Should I book the holiday?

[honeyrosesandwich]

We've never been abroad as a family and i'm dying to go. DS7 has autism and refuses to get on a plane or leave the UK for no good reason. Do I take the risk and book it anyway, and just assume he will be ok? I know he will enjoy it while we are there. We are going to france on the ferry later on this year also and he's warmed up the idea of that. But we'd love to go further afield.

Why don't you see how the France holiday works out and take it from there?

Can you do a cheap flight to eg Edinburgh or somewhere like that soon and see how it goes. Without the pressure of having spent £££s.

We were on a flight to Morocco last year and a couple with 2 teen duaghters were waiting at the bottom on the airplane steps. One of the daughters had a sunflower lanyard on. She was crying and very agitated. Our flight was delayed as the young girl refused to board and the staff had to retrieve their luggage and we left without them. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the ohter daughter as they were now all missing their holiday.
I would say that if you are not sure if your son will board, then I would leave it a few years before trying.
Can you travel by land, say to spain, instead? I know a family who go every year to spain by train and also another family to drive every year to northern italy

Try France first - see how it goes.

If well, try the shortest/cheapest plane ride in the UK and use it as a trial run.

I agree with others one step at a time. Focus on helping prepare him for this years trip rather than worrying ahead

OP if you google “practice flights for autism” it appears there are a number of airports where you can do a walk through with your child - Heathrow, Leeds, Carshalton, Belfast are coming up on google AI as places that offer this, although I don’t know how accurate this is.

You could consider Eurostar and high speed trains- easy enough for the Netherlands, most of France, large parts of Germany.

Though like others I would see how the ferry trip goes first.

You could go on a day trip to Ireland (or depending which airports you're near you might have other options) for not very much (as little as £30 each) to experience airports and flying with no pressure if he can't do it.

No, don't do it.
It'll potentially distress him and that's not fair on him.
You're going to France on the ferry and a lot of Europe is accessible via train or ferry, look into that.

Our elderly neighbours have a villa in Spain, they regularly drive there.

I’d see how you get on in france, but there are lots of places you could drive to - airports are hell on earth for NT people, let alone ND kids!

You must not try this when you already know he has a fear of flying!!!

Invest in a flying without fear course. I can personally recommend the Virgin as it works for children.