    
Ritz Crackers 
Snyder’s Pretzel Packs
Quaker Instant Oatmeal packets  
Pepperidge Farms Bagels  
Cheerios
Skinny Pop Microwave Popcorn    
Enjoy Life Chocolate (for a sweet treat)    
Welch's Fruit Snacks

My trip to Greece was 6 nights and 7 days. We stayed in each location (Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini) for two nights each.

After researching Greece extensively, we decided to stay in hotels during our trip.

Each of our rooms had a mini fridge (without needing to be requested) and hotel restaurants that I reached out to in advance via email about food allergies.

Two hotels in particular wrote me up a personalised menu that excluded my allergens as well as running me through each of the normal menu items that I was able to eat or not. The flexibility and kindness of these hotels, especially considering my food allergies, was amazing.

Athens: Grand Hyatt Athens
- Hotel in the heart of Athens.
- Restaurants, pool, fitness center.
- Chose this hotel to be in a central location in the city.

Mykonos: Mykonos Grand Hotel and Resort
- Located in the main area of Mykonos, only a short drive from Little Venice and right on the Mediterranean Sea.
- Restaurants, pools, beach access, fitness, spa, shuttle services.
- Chose this location because of its beauty and hotel amenities.
- Breakfast menu can be accommodated for specific allergens and plates are made separately.

Santorini: Santorini Princess Spa Hotel
- Located in Fira, 30 minutes outside of the most popular area, Oia.
- Restaurants, pool, volcano views, shuttle services.
- Chose this location because it was between Oia and the port we planned to arrive from.
- Breakfast buffet, but they are able to make food separately for allergies.

When booking restaurants to eat at, we went about it beginning with researching any places online that seemed like there were menu items that could be accommodated for my food allergies.

Next, I found an email for that restaurant and emailed each of them the same email with different specifics regarding my need for having food prepared safely and separate from my allergens. I have email templates for both the hotel restaurants and general restaurants.

Lithos Tavern:
Lively restaurant with outdoor seating and traditional Greek cuisine. Located
in the heart of Athens. I ordered fresh seared fish with vegetables and a fruit
salad. They were very attention to detail about my food allergies. As mentioned
before, I emailed them in advance about making a safe meal, and they had
printed it out and posted my email in the restaurant that night to make sure
that all of the staff was aware of my allergies. I felt very safe here allergy
wise and would go back. There was a very clear understanding of my food
allergies and the necessary steps to take when safely preparing my food.

Nama Restaurant: Tranquil poolside restaurant overlooking the Aegean Sea in Mykonos serving contemporary Greek cuisine. I ordered grilled chicken and charred vegetables with pita bread. This restaurant went above and beyond with making me feel comfortable dining there with food allergies. Nama was located inside the hotel we stayed at in Mykonos. Upon arriving at the hotel, the concierge led me to meet with the manager of food for the whole hotel who I had been emailing with beforehand (I didn’t request this), so he could walk me through each menu item and whether I would be able to eat it safely or not. I was able to work with him to determine the best foods for me to order safely and he was beyond kind and reassuring. Therefore, I ate every meal in Mykonos at our hotel because I felt so comfortable. I would return to this hotel and restaurant in a heartbeat because of how phenomenal they were between being welcoming, beautiful, and allergy friendly.

Kaliya: Stunning restaurant overlooking Oia, Santorini Volcano, and the Aegean Sea serving Greek cuisine. I ordered seared fish with roasted potatoes and zucchini. This location was also so reassuring about safely preparing my food and were responsive over email beforehand. I felt that there was somewhat of a language barrier with communicating allergies on Santorini more than the other two locations where there was clearly spoken English, so I made sure to show them my Equal Eats cards to make sure that what I was communicating was understood. I would absolutely return to this restaurant as well.

I packed so many snacks and foods from home that I relied on that mainly when I was in Greece and didn’t go to supermarkets except for the last day. I found Violife cheese and cream cheese and bought fresh fruit.

For reading labels, I took pictures with the Google Translate App’s photo translation feature which became my most used travel app during the trip.

I had some challenges at a couple of restaurants which weren’t able to accommodate my food allergies. The spots that I contacted in advance were wonderful with keeping me safe. I recommend having some backup options with restaurants just in case. There were a good amount of familiar snacks (such as Pringles) which contained my allergens in Greece unlike how they are safe for me in the states. Therefore, I was hesitant with purchasing many snacks when the food labels were in Greek, so I relied on many of the snacks from home that I packed. For next time, I would research more snack and food options in advance to make sure that I would have more options instead of having to simply rely on what I had packed.

1. Plan ahead with food and make sure you have safe options when you get there, it saves the hassle of trying to find a place on a whim.

2. Always make sure to show your Equal Eats cards because even if they say they understand, you don’t want to have any issues because of a communication error.

3. Stay hydrated and relax when needed because it is your trip and you need to make sure to take care of yourself while having a nice vacation.

3. Plan several activities for a day, but be open to new discoveries that aren’t on your itinerary. Sometimes the unexpected sights are the most memorable, and there is so much to discover in each of these spots!