AS and holidays abroad

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I have AS and I hate going on holidays abroad. I hate airports. I have a fear of flying, and I also have claustrophobia and hypersensitive senses so plane journeys are harrowing for me, especially when my dad doesn't care if I have claustrophobia and puts me in a seat between two other people, and then he falls asleep for the whole journey, leaving me with severe anxiety for the whole flight. I dislike being in another country for more than 2-3 days. I don't like hot countries and I don't care at all about the history of the place or the culture. I dislike tours of places. I get extremely homesick and exhaustion is a big problem for me on holiday. Also I have digestive problems so eating too much in restaurants makes me ill.

Thankfully I haven't been on a tourist holiday for many years (as I don't live with my mum anymore, who would give me holidays from hell - 8am to 8pm we'd be constantly touring somewhere or doing something and it was always hot countries for her, despite the fact that my meds give me heat exhaustion when I am in the heat - my face turned purple-grey once and she told me to stop being silly!). And thankfully I can find a way out of going to Cyprus with my dad to see my family (I like my family there but I hate holidays).

Is it common for people with AS to find holidays hard? Especially when there is no routine and too much stimulation.

Cyprus with my dad is more bearable (I went there last Christmas as my dad knows I can't take the heat) as my dad leaves me to my own devices and I just play games on my laptop and read all day, but the family gatherings for Christmas and New Year were HORRENDOUS and I ended up taking my night meds and another med that would make me sleep early so that I could find a bedroom and sleep through the whole thing.

What do you feel/think about holidays?

I do not like unstructured holidays. When I go someplace I research it to death, I know everything to expect, and that makes it ok. I am interested in history and stories of places so that does make traveling interesting to me. On airplanes I try to get a window seat so I do not feel as claustrophobic, and I have sound blocking headphones that I listen to that help with the engine noise I also avoid sitting right over the engine. I prefer to drive, that way I have more control, but that is not always possible if an ocean is involved.

I do not enjoy large family gatherings if I cannot escape and do my own thing to unwind from the severe stress that I get from interacting with other people in an unstructured social manner.

Opposite to you, I love the heat, but I cannot stand the cold (anything under 25 degrees Centigrade or 77 degrees Fahrenheit), so I love most of central and south America, but hated England (even in the summer). But it is hard when people do not understand that I am more sensitive to temperature than normal.

Unstructured holidays are awful. It is wise to research the place before you go.

I have noise-cancelling headphones but they weren't as efficient as I thought they should be last time I travelled on a plane. Next time I go on a plane I am taking my earplugs and my headphones.

I agree, unstructured partying and socialising is horrible. I can only go out with one other person at a time, socialising with more than one other person at a time is too much for me, let alone a whole gathering.

I think i could actually like a holiday if it consisted of my dad and I in a secluded place with nice places to walk and not too many people. And the holiday would have to last a maximum of six days.

I strongly dislike doing the typical thing on beaches: lying down in the sun and going into the sea. I can barely swim anyhow, and I am hypersensitive to water/getting wet/swimming costumes, so I dislike the sea bit. And as for lying in the sun sunbathing, it sounds awfully boring! And I would probably get heat exhaustion due to my meds. Last time I was forced by my (abusive) mum to stay on a beach for five hours, I took a textbook with me and sat in the shade as much as possible.

I would like to go to Paris though, as that involves going on the Eurostar. I love trains and intend to go to places in Europe for a couple of days, travelling entirely by train. Once I said to my dad that I wanted to go to Japan just to travel on the Bullet Train.

I love going on holiday, but I don't want to go too far, where I'll get jet-lagged. I tend to get ratty when I haven't had proper sleep, and I can't sleep on airoplanes properly with all people around me, and I can't sleep properly when I'm upright in a seat. I can only doze into very light sleeps which isn't proper sleep.

I wouldn't mind going somewhere where it takes less than 6-7 hours travelling by plane. I like airports, they make me feel excited, and I do like airoplanes if it's going to be a bearable journey, and I do like going abroad. I've only been abroad once and that was to Greece, which only took about 3 and a half hours on the airoplane so I could handle that.

I don't like planes.

I do like travel by boat and car travel is ok, but after 1 or 2 days of reaching a destination I start to get homesick.