Are coach tour holidays a nightmare for Aspies?

Page 1 of 1 [ 3 posts ] 

Joe90
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 26,492
Location: UK

21 Oct 2012, 4:51 pm

I don't like to admit this, because I've been on two coach tour holidays in the last couple of years and I have enjoyed the sight-seeing, but also they are very social too, and you kind of feel obliged to mix with the others that are with you on your coach. Despite the people who mostly go on coach tour holidays are old people, I still find it quite a struggle to mix. Although my mum is NT, she has shyness and social anxiety too so she finds coach tour holidays a constant obligation to have to mix. We both prefer to go on a holiday where we do our own thing, in solitude, which we are going to do next year.

Last spring I went to Cornwall, which was a coach tour holiday with excursions on most of the days, and I found myself feeling depressed and panicky every morning when I first woke up. I think the weather didn't help, because it was mostly cold and breezy, with low cloud. But getting on and off the coach all day was rather exhausting for me. The coach-driver didn't seem to ever acknowledge me, even though I made enough eye contact with him and smiled at him like the others were doing, and I think I embarrassed myself a few times in front of the other people on the coach with my strops (I am prone to having strops, in other words, ''aloof moods''). So I then got them thinking I'm a bit odd, I know I will never see them again after, but it was still embarrassing for me at the time. But I still can't help myself when I behave like this (although it's not bad enough to get people judging me badly, but it still made me feel bad about myself).

Anyway, back to the topic, yes I love visiting different places, but I do find coach tour holidays a bit hard otherwise. I liked the 1 day we didn't have any excursions on the coach, and we just caught the train in our own time and looked around towns where we wanted to look around, and walked along the beach, having no obligations to have to speak to anyone else. Admittedly, by the evenings I was a little more sociable and wanted to stay downstairs in the hotel and play games like bingo, but my mum and my aunt didn't want to so we didn't. But every morning I felt so nervous for some reason. How would going on a coach tour holiday feel for you?

Yes, I know there is the option of not making eye contact with others at all, but then that then makes me feel awkward and appear unfriendly.


_________________
Female


trappedinhell
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 May 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 625
Location: Scotland

21 Oct 2012, 6:37 pm

I love the idea of a coach trip to somewhere interesting. I love museums and art galleries. I also love that you, like me, don't have the money for expensive foreign holidays. If there was enough leg room and I didn't have to make small talk with strangers then a coach trip to somewhere interesting would be great! Maybe somewhere with caves or castles...

However... I find other holidays in general are stressful. it was great as a child, because there were no expectations. I'd just make sand towns on the beach or read comics. Bliss! But as an adult (or even a teen) you're expected to live up to others' expectations. On the last holiday (many years ago, before the divorce) I just wanted to read a book. But that was a terrible thing to others, because the family was by the pool and I was inside. So holidays were no fun. Also I hate plane journeys (I've had 3 IIRC). I'm 6 foot 6 and having my legs crushed is excruciatingly painful. Some planes have a few extra leg room seats, but these are usually booked by other (shorter) people first. And if I complain about that it makes me even less fun to be around, so I try to keep quiet... also I'd rather donate the money to charity. No, my experience of holidays is not good.


_________________
No longer trapped in hell. Well, not in the lower levels of hell. But I cannot change my username.


eric76
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,660
Location: In the heart of the dust bowl

22 Oct 2012, 8:52 am

I generally hate to travel.

If I go somewhere, I tend to want to stay long enough to make the trip there worthwhile.

For example, I've wanted to go to the TT races on the Isle of Man since I was a kid here in Texas. Unless I can free up enough time to spend at least three to six months there, I'm unlikely to ever go.