After nomading for 4+ years in over 14 countries, I have some resources to share!
I’m thrilled to share my lessons so your travels can be both soothing and stimulating. Autistic traveling is definitely challenging, but the rewards are great.
Note: Some links are affiliates, which means I receive a small commission if you buy something through my link. This supports this website and also helps me avoid cluttering the website with ads.
Packing Lists
After 3 Years, Here’s What’s In My Nomad Bag: Clothes
More coming soon!
Accommodation
Booking.com – I love how simple, recognizable, and organized booking.com is. They have filter options for physical disabilities, and I hope there will be more filters around sensory issues soon.
Communication & Computing
Cellphone
Mint Mobile – Bottom line: I pay $15 a month (though you can’t use the data outside the US) to keep the phone number and line. There are some services you can only verify with a real phone line.
Data while traveling
Keepgo – Provides an esim that works in multiple countries at a time. No more popping out your sim card for every country. Generally very reasonable rates and it’s so easy to use when you enter a new country!
VPN
Surfshark – I tried a competitor and it didn’t work well. I’ve been very happy with Surfshark, and they occasionally have great deals.
File backup
Backblaze – I’ve always had issues with other services, but Backblaze is great—set it and forget it. It’s constantly running backups without disruption. I’ve even tried it when I accidentally erased some files.
Transport
Transportation is probably the most challenging and anxiety-producing aspect of autistic travel. As always, I’m looking for more insights, so please email me at rose@theautistictraveler.com with tips and suggestions.
General
Omio – Great for buying tickets for routes with multiple types of transport. Despite Eurostar’s poor customer service, they assisted me with canceling during Covid when I was denied a refund.
Air Travel
Skyscanner – I often use this to plan routes because you can type in country-to-country routes rather than city-to-city routes. So I could try “Turkey to Cyprus” and get multiple airport and airfare possibilities. Also great to discover hidden airports. Skyscanner also has a color-coded calendar system that makes it so much easier to sort through confusing information and options.
Autism-friendly airlines (coming soon)
Autism-friendly airports (coming soon)
Bus
FlixBus – This bus service serves much of Europe and has a handy app. We’ve traveled from Krakow to Vienna and Zagreb to Venice on Flixbus. The buses are generally clean, well-organized, and comfortable. The ones we’ve used have had toilets and charging outlets. They’re also full-sized (which means large windows), which can help if you have motion sickness.
Train
TrainSplit (UK) – In my experience, this is the best ticketing and cheapest train service in the United Kingdom. Their customer service is fabulous.
Trainline – Trainline has a great app (something TrainSplit is missing), is visually easy to navigate, and very simple to book and retrieve tickets. If you use it through the British Airways shopping portal, you can also receive points for your train tickets. I’ve also used it in Europe as well—especially as a route planner.
National Railcards – If you’re in the UK, check out railcards. Yes, they have the usual ones for young people, seniors, disabled folx, and veterans, but they also have a friends and family card and my personal favorite: the two together railcard. If you travel with someone else, you get a third off your total rail fare. It costs £30 a year so it’s worth it if you travel by train more than once a year.
Leap Card – If you’ll be in Ireland for more than a few weeks, look into the Leap Card. You’ll save on local transport, but the catch is that you can only buy it in specific places or you have to have it mailed to a physical address.
Deutsche Bahn – Don’t let the name fool you! Even if you’re not traveling to Germany, this is a great place to buy tickets and also plan journeys. If you plan on traveling in Germany, I recommend signing up for an account to collect points. Also, they have various rail cards including ones for disabled people.
Route Planning
Rome to Rio – My go-to for planning difficult routes. I’ve never bought tickets through them, but it seems easy enough to do so. I love the visuals, maps, and easy-to-understand information. I also have used it to find bus companies in countries without much information about transportation online (such as lovely Albania!).
The Man in Seat 61 – One of my absolute favorite travel sites of all time. To me, it’s an autist’s dream–endless details and possibilities all categorized in great detail. For example, I discovered “sail and rail” through this site (travel from Dublin to Ireland via ferry and train for 60 Euros total), as well as our Smyril Line ferry from Denmark to Iceland. The level of detail and precise instructions are astounding.
Flight Connections – Be prepared when you open this webpage–it’s a map with a gazillion points on it! It shows you flight connections between cities throughout the world, and even has the months that particular routes run. For example, finding flights between Eastern European cities in the winter is very difficult, because so many routes are seasonal. You can really disappear down a rabbit hole with this one. Enjoy.
Health On the Road
Pill in trip – What is your medication called in Tunisia? Where can you get it? This website is fantastic when you run out of medicine or unexpectedly need some more. You put in the country where you’re from (or bought the medicine) and then where you’re going and the name of the medicine. Then it gives you amazing results.
SafetyWing – I’ve been using SafetyWing for four years, and I’m happy with their rates and customer service. Though it’s primarily emergency health insurance, don’t forget you’re covered for things like trip disruptions (I’m looking at you, cross-channel ferries).
House Sitting
We’re members of all four of these house sitting sites because we’re full-time sitters. If you had to pick just one, we’d go with TrustedHousesitters, unless you are planning on sitting in France (go with Nomador). I’m an affiliate for TrustedHousesitters, but that’s because I love them so much!
TrustedHousesitters – Largest international house sitting site. It’s based in the United Kingdom, and as of this writing, there were over 2,000 sits advertised in the United Kingdom and over 2,000 in the United States. We find most of our sits through them and love how organized it is, requiring hosts to be as clear as possible about the house sit parameters and pets involved. We have a premium membership, which gives us access to an airport lounge pass once a year, third-party and accident insurance, as well as sit cancelation insurance.
It’s also a pricier option than other sites, but you get what you pay for. As of 2023, their rates are $259 (premium sitter), $169 (standard sitter), and $129 (basic sitter).
If you want to join, click through this link and use promo code THS12SAVER at checkout.
HouseCarers – A much smaller site, but it has a wide variety of sits (we were supposed to house sit in a cave-house in Cappadocia, Turkey before the pandemic hit!). It probably averages 5-10 listings a day, well under the hundreds that come up with Trusted Housesitters.
It has a free sitter version and a paid one for $50 a year. I’ve never used the free one, but it might be good if you’re dipping your toe in the house sitting waters. If you want to join, you’ll receive bonus months if you use this link.
MindMyHouse – We’ve had two sits through MindMyHouse, one in the UK and the other in Ireland. It averages around 20 sit listings a day across a wide geographical setting. The best part is that it’s only $29 to join! Instead of trickling through the day, the site listings tend to be updated once a day. Also, for some unknown reason, the photos on this site tend to be terrible. Just ask the hosts to send you some photos when you apply or commit to a video tour with them.
Nomador – Oh Nomador! I love the sheer number of amazing sits, particularly in France. We’ve had one sit through them (in Montenegro). I find their platform absolutely infuriating, however. Their search function is possibly the worst on the internet, which is frustrating when you pay for a membership. I’ve asked them for help and/or to fix it, but they insist nothing is wrong. Basically, you’ll need to scroll through pages and pages of search results to find the new sits because they’re not listed chronologically.
Also, sit advertisements will be posted for weeks—long after the sit was agreed to by host and sitter. If you’re willing to put up with that (and if you speak French, so much the better), then go for it. Their new pricing levels are completely unjustified, however: Discovery (79 euros), Standard (139 euros), and Premium (179 euros).
Money
Wise – The best all-around and trustworthy banking site for multi-currency use.
Revolut – Useful for paying and receiving smaller amounts of money from people in multiple currencies. Still learning how to use it. It’s the European equivalent of Venmo.
Venmo – Similar to Revolut, but it’s what people in the United States use. Not so useful if you’re traveling outside the United States because you must be inside the US to get an account. It also lacks multicurrency functionality.
Useful Free Apps For Travel
112 Suomi – If you travel around Europe, get this app. It will connect you to emergency services anywhere in Europe, even though it’s a Finnish app.
Authenticator – Any will do, but it’s handy to have since traveling will often set off security on your accounts.
Currency – Offline currency converter.
Flashlight – I don’t have a recommendation on this one—just make sure you have one on your phone!
Genius Sign – You often need to sign pdfs with something other than a digital signature. This lets you do that.
Google Translate – The app has a camera! You can point it at that incomprehensible yogurt label, and it’ll translate it. Magic.
Jam Card – An Irish app, but you can use it anywhere to ask for “Just a minute of patience.”
Nightlight – I don’t have a specific app recommendation, but I do recommend downloading one for traveling.
Maps.me – Sorry, Google Maps (at least the app). You are so unreliable. Maps.me is so much better. It has downloadable maps that run on GPS without a signal. Essential.
Olio – You can reset your location every time you move. Local food and non-food items locals are giving away in real time.
Pacer – A pedometer on your phone. Did I say I love tracking?
Schengen Calculator – I think I’ve tried every Schengen visa calculator. Every one had a flaw except this one—use it to plan when you can reenter the European Schengen visa zone.
Signal – Better privacy than What’s App, though What’s App is also very useful.
Sky Guide – A beautiful app for stargazing wherever you might be.
Sol – Another beautiful app. Use it to see all the different gradations of light between sunrise and sunset wherever you are in the world.
Time Buddy – Oh, time zones. This makes it simple.
Time Calculator – If you need to know how many days or nights exist between two dates (e.g., to plan accommodation or trips), this is your app. No more counting on your fingers with disastrous results.
Tripcoin – Best expense tracking app in multiple currencies.
Language Learning
Seva Languages – My partner and a professor of languages! He teaches Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian in one-on-one and group courses online. Contact me or Seva to find out more.
Rabbit Holes
Oh, how I love rabbit holes. I’m always refining and expanding this list, so please contact me if you have more ideas, especially in languages other than English. Please note that this list also has a heavy UK focus.
Think You Might Be Autistic?
Samantha Craft’s Unofficial Checklist: Females and Autism
Development and Validation of the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q)
Rethinking of DSM Criteria for Girls
The Forgotten Girls: Racial and Ethnic Disparities
Autism in Girls & Women w/ Dr. Donna Henderson
The Self-Discovery of One Aspie Woman
Hendrickx Associates – They helped me with my diagnosis. Highly recommended.
Everything Autism: Autistic Blogs & Websites
Autism 101: What Are Autistic Shutdowns?
Autism Doesn’t Hold People Back at Work. Discrimination Does.
Autism Spectrum Traits Predict Higher Social Psychological Skill
Autistic Burnout: The Cost of Masking and Passing
Beyond the Streets: 26 Ways to Be In the Struggle
By/For Autistic People of Color (great list of links to more websites)
The Electricity of Every Living Thing, by Katherine May
The Importance of Self-Advocacy When You’re on the Autism Spectrum
Musings of an Autistic Traveling Goddess, by Shalese Heard
Neurodivergence & Mental Health Podcast
Neurotribes, by Steve Silberman
The Secret Life of a Black Aspie, by Anand Prahlad (my favorite memoir)
Sensory Sensitivities and “Picky Eating”
(10) Shutdown States and Stress Instability in Autism
Social Pain: Neuropsychological and Health Implications of Loss and Exclusion
Talent in Autism: Hyper-Systemizing, Hyper-Attention to Detail and Sensory Hypersensitivity
“They Don’t Know, Don’t Show, or Don’t Care”: Autism’s White Privilege Problem
This Graphic Shows What the Autism Spectrum Really Looks Like
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Diversity, by Devon Price
Young, Gifted & Black with Autism
Disabilities & Travel
Packing & Minimalism
Remote Work and Nomads
A Guide to Paying U.S. Taxes When You’re a Digital Nomad Working Across the World
Financial Independence
Coming soon!