We have done several RS tours and would like to take our 11 year old grandson on the Best of Europe My Way Tour. He is on the Aspergers end of the Autism Spectrum, extremely bright and interested in history, geography and art. It takes him a long time to warm up to other children which is why we are not thinking of doing one of the family tours. He gets along very well with adults.
Has anyone taken a child on this or any other My Way tour? How did it go?
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
2679 posts
I took my then-11-year-old on the Scotland tour. It was in the summer so there were actually two other young-ish people on the trip - one 14 and one 17. That was a big enough age spread that the kids did not mix at all so my daughter just stayed with me and my mom. My daughter was very shy when she was young. It was fine. Everyone was nice to her and she did a good job keeping up with the tour.
Posted by
Portsmouth
5540 posts
Personally I think the system of a guided tour, where everything is pre-arranged, definite and structured is something much more amenable to those with Aspergers or autism in general as opposed to the more lassez faire approach that others prefer. My eldest, whilst not formally diagnosed as autistic does demonstrate some of the attributes of someone on the spectrum and my professional experience with those with Aspergers and other autistic behaviours has helped me form this opinion.
I have no experience of any of the RS tours but based on the information gleaned from this site I would imagine that it would be entirely appropriate for your grandson and adults are far more understanding of the foibles of an autistic child than children are. I say go for it!