I know I have talked a lot about my own travel experiences but I have never really given any tips on how someone with Autism should travel.
There are so many things you need to do, before you start your journey. To be honest with you I was a bit overwhelmed at times, but I found different things to help me get through the each leg of my trip.
Planning
This is a big thing. You can’t just go on a trip and expect everything will work out for the best. You need to be prepared for anything.
A lot of people like to shoot from the hip when traveling. What I mean is have no schedule and just go with the flow. This is good only to a certain point. It is good to have itinerary. This way you know what you want to do and you are giving yourself a routine. When I travel I like to have some what of a itinerary so I know what I am going to do day to day. Another thing this presents is boredom.
Packing
This can be a nightmare for anyone, not just those of us who are on the spectrum. Everyone has their own way of packing for a trip. What I can advise is look on YouTube for what is the best way for packing for a trip. That is what I did because I have so much I wanted to make sure I got the maximized space.
One of the best ways to pack, I learned from a video on YouTube is to roll my stuff up which gave me a lot of space.
This is so important. Once you know your weather situation. You need to pack to how the weather will be. But like the motto says, expect the worst and be surprised. Say the pack for a week of sun because it’s supposed to be in the 70s to 80s that week. It still doesn’t mean not to pack a pair of pants and long sleeve just in case. A good story with this is, when I was in school it was warm just about all the time, but I always wore pants just in case. It was a good thing, there were days were it rained or got cold in the night or it rained all day.
Here are a few tips when packing for a trip
- Make sure you have enough for the time your gone
- Make sure you have room for souvenirs
- Make enough underwear and socks
- Always Make a rain jacket, you never know when the weather will change
- Don’t over pack, just pack for the time your gone
- Only pack things you know, you will need. other words don’t bring anything you don’t need or cant afford to lose.
Expect the unexpected
This is for any where you go. One little thing could either ruin your trip. A good example is rain. Rain can either ruin your vacation to point of getting cabin fever or you can make the best of things. This way it’s important to know what the weather will be like for time you will be at your destination. A good motto for traveling is ““Expect the best, plan for the worst and prepare to be surprised.” What this means, expect to have a awesome vacation but expect something will go wrong but don’t be surprised it it doesn’t.
Your issues
I have talked about this a lot. But if you know your bodies signs, you can keep yourself from having meltdown. So if you are starting to feel overwhelmed or agitated or exhausted, take that as a note that yourself that you need to collect yourself and to the point where you feel in control again. I have done this a number of times traveling. There were times I felt overwhelmed, and I took a step back got control of my senses around me and went on with what I was doing.
Getting there
This is a troubling one. There are so many issues when it comes to flying. My best advice is if you cant handle a flight than take a train. By taking a train, not only can you relax and let the driving to someone else… Sit by the window and enjoy the scenery and just relax.
Take you Kindle with you or a good book and enjoy the journey. Also make sure you have Uber or Lyft on your phone so you can get a ride to the hotel where you are staying.
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