My husband and I are older parents of a teen girl G with autism. We love to travel as a family, creating trips that are both sensory-friendly and fun for our daughter G. Our posts are relevant to all families traveling with children, but we include a little bit more information to help parents anticipate and manage sensory challenges along the way.

We like to get away to someplace warmer than Boston in the winter, and have made many trips to Florida and over the years. Beach vacations are great, but the price for direct flights on vacation week can be punishing. A number of years ago, in a moment of serious sticker shock, I impulsively checked the price of a flight to Italy, and found we could buy tickets to Rome for less money than Fort Lauderdale. Ciao Italia!

When it comes to Europe, a lot of parents think they should wait until their kids are ready to “appreciate” it. For parents who are ready to appreciate Europe from a kid’s point of view, there’s no need to wait at all. We’ve found that the school vacation weeks are the perfect time to visit Europe. It’s not too hot, not too crowded, not as expensive as summer, and always a great adventure.

For most people, the easiest way to vacation in Europe is to sign up for an organized tour, pack a suitcase, and go. Unfortunately these tours don’t offer enough downtime or enough flexibility for children with neurodiverse conditions like autism, ADHD, or anxiety. We’ve come up with our own strategy to re-create these adventures in a more sensory friendly way.

For our family, we do best with a home base in a central location, and do day trips from there. Sometimes we stay in a single city, sometimes, if we have can get away for more than just a week, we’ll fly into one city, take a train to another, and fly home from there.

On a typical day, we visit one or two essential must-see tourist attractions in the most sensory friendly way possible, and add in at least one activity every day that will be of high interest to G. She’s into castles, anything made of gold, and is always on the lookout for things you just don’t see every day, so it’s pretty easy to keep her happy in Europe.

This post explains our basic plan for a one week vacation that has worked for our family in a number of different European cities.

Click here to see specific country or city posts about our family adventures in Europe.

Level 2 and Level 3 autism occur in most European countries at a similar rate as here in the US. Most experts think that Level 1 Autism and ADHD are also equally common, but not diagnosed as frequently due to different standards. Whenever I’ve needed to explain to a stranger that my child has autism, there has been immediate understanding and empathy for our situation.

There’s a growing trend in Europe for public places to become autism certified. Many museums and tourist attractions have sensory kits at the courtesy desk. The Sunflower Hidden Disabilities logo is almost universally recognized in transit settings.

Unless you have your heart set on a particular city or country, the best first place to visit is the city or country with a direct plane flight and good weather. In February, Italy and Spain have day time temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s. You’ll get those temperatures during April in England, Ireland, France or Germany.

Almost everyone in the main European tourist areas speaks good English. If you really don’t want to worry about foreign language, England is an easy place to start. Ireland is a short flight from the US and is the most autism friendly place we’ve visited. The afternoon siesta in Spain offers a guaranteed break from a busy day. In Germany, you never have to worry about a stranger trying to strike up a casual conversation with your child. In Italy, pizza and spaghetti are always on the menu. France has lots of parks with fountains that drown out street noise. All have excellent public transportation, great art, thousands of years worth of history, and world famous museums that cater to every possible quirky interest that your child might have.

We try to leave on the Wednesday night before the vacation, and return on the second Saturday. G is in a full year school that never schedules two consecutive weeks for vacation, so I don’t feel badly about missing a few days if it’s for an educational experience.

You don’t need a passport to book an international airline ticket, but you will need to have one before you travel. Normal processing time is about three months, but if necessary, you can pay an extra fee for expedited service. Click here to start your passport application.

Children on the spectrum thrive on predictable, regular routines and struggle without them. When we’re traveling, we make sure our set up allows G to have her regular bedtime, her usual preferred snacks, and some space to herself when she needs it.

We love hotels, and G especially loves the fancy ones. If we’re going to be someplace for just a night or two, we book a hotel with breakfast and enjoy the experience.

For longer stays, a vacation apartment gives everyone in the family enough space to spread out and the flexibility to do their own thing. G’s need for downtime means that we spend a lot more time in our lodging than a typical family, so we try to make our apartment a great part of our overall experience.

In Europe, we look for a city center location, close to public transportation, that has some kind of outdoor space with a nice view. It could be a balcony or a courtyard, but it needs to be a spot where grown ups can enjoy a glass of wine and feel like we’re somewhere special.

We don’t spend much time cooking on vacations, but the kitchen needs to be adequate for making breakfast and heating up some take out food if we’re planning a quiet evening at home. Good sized refrigerators, freezers, ovens, and dishwashers are optional, not standard, appliances in many European tourist apartments.

A vacation apartment with laundry in the unit is the ultimate home run, especially if the machine is a washer-dryer combo where you put your dirty clothes in at night and wake up to clean and dry in the morning. It helps us travel light, and G gets to wear her favorite clothes every single day if she wants to.

Europe has both AirBNB and VRBO rentals. Aparthotels which are usually apartment buildings that have been converted to short term housing, can be found on travel sites like Expedia.com or Booking.com.

We follow the same routines every day in Europe that we follow at home on a school day.

We get up, eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, and pack for the day. G’s backpack gets essentials like pre-packaged snacks, a water bottle, noise cancelling headphones, a couple of fidget toys, and some wet wipes, leaving room for her jacket when the day warms up. Her iPhone, portable charger and money are separate in a small, theft resistant cross-body purse. We write a short list of 3-4 things we will do that day, and we’re ready to go.

Instead of going to school, we head out on our adventures. The day starts with a skip the line ticket and/or tour at a famous landmark or museum — the earlier the better to avoid waiting at the inevitable security screening point. Next, we hit nearby attractions that are easy to get in and out of without much waiting. Historic churches and are great stops - there’s always a safe, quiet place for G to sit and relax a bit while my husband and I take a quick look around at the art and architecture.

If we want to eat a special meal in a nice restaurant, lunch is the best time for our family to do that. G can sit still and behave herself longer in a restaurant at noon than in the evening. We also figure that if the worst happens, it’s better for G to disturb people who are out on business lunches (and looking for something to bond over) than to ruin someone’s date night. It hasn’t happened yet, but it could, and the possibility makes us a little anxious too.

After lunch, we usually choose a kid-oriented activity, then slowly make our way back home, stopping along the way to appreciate interesting buildings, statues, fountains and shops. We always find a quiet park on our route home where we can take a little break or a snack.

The final stop of the day is at a local market close to home to restock our supply of breakfast foods, treats and snacks. One of G’s market chores is to find a new food that she’s never had before but is willing to try. This usually happens in either the bakery or candy aisle, so G thinks it’s the best part of the adventure.

We try to get back home between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. Sometimes we eat dinner out, sometimes we don’t. If we have evening plans, we come back home a little earlier to recharge our sensory batteries.

If your destination has a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour - and it probably does — you’re in luck. We like to ride the HoHo Bus on our first day in a new city. It’s a good way to get the lay of the land, especially if we’re tired from the flight and don’t want to do a lot of walking. We get off at a few stops to take pictures, and save the major historical sites and museums for later.

For overall planning purposes, take a look at the HoHo map, and you’ll see the names and locations of the most iconic tourist sites in the city. Make a list of these, decide if you want a guided tour at any, and think about where you’ll need skip the line tickets.

We get our reserved entry tickets at the earliest morning time available for two reasons. First, we appreciate a shorter security line and fewer already people in the venue with us. Second, once our reservation is complete, we have total flexibility on timing for the rest of the day. For an absolute top tier attraction like the Eiffel Tower or Sistine Chapel, make your reservation as soon as possible after you book your trip. Regular museums can wait until a few days before you want to go.

Most cities have combined ticket passes that give you admission to various combinations of museums, historical sites, food tours, river cruises and more. In the planning stages, use this as a menu of what you might choose to do, and don’t get bogged down in which pass will be best or whether you even need one. Google up the name of your city with “tourist pass” and you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for.

Any day without an early morning skip the line reservation is an opportunity for a day tour to nearby cities, towns, castles and other worthwhile attractions. You can find lots of ideas on viator.com. If your family likes trains better than buses, every European capital has plenty of interesting cities to visit within a 60-90 minute train ride - perfect for families that like to explore on their own.

We keep track of all of our plans and reservations on the tripit.com app. It’s super easy to use - you just forward the confirmation emails to your tripit account and the app keeps everything organized for you.

People often ask how hard it is to plan this type of trip. Not really. The hardest part is finding the right apartment in the right location. Any trip can be a little bit better if you have an extra day and a little more time and a little more money. Focus on having a series of great days in a place you’re excited to be. If you leave something good on the table, you’ve given yourself a reason to come back.

Before booking a vacation in Europe, decide whether your child is to be able to tolerate an overnight airplane flight. If your child has never flown before, take a plane trip to an easy, low stress location like a beach or national park before you attempt European travel.

Your child needs to be able to stay overnight in an unfamiliar place. If all of your past travel has been to the same place, or to visit familiar family members, get some practice before you leave by staying at a local hotel for a night or two.

Your child needs the physical and mental stamina to spend at least a half day doing tourist-type activities. Any kid who can spend a day in Disneyworld can definitely handle a day in Europe.

The most important thing is for your child to be curious about the world and being able to take joy from learning something new.

At our local market in Rome, G found about six new shapes of pasta she’d never seen before. We bought and tried all of them. In Paris, it didn’t make a lot of sense that dozens of people would crowd around one small picture (the Mona Lisa) and not even look at bigger pictures in fancier frames, right in the same room. In Munich, people eating pretzels for breakfast was hilarious. Sleeping on an overnight train? Better than any ride at Disney. No toilets in the bathrooms at 500 year old castles? G has opinions about that too.

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