About us: Welcome to Travelling with Sunflowers
🌻 Our Promise to You
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We want to inspire neurodivergent families to travel the world, believe in themselves, and adventure with confidence!
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If you are a parent-carer of autistic or ADHD children, you know that stepping outside your comfort zone can feel overwhelming. It is so easy to stick to what you know, hide away from the judgments of others, and choose safety over adventure.
We used to feel the exact same way. We once believed our boys' hidden disabilities meant we would never be able to take them abroad.
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But with the right planning, visual tools, and a bit of out-of-the-box thinking, we discovered that travel is possible. We believe our incredible children have so much to learn from exploring the world—and so much to offer it.
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Our family motto is:
"If you go you know,
if you never go, you never know!"
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​​​What You Will Find Here
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We don't share "perfect" holiday postcards. We share real-life, tried-and-tested blueprints for successful family travel:
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Sensory-Friendly Guides: Honest look at crowds, noise levels, and open, calm spaces.
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Stress-Free Itineraries: Structured schedules designed to manage transitions and avoid meltdowns.
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Practical Travel Logistics: Real information on airport special assistance, packing essentials, and dietary safety abroad.
We are so glad you are here. Grab a cup of tea, explore our travel resources, blog post articles and travel tips and let’s start adventuring together with confidence!
Meet The Family
Layla
Founder & Content Creator
I am the researcher, trip planner, and voice behind this blog. My love for travel started during a mind-blowing trip abroad when I was 13.
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When I am not planning our next family adventure, you can find me fighting slugs in my allotment, exploring London's art galleries, or practicing Reiki.
I studied art history to Master's level & I love capturing the beautiful, real moments of our trips through photography.
J
Practical Adventurer
​J is my partner, best friend, and the dad to our boys. We actually met while travelling many years ago!
He is a total foodie, loves discovering new music, and has a great sense of adventure.
He is my best sounding board—he bats away my wildest travel ideas but always supports me in booking unique, exciting trips.
Our Eldest Son
Inquisitive Explorer
Our firstborn is a highly observant, creative, neurodivergent ball of energy!
He wants to know about everything and loves experiencing new places.
Because he needs to know plans in advance, he actively helps me design our trip itineraries, writes his own packing lists, and pitches brilliant ideas for things to do.
Our Youngest Son
Joyful Sensory-Seeker
Our youngest is also neurodivergent and is completely full of joy, fun, and motion.
He loves to run, jump, and dance all day. His sensory-seeking nature makes travel incredibly exciting!
Because transitions and changes can be tough for him, we always build plenty of rest and downtime into our guides to help keep things calm and regulated.
Why I created Travelling with Sunflowers
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My neurodivergent family loves to travel!​ ​​While adventuring together is brilliant fun, there are times when travelling together as a neurodivergent family is super challenging. It would be so easy for us to stick to what and where we know, to hide away from the judgements of others, to seek safety over adventure. ​​
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But I truly believe that we and all families with autistic / adhd children have the right to enjoy the same opportunities for family travel, days out and adventures together as everyone else.​​​
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Collectively our incredible, resilient and passionate neurodivergent children have so much to offer the world, and so much to learn from exploring it.
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As parent carers of autistic / ADHD children it is vital we feel confident to take our place in society, to explore it with our families and experience the magic of adventure together.
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​J and I once believed that our boys' hidden disabilities meant we'd never be able to take them abroad. But with encouragement from the awesome families in our Autism Parents Support Group, and lots of research, planning and thinking outside the box we realised this wasn't true. ​ Since summer 2022, we've been taking risks, making mistakes, going on adventures and creating incredible family memories both in the UK and Europe.​​
We decided that being different was not going to stop us travelling with the boys. It's been challenging at times - but we don't regret it for a minute!
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Travelling with Sunflowers brings together everything we've discovered along the way, we hope it inspires you to go travelling too, and make some amazing memories along the way!​​
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