Me neither; I like staying at home. Learning about other places and other times is fascinating, though.

Besides that, hotel beds feel weird. I don't want to know what occurred there the night before I get there, but it still freaks me out.

Also, travelling to far away places is really fun. I've suggested that maybe the family goes to Nova Scotia next summer. Mum liked the idea, but I don't think father has heard it yet. Though, I'm rather sure he'd like it.

My parents have only started to travel abroad regularly now my father is retired.  When I was young we holidayed in Scotland, usually within a 4 hour drive of the farm, in case anything went wrong and we had to go back.

My mother would console her wanderlust by getting loads of travel brochures (this was before the internet), watching tv travel programmes  and planning a holiday we wouldn't take.  We would ask her, "where are we not going this year, mother?"  Lol!  

It was good fun and there were lots of interesting places we didn't go to!

We used to travel the nine hours or so to Sydney every three years or so.  Four children, two adults, all our luggage, packed into the old 1960 station wagon with none of us wearing seat belts, in the heat of mid-summer.  

No air conditioning in cars back then, either, so we typically left around 3 am to make the most of the cooler night air.  And knowing that when I got there, I'd be unable to sleep for the first two or three nights due to the upset routine and different bed.  

Then coming home on the third day, since we had to get back to the farm.  No, holidays were not one of my favourite times: the most I remember is a haze of utter exhaustion.  I had some of my worst melt-downs back then.
Alison

Gosh, if it was me I would use the funds to help pay for private school. That is what I plan to put my son in next year and it's really expensive. The student teacher ratio is 8:1, exactly what he needs; learning to socialize and learning in a small group with no shortage of teacher attention.

If your happy with your son's school then swim lessons sound great! And I don't know where you live but there is a group in my State that does a summer camp for Aspies every year- maybe something like that too!

Go for the swimming lessons and then look for clubs who's themes overlap with your son's special interests as those clubs will most likely have safe environments that will be beneficial to your son and allow him to learn to socialize with people who will accept him for who he is.

celluloid_android: A school with a 8:1 student:teacher ratio sounds promising.  But apart from that and other exceptions private schools aren't that great.

What is your suggestion ET? We live in a really remote, small town and to us, it just sounds like the best option. We have considered moving to a bigger city though; somewhere with more funding for special ed so perhaps more help for our little guy in school. Right now there is only one therapist person for the entire school so she has to stretch herself pretty thin to meet with all the kids every week. Our son gets to meet with her for an hour, twice a week. And I'm not sure she is focusing on the right things. Anyway I feel like he needs somebody with him for most of the day until he learns to better understand his differences and how to work with the "typical" people more productively. But this is a new world for me so I'm not really sure-

what do you recommend?

Home schooling is generally a good option.

But as I said, a school with an 8:1 ratio sounds promising.

The typical private schools are bad, they are all about sports not education.

Oh, oh, oh...forgive me. I am talking about a private school for children with Asperger's syndrome and/or autism. There is one in Missouri that has separate classes for Aspies.
Oh geez, I didn't mean a prep school- snob style thing! Sorry for the confusion.

A school for Aspies could be a good thing if done correctly.  The problem is that some schools have an approach which is based on regimenting everything and coercing the children to strictly obey every order.  I don't think that's a good idea.

If the school you are thinking of caters to the needs of the children and allows them to study at their own pace then it would be really good.

Here there are no schools for Aspies. If he went to special ed, he'd have to be with kids with behavioural problems, low IQ's, and a few Aspies thrown in. Just the right place to get bullied and to lower his expectations. So I'm not considering that. I will pay for private remedial teaching though, if he really falls behind. At the moment I see he does everything too slowly, but well. I just figure he'll either get up to speed later, or have to be given private RT.

The money I'm getting for him may not be spent on education, and anyway it would not be enough to do much. But I found a coach who cooperates with people from theatres, teaching the kids about facial expressions, voices, presenting oneself. It's aimed specifically at Aspies. He's looking forward to it nd I hope it will be useful....

another suggestion:  summer camp

we have a great one here (charishills (dot) org ), but I don't know what you might have there.  I found Charis Hills by just doing a simple net search for "aspergers summer resident camp" and got lucky that there was one close to me, that specializes in providing the camping experience for these kiddos

That would suck for anyone, I think that most NT kids wouldn't have fun with that.

In terms of holidays I was thinking of one adult and one child (two adults and one child would be good but most family situations don't make that a viable option).  Make the schedule based on the needs of the child, take them for a walk late at night if they can't sleep, let them sleep late in the morning if they need it.  It's good to have option of returning to the hotel for a nap or some quiet time reading a book or watching a DVD after a  particularly novel experience.

For a two-child family that could be done by splitting up after breakfast time.  As the cost of hotel rooms with three beds are almost as great as two twin rooms the 2*twin room option might be a good one for the two-child family.  The parents will probably not want to spend their entire holidays not seeing each others, but most children would be happy to spend their entire holiday without seeing their brother or sister.

Some kids find sucking a drink through a straw to be calming, freshly squeezed fruit juice is healthy and something that most kids will enjoy.  But a McDonald's shake is an option that you can keep in mind - you wouldn't want to give a child a shake every day, but doing it every day for a holiday as a way of reducing the number of meltdowns is a viable option.

I can't imagine a family holiday working out well if there are 3 Aspie kids or 2 Aspie kids and some NTs.