Ideal Vacation for Auties/Aspies?

[Bronzelincolns]

It will evolve you getting to know what will work for you or for the person you know who is on the spectrum...

Which is why it's called a "spectrum". Everyone is going to be different

I don't have the sensory issues and would enjoy going to cedar point and riding the rides, but I just don’t like being around people other than someone I really really click with. A good vacation for me is being at home gaming and not having to worry about work the next day.

 

[SusanLR]

I've been to Orlando Disney World several times.
It is exhausting and very expensive, crowded, loud and only decent weather in the Florida winter.
But, I will say I am glad I had the experience.
What I truly enjoy though is a quiet place by a lake in the woods.
Not having to deal with timelines and people.

 

[Bella Pines]

Oddly enough, I absolutely love theme parks, the colours the shapes. I fully intend to take my boys to Disney land. I've been to Disneyland Paris and there was a fabulous restaurant in the pirates of the Carribbean ride that I could just live in.

What I can't take is the crowds. At all, I can't be near people on a queue, I can't stand the thrum of a busy restaurant and I can't walk on a busy path, instant meltdown. So I go to extraordinary lengths to sneak the kids out during term time and avoid weekends. Not sure how I'm going to manage that at Disney though.

My personal dream would also be log cabin, or a beach hut in the Maldives, the only hut on the entire island. Or the moon, that sounds nice and quiet...

 

[Autistamatic]

Years ago I went to Alton Towers with an ex. It's one of the best known and biggest UK theme parks with some great rides. Not on a Disneyesque scale but still pretty big and varied.
We got a special premium ticket which allowed us in to the park an hour or two before the main gates opened so we could go on everything without queues, there were less people around, less noise, less smells. It didn't get overwhelming until early afternoon when it started to get crowded and the queues unmanageable.
It was by far the best way to do it. I actually love the sensory rush of a good caoster ride,
. Mechanical noise and sound effects I can bear, but the crowds, the human noise of screaming and shouting, bodily smells etc. That's what does my head in.
If I ever go again I'll be getting one of those tickets again and leaving at lunchtime

 

[Pats]

I had to leave the circus because my daughter hated the clowns. As far as Disney - every year one of my daughter's cheerleading squad would win local and regionals and end up going to Disney to compete in Nationals. I can handle Disney better than most crowded, noisy, flashy places, but still if I had to look at one more Mickey Mouse I was going to scream. lol Vegas is a definite NO and any casino - it's the flashing lights and loud noises everywhere. Cruises never appealed to me.
For a child, places like Colonial Williamsburg or visiting a 'ghost town' in the west. I remember doing those things as a child and loved it - especially the ghost towns. My siblings and I always had to get a game of poker going and act out a saloon fight over cheating. lol
I don't know if it would have been helpful to have researched Disney - it's pretty much what you expect - crowded and noisy with a lot to try to take in.

 

[Pats]

Interesting. I've never been to Disney World in Florida. Just Disneyland in Anaheim, Ca.- many times.

Not really sure I'd want to, either. Multiple amusement parks in such close proximity, not to mention the crowds, traffic and humidity. Disneyland in Orlando on steroids? Though I haven't been back since they opened up the "California" theme park adjacent to Disneyland in Anaheim. Might indeed be a bit too much even for me.

I remember going to Disneyland in Ca. when we were kids on one of our trips west in the motor home and I enjoyed it. But, funny, what I remember most was walking back to the motorhome and walking into a sign and it was so loud even traffic stopped to see what had happened. lol

 

[Joshua the Writer]

That's quite a generalisation!
My wife and I like small towns with some history behind them, maybe a castle or some Roman ruins. Museums and art galleries are always enjoyable. Artisan or craft markets/shops selling odd knick knacks are nice. We're also suckers for old fashioned British seaside towns like Blackpool and Brighton, but enjoy them best in the mornings and evenings when they're less crowded.

I meant as in a cabin setting with fewer tourist spots. So, just straight-up going to the countryside for vacation. You don't even need to rent a cabin. You could just go camping.

 

[Mr Allen]

I've always liked Holidays in places like Camber Sands, Butlin's etc, the kind of place I call "Hi De Hi" Holiday Camps, with entertainment staff in coloured coats and organised events during the day and evening, and a big heated Pool to go swimming in.

But my NT Parents hate that kind of thing, they'd rather Holiday in a big Cottage in the middle of nowhere miles from the Beach, Arcades, the Pub etc, not good when the weather's rubbish, as it usually is at the time of year we go.

 

[OkRad]

Definitely do it! Turkey might be quite reasonable to do money wise these days. And if you are single, as an added benefit, Turkish women are one of the world's best kept secrets. Beautiful, intellectual, but well grounded.

View attachment 48641

@Tom You bad boy! You should not be posting my picture all over the internet!

 

[onlything]

Loud, crowded place? If there is a child on the spectrum, parents should really have thought about it and chose either less crowded time for their vacation, planned it accordingly with enough quiet breaks or decided to go to a different place. It's not exactly surprising that overload happens even if you're excited to go and see everything... Especially if you go for a few days. I rather enjoy roller coasters and similar in theme parks but one day in a crowded place or at most two in a smaller one and I'm done for days if not weeks. It's safer to plan shorter trips or trips with many resting moments so as not to exert yourself too much. After all, it's supposed to be fun.

 

[Progster]

It depends on the person - Disney theme park are really not my thing - I do enjoy some of the rides, but don't like the queues and the crowds and noise. Some people on the spectum really like Disney, though. Any parent planning a vacation with a child on the spectrum needs to take that child's individual needs into consideration, as well as the needs of any other children they may have.

Personally, I like places of natural beauty, national parks, walking, restaurants with interesting local foods, craft shops with interesting local produce to try, museums, plenty of things to see and do - and then a nice comfortable quiet room to retreat to and relax in when I get tired. I like things like flea markets, you often see some interesting things there. Also shops selling second hand records and CDs or books - I can spend hours in those. I like to make my own programme, I don't much like bus tours where you have to stick to their programme.

 

[Mr Allen]

It depends on the person - Disney theme park are really not my thing - I do enjoy some of the rides, but don't like the queues and the crowds and noise. Some people on the spectum really like Disney, though. Any parent planning a vacation with a child on the spectrum needs to take that child's individual needs into consideration, as well as the needs of any other children they may have.

Personally, I like places of natural beauty, national parks, walking, restaurants with interesting local foods, craft shops with interesting local produce to try, museums, plenty of things to see and do - and then a nice comfortable quiet room to retreat to and relax in when I get tired. I like things like flea markets, you often see some interesting things there. Also shops selling second hand records and CDs or books - I can spend hours in those. I like to make my own programme, I don't much like bus tours where you have to stick to their programme.

For me a Disney place would be a good photo opportunity, I'd take lots of photos and selfies stood with the characters, but would I go on the rides? Eh, I hate Rollercoasters and stuff, so probably not.

 

[Progster]

For me a Disney place would be a good photo opportunity, I'd take lots of photos and selfies stood with the characters, but would I go on the rides? Eh, I hate Rollercoasters and stuff, so probably not.

I would do the opposite... I never take selfies and am not interested in the characters. I'm not interested in Disney at all - these theme parks are hyped up, expensive kitsch IMO, it's just not my kind of thing at all.

 

[Autistamatic]

I like things like flea markets, you often see some interesting things there. Also shops selling second hand records and CDs or books - I can spend hours in those.

Ooooh me too And second hand bookshops too - I love the smell as well as the thousands of sometimes out of print books to potentially enjoy.

 

[tducey]

Camping in a trailer has always appealed to me.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Like Judge said, we're all different. I would not enjoy being in a rustic cabin in the middle of nowhere. "I'd get cabin fever" much too quickly. About once a year my mom and I take a car trip to a city where we stay at a hotel where we have separate rooms so I have privacy and can sleep in peace, and I spend most of my time shopping at the local toy stores and eating out with my mom. My mother used to rent a car that made it more comfortable to travel but she has a new car now that has plenty of luxuries. As for places far away like Disneyland in Florida, first you can't even get me on a plane. I was advised to take tranquilizers before the trip, but that just scared me even more. And throwing up feels horrible enough you're on the ground, I never want to find out how bad it is when you're trapped about ten thousand feet in the air.

 

[Alis1998]

I think a place where you can just relax and have some privacy. But personally, a campsite for me is rather, "boring".
In my vacation I actually want to do things I normally am insecure of doing so. Maybe because it is a diffrent enviroment that makes me feel way more comfterable with it. Personally if someone took me to disneyland, I would love it more then anything. (I actually preffer the efteling but most of you guys probably don't know that attractionpark in consideration it is based in the netherlands. I think it is also older and it only has one location. It is still compareable.) But that is perhaps because I can feel the diffrence between how I am effected in my sensory and information process. For example with that is when I have to go shopping, I personally hate that. People bump into you, diffrent kind of smells that I mostly am grossed out by and the dissappointment of not finding something I like. But like I said with an attractionpark it doesn't make me feel that way. It makes me more have an outer body experience with enjoyment. I love the smells, music, feeling adrenline, seeing diffrent lights and ectra. Ofcourse this doesn't imply to everybody. But I think, if you are autistic or you have an autistic child to write down things that are enjoyable and tricky. I suggest the place where you can stay at to be calm, have privacy. But if you are like me, to combine it with "fun" activity's. Everybody has their own definition of fun. I am personally not intrested in fishing and walking around in a forest. I would like to have a campfire in the evening maybe with a bag with marshmellows which I can roast while I I get calm of my chaotic daily activity. I like chaotic things, it makes me feel "alive" rather then overwelmed. Maybe because I have the tendecy of getting bored easily.

 

[Mr Allen]

A long time ago I went camping in France, and it rained all week apart from the Friday when we were coming home.

Put me off camping for life that.