HEALTH MATTERS: Castaway Dream Travel plans autism-friendly vacations

Shelly Riedemann has completed her certification and now is equipped to plan vacations for families with members on the autism spectrum. The travel agent and her business partner, Ed Tenuto, own Castaway Dream Travel in Winter Garden and want parents to know there are many options available for planning a vacation with the entire family.

“There was a recent study of 1,000 parents questioned, and 87% don’t take family vacations — (they) don’t know what’s available and where to go,” Riedemann said. “It seems like too big an obstacle for them, and matching the needs of a child on the spectrum with that of another child in the family just becomes overwhelming for a lot of families.”

Families can take cruises and go to theme parks, water parks, resorts, museums, zoos and aquariums, for instance, Riedemann said.

She recently gained Certified Autism Travel Agent status through the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards and is trained in planning vacations suited to every individual’s needs.

Both Tenuto and Riedemann have family members on the spectrum and have planned vacations for them.

“We start planning a vacation for these families like we would any family.” Riedemann said. “The first thing we would do is a client interview, what they want to do, the where, when, what of what they would like to experience on their vacation. Then if they have a child on the spectrum, we will delve into … prior experiences, were they good or bad, did they go to a water park and it turned out badly? If they went somewhere and it turned out badly, we don’t want to visit that again.”

Riedemann said she and the family discuss the child’s sensory challenges.

“Maybe they don’t like water touching them,” she said. “Maybe loud noises or clapping or people looking at them is a challenge. One of the more common ones has to do with smell, and when there are too many smells, it can be overwhelming.”

The goal is to work around these challenges to create a vacation experience everyone is comfortable with and to meet the vacation desires of everyone in the family.

The travel agent said she looks for vacation destinations with trained staff, a proper environment and meal accommodations. Limited transportation connections sometimes are important, so Riedemann works to find direct flights.

More destinations are now providing sensory guides for various activities, and she looks for suppliers who have this option.

“I don’t think there’s anything that can’t be accommodated,” she said. “It’s just that initial interview with the family, and the understanding of that child’s sensory challenges is what guides me for the best type of vacation for them.”

Riedemann said some airports and airlines offer a program in which the child on with Autism Spectrum Disorder can make a trial run through the TSA line and see the boarding process before actually taking a flight. Orlando International Airport has this program.

“Some families have never flown so they have no idea if they can fly or not,” she said. “There are a lot of accommodations out there, and many families just aren’t aware of their options today.”