Holidays, Travelling & Insurance
Holidays are a chance to unwind with your family, discover new things and forge memories in the sunshine – and they’re especially important when your child has complex needs. Sometimes it might feel like the holiday you’d really like to take isn’t possible, but with enough planning and a deep breath the world can still be there for you and your family to discover.
In our holiday zone you’ll find information on disabled facilities at holiday venues, help with paying for your holiday, autistic-friendly holidays, and pre-existing medical condition travel insurance. Whether you’re going to Cornwall or the Congo, we hope these links will help make your family travels and holiday time a lot more fun. Click on the buttons at the top of this page to find out about flying, taking the train and driving with autistic and disabled children, blue badges, free and low cost holidays, disability rail cards and wish making charities.
Financial help
If money is a worry, don’t panic – there are lots of low cost options available for families with disabled children, and there are grants that can help pay for holidays too. Plus, wish making charities may be able to give your child the holiday of their dreams.
Top tip: If you’re going abroad, get your child’s condition and emergency protocol translated before you go – you might need to communicate quickly and your Ukrainian might be a bit rusty when trying to find the right words for complex seizure at 2 in the morning. Also, make sure your holiday insurance covers your child’s medical needs. We recommend that you check out Kids Travel Cam, too. It has been created especially for children who like to travel, with ‘on-location' reports and blogs so kids can look at exciting places to go and cool things to do when they get there.
Austistic-friendly holidays
You’ll find more autistic-friendly holiday opportunities in our links, but here are two good examples:
The Thomas Centre
The Thomas Centre is an autistic-friendly holiday specialist. They have three bungalows and three houses, a swimming pool, play barn, outdoor play park, go-carts, an outside play area and four-acres of woodland.
Happy Kids Holidays
This has an ever-growing selection of properties, holiday cottages and gites throughout France. The owners of all the properties or gites they feature have at least a basic understanding of ASD, autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, and are committed to trying to ensure your family has the best, most relaxing holiday possible, in surroundings that are suitable to your needs, and in a non-judgemental and supportive atmosphere.
