Why Is Traveling Difficult as a Neurodivergent Person? A Clinical Psychology Podcast Episode.

I simply cannot put this psychology podcast episode off anymore. On the day that this podcast episode goes out I will be returning from a wonderful long weekend away with my parents and my godmother to a little country escape in England. It will be a great weekend because the destination sounds good, we’ll be doing a lot of things and I enjoy spending time with my family. Yet this doesn’t hide the fact that I am nervous, anxious and in the days leading up to the holiday, I am a little dysregulated because of my autism and signs of ADHD. I am really nervous about the break away from my routines, if there will be enough stimulation for me in the evenings and even though the holiday is only for four days, it is still a massive change for me. Autistic people don’t always do well with change. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, we’re going to be exploring why travel is difficult for neurodivergent people, what some of the challenges are and most importantly, how can we support people with neurodivergence to thrive during traveling. I’ll also discuss implications for aspiring and qualified clinical psychologists. If you enjoy learning about ADHD, autism and real-world problems, then this will be a great episode for you.

Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Gamification of Autism: A Guide to Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Mental Health. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

Why is Traveling Difficult as a Neurodivergent Person?

To kick off this psychology podcast episode, I want to briefly remind us what exactly some neurodivergent conditions are, then I’ll explain how these conditions can negatively impact someone’s experience of travel. Yet first, I want to mention that just because someone has autism, ADHD or another condition, it doesn’t mean that they hate traveling. Traveling and going on holiday as well as seeing the world can be great fun, beautiful and it can be an eye-opening experience. However, neurodivergent people can experience difficulties that neurotypical people do not.

As a result, autism is a developmental disorder that affects information processing so people with autism have difficulties with communication and social skills. As well as autistic people have restrictive interests, engage in repetitive behaviours and they experience sensitivity or distress from sensory stimulation. For instance, bright lights and sounds. Then there is the additional symptom that autistic people love structure, routine and they don’t like change. Therefore, autism can make traveling more challenging for someone because traveling involves a large break away from their regular routines that help to keep them regulated. Airports, train stations and other places involved in traveling are often noisy, loud and very busy with a lot of pushing and shuffling, this all increases the sensory overwhelm that autistic people experience.

Personally, there have been numerous times in my young life when my autism was more severe when I had wanted to scream, self-harm or just cry because traveling was just too much for me. This was even worse in 2024, because I had the sensory overwhelm and the associated distress because of my autism, but then I also had the extreme distress of the PTSD because of my rape. Traveling was a lot for me and it really did harm my mental health.

In addition, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurobehavioural disorder that’s characterised by hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattentiveness and distractibility. This means that people with ADHD can struggle to concentrate on tasks, they might daydream frequently and they might struggle to stay organised, manage their time as well as keep track of their belongings. Also, people with ADHD like to fidget.

As a result, ADHD can make travel challenging because there is a lot to remember when you’re traveling. You need to manage your time effectively so you don’t miss trains, flights or layovers. You need to keep track of your passport, tickets, clothes and everything else that you need when you’re packing, when you’re at the hotel and so on. Sometimes this is difficult enough for neurotypical adults to manage so I hate to imagine how difficult it is for someone with ADHD.

Furthermore, as I spoke about in a previous podcast episode, Why Does ADHD Make it Difficult to get Started, a regular routine is a very important and effective strategy to help a person with ADHD to get started, to regulate and manage their condition. When you’re traveling this goes out the window so it can be harder for a person with ADHD to manage their symptoms.

Personally, something that I worry about when it comes to traveling with some signs of ADHD is that I need stimulation so badly. I really don’t want to get dysregulated and bored and fidgety, like I was on Christmas Day. Even though my family are amazing and supportive,  I don’t want them to kindly suggest that I go upstairs and do things on my laptop so I’m busy, I have my stimulation and I’m not pacing. Of course, this is a lot harder to do on holiday, especially in the evenings.

Normally, in the evenings, I go on my laptop, I do writing, business or anything else that needs doing. At the moment in my evenings, I’m promoting my UK Government petition to improve the lives and employment prospects of psychology students. Yet I cannot do that on holiday and that concerns me. I don’t want to spoil the holiday for my family if I get dysregulated and… I just get anxious about it.

Finally for this section, I’ve covered dyspraxia before on the podcast in-depth, but this impacts coordination, understanding sense of direction and a few other aspects that directly impacts travel. Truth be told, there is a joke in my family at the moment that because we’re going to Swanage that I shouldn’t drive because we should end up in Swansea in Wales (another country). This was because of my dyslexia and dyspraxia I thought Swansea and Swanage were the same exact place for the longest time.

Therefore, whilst this isn’t a concern on this holiday, having a diagnosis of dyspraxia and/ or dyslexia can be concerning and stressful for neurodivergent people. Since it can raise concerns about if they’ve understood the holiday information right, what if they misread the destination name, the booking information or they’ve made another massive mistake that might mess up the holiday. Then you get into concerns about what are the other people you’re going on holiday with going to think about you and so on.

It just adds to the immense stress of going on holiday.

Some other challenges of traveling as a neurodivergent person can include communication difficulties so neurodivergent travellers might struggle with social cues as well as communication. This can make interactions more difficult in new environments and more stressful. As well as navigating brand-new public transport systems can be immensely stressful because public transport systems often lack features designed to accommodate neurodivergent needs. This decreases the amount of accessible options available to neurodivergent travellers whilst increasing the stress they experience. As well as there are personal safety concerns because neurodivergent people can be fearful of harassment and other safety issues so they can become less confident and less willing to go traveling.

Why Does the Difficulty of Traveling as a Neurodivergent Person Matter to Clinical Psychologists?

The difficulty of traveling as a neurodivergent person matters to aspiring and qualified clinical psychologists, because as you can imagine, we will never know who’s going to come into our therapy room, our mental health service and we will never know what our work will entail. You might be asked by a local authority, national government or another public service to consult on making the transport system or another aspect of daily life more neurodivergent-friendly. This knowledge will be immensely useful to you, and you’ll be able to apply the information from this podcast episode directly to your clinical work.

Another benefit of knowing about this topic is you might have an autistic client who is making good progress in therapy, then they come to you and express their anxiety and distress about a holiday that their partner, family or loved one has booked for them in between now and your last session. They want your advice and guidance on how to cope with it because they know this trip is important to the loved one and they don’t want to disappoint. As a result, the content of this episode will help give you more awareness, understanding and empathy for the client in this normal-to-you situation.

Lastly for this section, an aspiring or qualified clinical psychologist might be supporting a neurotypical partner or parent in therapy and they explain that going on holiday would mean so much for them, but they don’t know how to make it less stressful for themselves, the family system and their autistic or ADHD partner or child. The knowledge in this episode might help you suggest a few ideas, explore different options and it will give you a starting point to help your client.

How to Make Traveling Easier as a Neurodivergent Person?

Thankfully, there are a range of tips and tricks that neurodivergent people can use to improve their travel experience, self-regulate and make the trip easier on themselves and others.

Ensure Neurodivergent Needs are Baked into the Planning of Travel

Firstly, ensure that your neurodivergent needs are met and involved in the planning phase of the travel. This ensures that the destination aligns with your sensory needs, your needs for stimulation and rest as well as your accessibility requirements. For instance, I don’t need any rest planned into my trip but I have had neurodivergent friends in the past who needed frequent rest breaks, so this should always be factored in.

In terms of destination, you might want to think about how the climate might impact you and your sensory needs, what the hotel and country is known for and more. For example, if you find hot weather, getting sweaty and humidity to be distressing because of your sensory needs, then a hot country might not be the best destination for you. Equally, if you have a sensitivity to bright lights, loud noises and more, then a hotel known for its clubbing isn’t a good idea.

Another useful tip when it comes to holiday planning is allow flexibility in timings and schedules. When I first read that tip I panicked a little because I flat out hate the idea of plans being changed, things not happening and people not sticking to the schedule. My autism hates that with an utter passion. Yet it’s important that you incorporate buffer time between your activities and these can be scheduled breaks that allow for decompression and self-regulation. As well as it can be a good idea to not overload your schedule so you don’t get overwhelmed, fatigued and you don’t experience autistic burnout.

This allows you to enjoy the wonderfully relaxing comfort of a structured routine but it still allows you to have some spontaneity.

A final tip for this first section is as part of your neurodivergent needs, it is perfectly okay for you to think about, bring and use items that soothe or stimulate you as required. Such as, a fidget toy, noise-cancelling headphones, preferred snacks and so on. As well as it can be a good idea to travel during off-peak hours or out of season to decrease some of the sensory overwhelm during travel.

Ultimately, I would always stress that your needs have to come first. You are the most important person to you so your needs always need to be respected, appreciated and accommodated for within reason. As a result, there is nothing wrong with saying to your friends, your family or your partner about your sensory needs and what you need to make it enjoyable for you. It is not right that everyone else gets to enjoy the holiday or traveling except you.

You matter.

Therefore, as aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, I firmly believe that this is something that we can support a client with during therapy or counselling. We can help the neurodivergent client to improve their self-advocacy skills, their self-confidence and their ability to manage resistance to their needs and boundaries. All of these are important life skills, but they are even more important when it comes to a distressing experience like travel.

Neurodivergent People can Create a Self-Regulation Toolkit for Traveling

This is a tip for neurodivergent people whilst traveling that I am starting to turn my own mind towards. I understand that my routines will be disrupted, I will not be able to do a lot of the normal activities that I use to keep me regulated and this is a cause for concern. Therefore, whilst by its very nature travel does disrupt our routines so this can be very destabilising for autistic people, there are ways around this. Something I learnt during my rape counselling and I talk more about this in my book Healing As a Survivor, you can create a list of all the activities that help you to self-regulate and self-soothe. You can also divide them into different categories like self-soothing activities when I’m out, at home, with friends or I only have a few minutes before I need to do something else.

Creating this list helps you to see all your self-regulation activities and you can pick a handful of them that you can take on holiday with you. For example, because it has been ages since I last went on holiday, and I haven’t been on holiday since my rape, I have no idea what self-regulation activities I can and cannot easily do whilst on holiday. Yet I have a rough idea.

I will still be in the UK and I never use my mobile data so even if the caravan doesn’t have free Wi-Fi, I will have internet access. This means I can still be incredibly sad and autistic and maintain some of my routines. For instance, on the Friday evening, I can go on the UK Government’s petition website and sign all the petitions published that day that I support and agree with. That’s one way of maintaining my daily routine. Also, I can listen to my music that self-soothes me from the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. As well as I can do a little bit of writing on my phone.

Finally, I can do some reading because I always have a bunch of books to read on my Google Books and Kobo account. When I combine reading with using my mobile data so I can use my free likes on my dating apps, then this helps me to bring a little more of my bedtime routine and structure on holiday with me. As well as I am seriously debating getting a Crunchyroll subscription in the next few days so I can watch anime when I’m on holiday. Thankfully, Crunchyroll allows for offline viewing.

On the whole, when you really think about it, there are a lot of self-soothing activities that you can bring on holiday with you. Whether these activities help you to self-regulate or just create a small sense of your structured routine from home, these activities can be immensely powerful and useful in helping to make travel easier for you.

As aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, this is something that you might want to do with neurodivergent clients in a therapy or counselling session. Me and my rape counsellor spent a good chunk of time coming up with different ideas for different categories and it was really helpful, useful and even nowadays (18 months later), I still come back to that useful session to help self-regulate.

What are Some ADHD-Specific Travel Tips?

As I mentioned earlier, people with ADHD can have additional struggles when it comes to travel because they can experience time-blindness, decision paralysis, impulsivity amongst other psychological or behavioural symptoms that can derail or negatively impact their travel plans. This is why it can be useful to use digital tools to organise your travel plans and set reminders. Some people with ADHD recommend Triplt or PackPoint. I have not used these online tools personally so these are not recommendations.

Other tips for people with ADHD can be to set reminders as well as alarms so you can remind yourself when you need to get going or start transitioning towards the next activity. Additionally, people with ADHD might benefit from allowing extra time whilst traveling to pack and they could ask their travel companion, their loved one or friend to help keep them accountable. 

A final specific tip for people with ADHD is to put essential items like chargers, comfort items and medication in a dedicated pouch that you always carry with you.

In terms of aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, it can be useful to remember to work to a client’s specific condition and challenges. Since whilst the vast, vast majority of this episode will apply to all neurodivergent conditions, some individual clients will benefit or not from different tips. For example, all the bits mentioned in this ADHD section wouldn’t be useful to me personally, but that’s because I have autism, not a diagnosable level of ADHD. Therefore, the practical application of this section is a helpful reminder that we always need to focus on the specific needs, strengths and challenges of the client instead of assuming just because they’re neurodivergent they “must” struggle with x, y and z.

Consider Checking Out Online Creators for Neurodivergent Travel Tips

Personally, there was a lot of toing and throwing about whether I added this section into this episode, because I am incredibly wary of suggesting content creators, so I will not recommend any. I have this sense of wariness because I am always concerned of bad actors in the online creator space where people claim to put out science-based insights that are heavily researched, supported by clinical practitioners and more. When in reality, they are just making stuff up, pushing their own beliefs or they’re pushing pseudo-science. This is why I always mention that I’m a clinical psychology graduate in the introduction of my podcast episodes so you know I have university-level qualifications in psychology and I always include a heavy reference section at the end of the blog posts. This helps you to know that the information I put out into the world is coming from a good source.

Other online creators aren’t so good when it comes to this verification.

Anyway, jumping off my little soapbox, content creators do play an important role in building a sense of shared life experience as well as community. Also, it is really good when someone shares their life experience with other people (and they label it as their own experience and not fact or a universal truth). Therefore, you could go online, social media or YouTube and research neurodivergent travel tips so you can get hacks, tips and tricks for navigating airports, emotional support strategies and more as a neurodivergent person.

This is helpful because it helps to normalise the difficulties that neurodivergent people experience when traveling.

Whilst there isn’t anything too applicable in this section for aspiring or qualified clinical psychologists, I think there are some applications in self-efficacy. Since one of the reasons why I am able to manage my own mental health and actually recover from my trauma in the first place is because I was able to research, understand concepts and I was able to adapt my own life to improve it. I did it for my rape, my anorexia and my insecure attachment styles. Yet I have observed that a lot of people don’t know how to research, improve their life on their own and this can create difficulties for clients, especially after formal therapy ends. Therefore, I don’t know how this would work in a practical sense, but it might be an idea to explore with a client and walk through with them how they could research a problem for themselves that they might encounter in the future.

This might be something that you do towards the end of therapy, because whilst you would have given the client a lot of techniques, tips and tricks to manage their mental health into the future. They might still be concerned about what if the techniques don’t work in a specific situation. This could be a good opportunity to increase their self-efficacy and explore how to research, find tips, resources and creators online to support them.

It’s just a thought.

Find Neurodivergent-Friendly Attractions and Travel Agencies

A final set of tips and tricks that can make travel easier for neurodivergent people is to look out for neurodivergent-friendly attractions and travel agencies. Since different attractions might actively work to support neurodivergent people, so a museum might have sensory-friendly hours, there might be hotels with low-stimulation environments as well as there might be nature trails with quiet zones. These neurodivergent-friendly attractions are becoming more popular.

On the other hand, there are travel agencies that specialise in travel for neurodivergent people by offering support staff, pre-trip consultations and tailored itineraries. These can all be immensely useful for neurodivergent people and families because it can help to alleviate any concerns, it can help provide that sense of structure and routine that neurodivergent people crave and it can get rid of a lot of the stress.

In terms of aspiring and clinical psychologists, whilst this particular tip doesn’t apply to our clinical work. This is the sort of work that we could be actively promoting, encouraging and getting involved with. For instance, it isn’t rare for clinical psychologists to be getting involved in advocacy or consultation work, so a clinical psychologist gets to support a company or travel agency to create more neurodivergent-friendly products. As well as a clinical psychologist could consult on a business project to make a hotel or a new resort neurodivergent-friendly. This would actually be a lot of fun and it just goes to show you the power of psychology.

Clinical Psychology Conclusion

This psychology podcast episode firmly reminds me why I flat out love The Psychology World Podcast. I have been nervous, anxious and a little unsure of this week because I go on holiday for four days on Friday. I know I will enjoy it because I’ll be with my family, I get to experience new things and I get to explore and get new story ideas. Yet I am anxious about the disruptions to my routines, the questionable lack of stimulation in the evenings and so on.

However, this podcast episode has given us a lot of different tips and ideas about how to make travel easier for neurodivergent individuals. For example, as I’m still in the UK and I have a lot of mobile data (because I never use it) I can do my nightly Duolingo, signing online petitions, reading, writing and using my dating apps to bring some of that routine and structure from home on holiday with me. Therefore, whether you’re a parent, a loved one, a clinical psychologist or a neurodivergent person yourself, I hope you’ve learnt just as much as I have.

As a little reminder, here are some tips to help a neurodivergent person whilst traveling:

·       Advocate for your neurodivergent needs in the planning stage

·       Create a self-regulation toolkit that you can take on holiday

·       For people with ADHD, set alarms for transitions and schedule extra time for packing

·       Check out online creators sharing neurodivergent travel tips (check they know what they’re talking about though)

·       Find neurodivergent-friendly attractions and travel agencies

I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode.

If you want to learn more, please check out:

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Have a great day.

Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading

Barclay, D. M. (2022). Traveling different: Vacation strategies for parents of the anxious, the inflexible, and the neurodiverse. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Castro, R. T. D., Batista, M. M., & Andrada, M. E. S. (2025). Airport accessibility for neurodivergent passengers: a global survey of initiatives and its implications. Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa em Turismo, 19, e-3077.

Edwards, D., Csontos, J., Gillen, E., Wharf, T., Purcell, C., Ingram, B. J., ... & Lewis, R. (2026). The impact of changes in active travel infrastructure on disabled people: A rapid review.

https://blog.oncallinternational.com/supporting-neurodivergent-travelers-challenges-strategies-and-support/

https://satgurutravel.com/neurodivergent-travel-guide/

https://www.motabilityfoundation.org.uk/media/t5yowvej/autistica-transport-report-2025-final.pdf

https://www.travel-owl.com/post/neurodivergent-travel-planning

https://www.walkwheelcycletrust.org.uk/our-blog/research/neurodivergence-and-active-travel-addressing-the-barriers/

Jepson, A., Stadler, R., & Garrod, B. (2024). Tourism and neurodiversity: A problematisation and research agenda. Current Issues in Tourism, 27(4), 546-566.

Leger, S. (2025). Mindful Streets: Examining the politics and practices of everyday mobility negotiated by those who are neurodivergent and the potential for more inclusive (and just) street design for ‘all’.

Sebastian, R., Kottekkadan, N. N., Thomas, T. K., & KK, M. N. (2026). Travelling for the ‘gifted’: neuro-inclusive family holidays. In Handbook on Children and Family Tourism (pp. 239-252). Edward Elgar Publishing.

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