OUR FOUNDER
I've spent more than two decades figuring out how to see the world with life-threatening food allergies along for the ride. Along the way, I built a career around research, asking questions, and finding answers. SAFE Allergy Travel grew from both.
Michelle Michael-Friedel — founder, allergy parent, and career journalist.
I've been the mom at the restaurant table asking the same question three different ways, watching the kitchen door, knowing exactly how far we are from the nearest hospital.
My son was born in Germany and diagnosed with six life-threatening food allergies before he turned one. From then on, going somewhere new meant doing the homework first. For twenty-one years, I've researched, questioned, cross-checked and packed for the worst while hoping for the best, because when it's your child, you learn very quickly that the details matter.
And strangely enough, that's what I've spent my career doing, too.
For twenty-five years, I've worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker, traveling to twenty-three countries across five continents. My job has always been to go somewhere unfamiliar, ask the questions others might not think to ask, figure out what's actually true, and come back with something people can rely on.
SAFE Allergy Travel is where those two parts of my life finally meet.
Food allergies may change the way we travel. They shouldn't decide whether we go.
Eventually, I realized I'd been approaching allergy travel the same way I'd approached my work for years: don't stop at the easy answer. Go to the source. Ask another question. Verify what you can.
Because "we accommodate food allergies" on a website only tells you so much.
I want to know what happens in the kitchen. What oil is in the fryer. How they handle cross-contact. Whether the person answering my questions really understands what I'm asking, and why it matters.
That's how SAFE Allergy Travel was born.
I do the kind of research I've spent years doing for my own travels, using the skills I've spent a career developing: digging deeper, asking questions and paying attention to the details that are easy to miss.
Because when you're traveling with life-threatening food allergies, the details aren't little things.
HOW I WORK
I contact restaurants myself and write down what they actually said — not what their menu implies. I research grocery stores, labeling rules, and food culture so you know what a package will tell you before you're standing in the aisle. I map hospitals and pharmacies before you need them.
And I review every project before accepting it. If I don't think I can add meaningful value to your trip, I'll tell you that before you pay me anything. That honesty is the whole product.
See how we can work togetherShare where you're going and what you're worried about. If it's a fit, you'll hear back with a plan — and if it isn't, you'll hear that too.
