Travelling/holidays

Yes I have thank you .

Quite a few long weekends in the UK although so far not to Ireland.

Stourhead is indeed beautiful especially in the Autumn

Getting some of this albeit I have travelled and loved it.  I did a MFL degree so lived abroad for a couple of years.

I'd say, forget the stuff about the 'done thing', but if you genuinely feel you'd love to see a place, go!

The journey itself does always make me feel anxious - I have to turn up way ahead of schedule for boats, planes and trains and I hate them if they are crowded, and I do worry about leaving the house empty, but generally it's been worth pushing through.

Odd thing though, I have NEVER been to a country where I did not speak the language well enough to at least order a meal, ascertain train times, greet the receptionist and find the loo.  I think not speaking the language would put me off a great deal.  

Other odd thing, I've often gone on holiday alone.  Nice to have company, but I don't want to follow the crowd much.  I'm happy exploring on my own.  The nice thing about communicating in another language is that any little faux pas are just dismissed as the nice English lady trying, at least.  No one notices the autism, lol.

I love Italy, though and want to go back soon.  The Lake Como area is an ancestral homeland and I taught myself Italian in order to be able to go and research my tree :-)

Considering Ireland this year - more family history calls.

Have you been on holiday within the country Debbie? I went to a place called Stourhead where you get to go around the grounds of a lovely old estate, there's a shop present as well. Really is a beautiful location. That way it might not be too far for you to travel and it won't be as much hassle as getting to another country.

The continued train disruptions here in the U.K. are certainly of concern and living alone in the U.K. 20 years make me think twice about going home to Ireland on SailRail as often as I’d like, as both overnight Coach & Sail (which has become much more expensive) and air travel since Covid have become more unpredictable and less reliable - I’ve written to a few of the ferry and rail operators suggesting various improvements to the SailRail product offering for example

I dislike the hassle of flying and air travel as much as the hassle of non-direct trains from Manchester to Holyhead or not being able to get a direct train to Liverpool and jump on a ferry to Dublin (all the way from the Mersey up the Liffey at high tide) or into Dun Laoire for the DART trains into Dublin - once in Ireland, connecting with our country’s history and traditional Irish culture and heritage and of course, our Catholic faith and with my family in Rural Ireland - I’m watching developments with the high speed rail tunnel from Holyhead to Dublin and thier newer DART underground as alternatives to air travel so these look very promising 

ah coincidently i have been feeling a itch for a holiday, although i havent had one in.... maybe 10 plus years lol
it makes me feel it will make me feel less depressed but it probably wont unless i stay there without time limit and a job demanding me back after a time. life is better and less depressing when you can just feck off and not care about time constraints and take your time and do whatever. need to be a millionaire for that though as normal people have to get back to work.

i dont travel though but theres nothing within 1 single train distance of me worth going to.

Hey Debbie,

Thanks for those suggestions, I will ask if I can go to the castle and the nature reserve as they sound like my kind of thing.

Mweekie xx

I hope you enjoy your time in Arundel and that the journey there goes well.

It's a lovely old town with a castle with beautiful gardens, a Catholic cathedral, a lake, a bird nature reserve, a river and lots of vintage shops.

One of my favourite places.

I love going on holiday - as long as I am with my parents and my fiancée.

I've been to several places over the years, all over Europe such as France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Malta. I have also been to California, Boston and also to Montreal, Canada several times because my brother and his family live over there. 

I am happy when I go away with my parents as they know me well enough that even though they are there, they also make sure I have my own hotel room when I do stay in a hotel.

I'm definitely less sure about holidaying alone - I have done it once before to stay for a two week trip with my brother back in 2014. This only lasted 5 days though as I had a fight with my brother and was too nervous to go anywhere else apart from the Biodome (which is an extremely large indoor zoo) and my brother changed my tickets back. Now I don't go there unless my parents are with me and I have a hotel room so I can get my own space. This happened before I knew I was autistic and I'm sure I had burnout when I was there.

I'm not keen on going to the airport, taking off and landing in a plane (due to my anxiety), but since I found out about the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Icon, I found my last trip (in October 2022) a much easier experience.

I am going to be seeing my aunts on Friday and they live in Arudel (West Sussex) and I am going on my own by train - and I am really anxious about this trip as I am going to a station that I'm not familiar with (East Croyden) and then changing trains to get to Barnham, where my aunts are picking me up from. I am also nervous because even though I know I am staying with people I know, I'm not sure what exactly they have planned for me. I am going to message them tomorrow to find out the plan, because at least then I know what I am doing.

Sorry, I have kind of rambled on here lol, but hope this helps.

Mweekie xx

I'm not a holiday sort of a person. I prefer staying at home where it's safe lol.

This airport sounds totally horrific to me, even though it's meant to be the 'world's best'.

A nice quiet small airport like Southampton would suit me much better than the total sensory overload of this one:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65171824

I think I have finally found my perfect holiday, where I come home relaxed & feeling like I can cope with everything better. 

I go to the Netherlands by myself & stay in a little chalet. it's part of group & there are loads of pictures on their website so I can see where I will sleep & eat is like. I go by overnight ferry, so always have my own cabin as well, I try to wait a little bit once the car is on the ferry until I go to my cabin. 

I like my holidays like this I can completely relax & unmask, which I never manage to do at home. I can take as may of my home comforts as I like/ need/ can fit in the car. I don't have to stress about what to eat, as I can either take my own food or buy food there. In my planning phase, I will find the local supermarkets & see what food I can buy that is the same as here that I eat. 

I will spend days planning my holiday (I think this could be the best part of it) from google maps to see where I am staying & getting to know the local area, to looking at website for local shops to know what foods I can eat while away. 

Last year, I decided to go on a city break, I managed to have 2 meltdowns before I even made it to the hotel. I am so glad I to see Barcelona, I arrived back so much more stressed that when I went. 

Italy is certainly on my bucket list (not flying) and aside from the culture and the food (which I love) I’d love to go to Rome (Vatican) but also other religious sites in Italy, such as Saint Francis (Assisi - San Damino) Saint Anthony (Padua) Saint Rita (Cascia) and to explore the Italian countryside, including Umbria - getting the train from Manchester to London, Eurostar to Paris, high speed rail to Italy (Milan) and by rail through Italy 

I like the idea of going on holiday but its also very anxious to think about

I worry about the heat

Worry about large gatherings of people

Don't like the noise on holiday parks

Don't like different places

But I dolike holidays. I like the seaside and I love seeing seagulls and having ice cream

Since Covid, everything has utterly changed - in the 20 years before Covid, I was never one for big cities as I got older (this was a very gradual process) living in Manchester (and in my youth, craving to live in Dublin) I now prefer rural life, having grown up in Rural Ireland - I’d stopped flying in 2010 because of the hassles of airport security and especially of getting out of Dublin Airport that takes at least an hour, even outside of rush hour and via Dublin City Centre - this is why I love both overnight coach and sail and daytime/overnight SailRail both summer and winter, as you get to see the beautiful Rural Wales scenery and the wonderful Welsh people on the way to/from Holyhead - once on the ferry for the 3 hours 15 mins to Dublin in the middle of the Irish Sea, especially on a calm moonlight night, you get to see the timeless and romantic beauty, just as much as the wild and unpredictable nature of a rough crossing (that I’ve done loads of times) and reaching Dublin can be something of an anti-climax even though you are coming home, yet despite living here in the U.K. as long as I have, Ireland will always be my real home 

Hi there! It's great to hear about your experiences with travel. I love going abroad and experiencing new cultures, but I can understand the apprehensions you have mentioned.
I'd like to suggest a unique travel experience that may tickle your interest - a safari in Tanzania here at: https://altezza.travel/en/tanzania-safari. It's an adventure that combines the beauty of nature, exotic wildlife, and a chance to experience a different way of life.

I have only driven once abroad, on the coast road around Gran Canaria. We chose the anti-clockwise direction, which was a big mistake. On every hairpin bend (many of them), halfway up a cliff, we were on the outside, near the drop. Because the gearstick is on the wrong side, almost every time I needed to change gear I scrabbled at the door handle first. Nightmare!

We had our honeymoon in Italy. We had 4 days in Rome, then 10 days in Amalfi. We had scrimped on the wedding itself to invest more in the honeymoon. In Amalfi we stayed in the beautiful Hotel Luna Convento, which had been a 13th century Franciscan monastery. It still has the cloisters and a consecrated chapel. Ibsen, Wagner, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Gore Vidal and the late, retired, Pope had all stayed there. Mussolini had also stayed there, but it wasn't mentioned much. The food was really superb.

Living alone in the U.K. for 20 years at age 52 (later in life online diagnosis during Covid) all of my family are in the Republic of Ireland and while I’d happily travel on my own via overnight coach, SailRail or flying before Covid during my years in retailing and up to early October 2022, given my experience of being stranded for 2 days at Holyhead on my return from Dublin due to the train strike, unable to get back to Manchester, because travel has become so much more risky and unpredictable, I’d never again attempt to travel without a chaperone - having worked in a hotel for just over a year now, we have had so many flight disruptions during 2022 staying at our hotel which is another big warning about travel going forward 

I do like a good travelling holiday but the conditions have to be right. I will only go to quiet places. I pick days when the weather is at its worst and that does mean I'm left wet and cold but there is a great deal of less people so it works out for the best in the end. I left the country to France twice and visited a handful of well known places. In our country I have been all over and would like to explore more when I've got funds.