Where to stay with a nut allergy
Tom compares hotels, hostels, motels and apartments from an allergy point of view, with the questions to ask before you book.
★★★★★ Rated 4.5 out of 5
This is the stage where a trip starts to feel real. Where you stay and what you do give a holiday its rhythm, so it pays to book them in the right order.
With your destination, timing and budget taking shape, it’s time to book. Choosing the right accommodation and activities is what decides how the days actually unfold once you arrive, whether you wake up in the middle of things or a drive away, and whether the days feel full or rushed.
This is Stage 6 of our Platinum Travel Planning Roadmap. It’s how we book a holiday as a family, and why we always do it in the same order. Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend.
Quick answer: Book your accommodation first, ideally with free cancellation while you finalise flights. Choose the base for where you’ll spend your days, filter for what your group needs and read recent reviews. Then book only the activities that sell out or matter most, and leave room for the rest once you’re there.
We like to know exactly where we’ll be staying before we lock anything else in. It removes a lot of anxiety, saves time when you arrive and gives you a reliable base. That matters most when you’re travelling with children, or when a food allergy means you need to know what’s near you.
We learned this the hard way. Our early travels involved plenty of last minute “we’ll figure it out when we get there” planning (hello, inter-railing days), and it taught us that certainty is worth the effort. Turning up tired in a new city with nowhere to sleep is not a good start to anyone’s holiday.
Booking early doesn’t have to mean committing early. Many bookings now offer free cancellation, so you can secure a place you like while you finalise flights, and change your mind if something better comes up.
Start with the location rather than the property. Work out where you’ll spend most of your days, then look for a base near that, with easy transport and a supermarket close by. A beautiful hotel an hour from everything costs you time every single day.
Then match the type of accommodation to the trip.
We compare places on Booking.com and Airbnb. With Tom’s severe nut allergy, the filters matter more to us than the photos. We filter for a fridge and a kitchenette, so we can prepare at least some of our own food, and read the reviews for anything about breakfast and the kitchen. If we have a question, we message the host or hotel before we book, not after. Our guide to where to stay with a nut allergy has the full list of questions we ask.
A couple of other things we always check are the cancellation terms and the total price with every fee included, because the nightly rate isn’t always what you end up paying.
Activities come second, and they should support your holiday style rather than overwhelm it. A balanced itinerary mixes a few experiences you’ve really set your heart on with breathing room to adapt as you go. Some of our best days were the ones we didn’t plan.
Before we book anything, we read reviews on Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, Google or GetYourGuide. The best insight always comes from people who’ve already done the thing you’re considering. These are the things we look for.
Book ahead for anything that sells out, like timed entry to popular sights and small group tours in peak season. Leave the rest until you’re there and can see what the weather and everyone’s energy are doing. If you’re still deciding what kind of experiences to build your trip around, our holiday experiences guides are the place to start.
We book in roughly the same order for every trip. It stops the expensive and hard-to-change parts from being squeezed by the things that could have waited.
Once the bookings are in, we turn them into a day by day plan, so we can see whether any day is too full. Our guide to building a trip itinerary shows how we do that.
These guides go into more detail on choosing where to stay, and on the tours and experiences we’ve written up so you can decide whether they’re worth booking.
Tom compares hotels, hostels, motels and apartments from an allergy point of view, with the questions to ask before you book.
How to turn your bookings into a day by day plan that’s realistic, with time for rest and the unexpected.
How to redeem with Avios on BA, Iberia or Aer Lingus, the cabin and expiry rules, booking on release day, and how we used two to fly four of us to Dallas.
Book in a clear order. Fix your dates and transport, book accommodation with free cancellation, then book only the activities that sell out or matter most. Compare a few platforms, read recent reviews and check the total price with every fee included before you pay.
If your dates are fixed, book flights or reward seats as soon as the right ones appear, then accommodation straight after. If your dates are flexible, book accommodation with free cancellation first to secure somewhere you love, then build the flights around it.
Book ahead for anything that sells out, such as timed entry to popular sights, small group tours and anything in peak season. Leave everything else until you arrive, so you can choose around the weather and how everyone is feeling.
It depends on the trip. A package can be simpler and comes with financial protection if something goes wrong with the company. Booking independently gives you more choice and control, which suits road trips, self-catering and anyone with specific needs, such as a food allergy. Check what protection applies before you pay.
Read the most recent reviews, especially from people travelling like you, and check the group size, what's included and the cancellation policy. If a tour does something you can't easily do on your own, like getting you somewhere hard to reach or explaining what you're seeing, it's usually worth it.
Getting the base right does more for a holiday than almost any activity. Once we know where we're waking up each morning, everything else falls into place, and the trip starts to feel like ours.
Book the bed first, then the few things you'd hate to miss, and leave the rest of the days loose. When the bookings are done, move on to Stage 7 of the Roadmap and pack with intention rather than panic.
Happy booking, and enjoy the anticipation.