Autism/SEND friendly/accepting European destinations

[HamBagelNoCheese]

Hiya,

We've gradually been building our 5 year old (autistic/ADHD) up in terms of holidays and starting to think about looking at Europe now, ideally 2 hour plane radius, up to 3 at a push. Eurostar/le tunnel and a drive is also a up for consideration (driving would make things much easier in terms of safe foods etc!).

Any recommendations for destinations? Happy to consider anything, he enjoys a city break but his happy place is the beach 💙

You might want to repost this in SEN section - may get some more comments,

People often bash the U.K. for holidays and inclusitivity, but our experience has been it is miles ahead of Europe. Everything from service, buildings and just people’s attitudes is just miles behind the U.K. (think holding a door open for someone in a wheelchair). The only country we found comparable (and at times better) was the USA (although child found flight hard).

If you want to go abroad to Europe I would recommend you do a package holiday with someone like TUI. They are always brilliant in terms of airport assistance and ensuring you get a room in a quiet area.

Duinrell in Holland. Easy drive and very family/SEN friendly.

Our DS liked the TUI Splashworld / Holiday Villages which are AI and normally include a beach though check - splashworld is waterparks. He loved the AI food, have a kids section of pretty plain food all separated you help self too and can eat in same place at same time if you want. He loved the bingo as he loved numbers and there were songs which got repeated he liked. Loved swimming and waterparks and beach.

France we found quite intolerant in places though touristy areas are better. Italy was super friendly. Scandinavia also worked well - Finland to see brown bears at Arola Bears and beach which was empty. Generally places with children are easier. TUI ones can be noisy in places but they are very relaxed re expectations. Mine loved planes so that part was easy. I found it best to theme round their interests his was wildlife.

I'm originally from Lisbon, so perhaps biased, but when we finally took DD (ASD and non-verbal) for a visit I was so surprised.

I won't say most people fully understand SEN, but everyone was incredibly kind, especially random older strangers.

At times, the vernacular wasn't particularly politically correct, but everyone wanted to mother her and make sure she was comfortable.

Any of the Tui Blue resorts are lovely, and if you go outside of term time they’ll be much quieter. We went to Tui Blue in Ibiza last year with Ds aged 11 who has fairly severe autism and had a great time; the Tui staff are all very autism aware and made sure Ds was well catered for. Tui Magic life resorts are larger and more lively than the Blue ones - we’ve been to Magic Life Ibiza as well and found that was good in some ways but much louder etc generally. The reason I’m recommending Tui is that they’re very good in terms of special assistance- if you book it when you book the holiday they’ll make sure you’re all sitting together on flights for no extra cost, they’ll give you extra luggage allowance for extra clothes for sensory reasons/ medications etc / nappies if you need them, and if you have a blue badge as we do they’ll even give you private transfers to and from the resort so you don’t have to go on the busy coaches with everyone else.

We do UK breaks a few times a year, although this is our first year being tied to school holidays so not looking forward to that 😬

We've done a lot of Cornwall and Wales, lots of day trips around Devon and Dorset as thats our neck of the woods, and are going to try a couple of weeks in Scotland at the end of August/beginning of September when things are hopefully a little quieter with local schools having gone back.

To be honest it's just about giving him experiences. Neither of us really went on holidays as kids - I want him to see and experience things that we never had the opportunity to. I'm most excited about taking him camping, he will be in his absolute element.

As a mum of an autistic/ADHD child I would say think about the following before deciding where to go:

Weather - Does the heat bother your child a lot? DS can only cope with a maximum temperature of about 25 as he says he boils alive otherwise. Last time we went to Spain in August it was 43 this time we are going in mid October as it's much cooler but nice enough to play at the beach etc.

Food- What are safe foods? Is it certain brands, textures etc? How easily available will this be outside main resorts.

Sensory issues around noisy and busy places - All inclusive hotels can be so busy with families often in a hotel room together. Will your DC be ok with this or would they be better in a self catering apartment? This is a big issue for my DC so we have to book 3 bedroom self catering lodges (we have 2 other kids). Also think about how the smells of food might affect your child in an all inclusive environment if they have smell sensory issues.

Flight time - Reus is 2 hours 40 mins flight time from the UK and 15 minutes transfer time to salou. It's also a quieter airport.

TUI and Jet 2 are very good airlines with regards to special assistance. Some airlines are better than others.

We booked salou this year but a euro camp so we can self catering and ds can have his own room.

This is the kind of info I'm here for!

Do you book online or through a travel agent? The few times we've been abroad (pre parenting!) I've just booked everything myself, but life was much simpler back then 🙃

Sorry posted to soon. We book everything separately flights always with airlines that are very accomodating for special assistance, accommodation to get exactly what we want, transports to ensure we get private ones. I also book airport parking right at the airport as DC doesn't do well with transitions. I hope some of this helps.

I booked online and then messaged them directly through their Facebook page to ask about special assistance. Lots of people kept telling me I could have done things much cheaper by doing it all independently/ separate flights etc but for us I wanted the benefit of having someone in charge of it all that I could contact (I have complex health needs as well so we’re a right bunch 🤣) and I found it very easy to do it all that way. When we got to the airport we had sunflower lanyards and the staff at Gatwick let us board first and we were able to wait in a separate area (Ds really hates being around lots of people).

Plan ahead for anything you might need while there - eg I contacted the hotel we stayed in before we went to request that they made chicken nuggets available (I'd read reviews saying they weren't on the buffet and it's all my child will eat). I also requested a fridge and microwave for storing and heating milk. They were fantastic. This was Lanzarpte by the way - I found it was a longer flight but much shorter transfers than eg Majorca which worked better for us.

Second the booking special assistance when you book your holiday too. Jet2 were fantastic especially on the return journey - the rep spotted our sunflower lanyards and literally sprinted over the second we stepped off the coach 😂

Just wanted to add we’re looking at Menorca for next year as the beaches are quite safe and quiet - obviously depends which bit you go to, and the transfer times are fairly short. A lot of the transfer times in Majorca, Turkey, Greece etc can be quite long which can be a challenge after an already long day of travelling.

I took my 12 year old DS with asd to Ibiza last year, first holiday abroad for him. We went self catering as he is a very fussy eater, all inclusive definitely wouldn't work for us due to the possibility of him not eating anything/long queues for dinner etc. He was actually pretty good, just a bit of a nightmare on the flight home as it was delayed but definitely learned things to make the next experience better. Agree with the suggestions of TUI Blue resorts but they would be too busy for us. A lot of travel agents suggested Menorca to us as apparently it's a bit quieter than some of the other Spanish islands and mainland resorts, it didn't appeal to me as think it might be better for younger kids. Might be worth looking at. We need somewhere with a McDonald's as sometimes that's all he eats! Salou and the surrounding resorts might be a good bet aswell, very family friendly and a lot of mums I know with kids with asd go there, I really fancied Cambrils but the accommodation I liked was way over my budget.

We've generally always had an apartment when AI with a separate bedroom rather than a hotel room but you can see on TUI website exactly what accommodation is. Ours also does not like over 25C but is fine on water based holidays where he can be going down waterslides and in the pool. Never had an issues with any queues at AI but read reviews to see. They've always had food quite similar to UK school dinners all separated and our DS would eat those and no issue with the food and it was the same 100 or so things for kids each night so he knew what would be there. They can also choose from adults section which will often have round the world dishes.

The TUI website includes transfer time and method - default is often a minibus or coach but you can select private taxi or none and organise your own. Packages are good if there's an issue - its their responsibility to sort the issue so if flight delayed as we had once accomodation was moved and flight back moved free of charge with our agreement. We also did apartments in hotels which work well for space and still having hotel facilities.

I think the food thing is so individual. Ds really hated the whole buffet all inclusive thing, whereas my friends son with autism loves it. For my Ds it’s too loud, generally too many people, even if they sit you in a quiet area a lot of those sorts of places can feel like a school dining hall (even in Ibiza 4-5 star resorts). We ended up spending quite a lot eating out because Ds enjoyed the whole thing of trying different restaurants etc. But we still liked the all inclusive stuff for endless drinks / ice creams etc, and buffet breakfasts were good.

Ours loved Lapland at Christmas at that age but its pricey. We went back in the summer which he also loved but talked of when it was boiling in Finland. 😂

We have travelled for years with autistic dd. Hols that work best for us are often self catering villas, we get space to relax, it's quiet and we can manage sensory input, she can splash as much as she likes in the pool etc. We have tried all Inc resorts etc but she just found them too overwhelming. We find the canaries and spain good for her safe food shopping. And get a lanyard for the airport... its a god send!

I think food is probably my biggest concern tbh. He will happily eat a variety of fruit, may be able to convince him to try different brand yoghurts if we hype them up as "special holiday yoghurts". He will eat toast, ham, bread, plain pasta with cheese (but specifically only penne!) so i dont think he'd starve. He wont even entertain the idea of chicken nuggets. Maybe I'll just smuggle a box of shreddies and a few packs of pom bears in a suitcase

Yes I think it varies with the child - my DS can get stressed with different hotels or restaurants and always asks for AI and if its not available asks what every meal will be, what time and the exact contents and if the hotel will be identical to one he's been to before. He's fine once we are there though we have had issues with restaurants in France not being very tolerant and expecting children to be silent. Plus a veggie DD and asd meat eating DS made finding one they both liked difficult. At the TUI ones they can be busy but there's always plenty of over excited kids so your kid can look angelic by comparison.

I'd start with the overnight ferry to France and drive to the Vendee, lots of sites to choose from, can take foods as back up. For a plane holiday I'd opt for Spain as it's easy to get familiar foods and it's very child friendly.

My dd is autistic and we always travelled but she didn't know any different, it was fine, we never had food issues as her diet was a lot of bread and milk

Mine started eating chicken nuggets at 10 after years of refusing. 😂

I think it’s quite funny some of the things that just happen / work on holiday.

We found a little corner shop that sold peanut butter maize puffs - a bit like wotsits- and Ds became totally obsessed with them. We just went with it and he was literally eating them for breakfast every day. 😳🤣 He still talks about them now!

We also bizarrely discovered he likes raw broccoli at an AI where they had it and he took an entire plate of it, that was in Costa Rica though. He has to have food not touching normally so loves a buffet. And he eats pasta plain and they always have that.

If you are looking at considering airlines British Airways have a top notch assistance option for Autism/ Non Visible disabilities. The staff were caring and compassionate and in my experience well educated on conditions.

www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/disability-assistance/assistance-available

I added conditions under the passenger details and these came up at check in. We went through the fast track security and boarded first. We also got great assistance options on our return journey from a non BA hub.

More and more of the worlds airports also recognise the sun flower lanyards and staff will look for those and ask if you require assistance.

I hope that helps, enjoy your holiday.