It isn’t easy to travel with children, and it’s especially not easy to be travelling with an autistic child. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: toys are an ESSENTIAL when travelling with kids.
I’ve been travelling with autistic children for over 6 years now, and we have been to 33 countries so far. I’ve been through my fair share of travel toys and figured out some clear winners for travelling with an autistic child. Here are my top 10!
Just to note, this is a general list of our top 10 travel toys for autistic children, it isn’t specific to a certain type of trip so you may find that some of them just wouldn’t make sense in certain situations. They are also in no specific order. Number 1 doesn’t mean it’s the best toy available. It’s simply the top 10 but numbered at random.
1. Stamp rocket
We were first introduced to this toy in 2021 when my sister brought one to the Isle of Lewis & Harris on a big, extended family trip. As soon as my autistic son saw it, he was absolutely obsessed with it.
It’s a simple system, really. A light foamy rocket slips into a tube that is connected to a pump. The pump just needs stamped on and the rocket will fire into the sky and float in whatever direction the wind takes it.
This is appealing to autism because the game is repetitive. You simply catch the rocket and put it back on and stamp again. This can help autistic children find a bit of peace and routine in the travel chaos. This is a top choice of our when travelling with autistic children by car as it is small enough for a car but would take up a bit space in suitcase or backpack.
I hope I will have a link and picture for this soon! In the meantime you can watch my son using one in this video.
2. Pop toys
I have no idea what the real name of these toys is, but the fighter poppers are a great addition to a travel bag for an autistic child. We keep some in our car so they always have access to them.
This exact pop toy is not on TikTok shop but I’ve made a video of another we have which is just a plain square one and I have linked to the store on TikTok to buy it:
Keep in mind that I run two TikTok stores so you may be directed to my travel @themeldrumsworld account or you may be taken to my @moustashiio account.
The silicone toy has many semi-circular areas to push through to one side and then push back through. Again, it can be repetitive, which can be soothing, but they can also provide an opportunity to keep the hands busy. We often use them to count, teach math and teach our baby girl about taking turns.
The biggest selling point about these is they’re small, light and colourful so they’re easy to pack and to find in a travel backpack. They are a pretty obvious choice for travelling with a child with autism because they are designed for that exact purpose.
3. Magnetic fishing games
There are a number of different styles of magnetic fishing games, but the idea is the same for them all: You have a rod with a swinging magnet and you have to catch a fish with a metal blob in it.
This exact model is not on TikTok shop as it specifically came from the Flying Tiger store. However, the wooden fish and rods are almost identical to the ones on TikTok so I will soon get a video of them with a TikTok shop link to buy them.
This game works on coordination and turn-taking and it can be repetitive if you want it to be. Our youngest son likes to tell people what to catch but also replaces the fish every single time it is caught rather than each person collecting the things they caught by making a pile beside them.
We got our travel fishing game in Flying Tiger Copenhagen, the chain store, but in their shop in Amsterdam. They come in a protective tin, which helps keep them safe from damage and dirt – very handy when travelling with an autistic child.
4. Nintendo Switch + games
This is not so much a toy, but it definitely gets played with. Games are often a special interest with autism and they are very engaging and move quickly, so they are really good to keep an ADHD brain focused too. My oldest son has a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD.
The Nintendo Switch can download games, making it good for when your autistic child is desperate for a change (and there is a way to find free games on the switch, too). But the best part of the Nintendo Switch for travelling is that it works with gaming cards that you put into the console, and they require no access to the internet to work.
We have found there are a few games our youngest autistic son can also play that aren’t too complicated. He likes hole.io and a fruit shooting game that requires matching and aligning fruits to merge them.
5. Magnetic cubes
We use a specific brand called Magicubes and have a few different sets. We usually just travel with a set in each backpack of the youngest of our two children. Our 3.5 year old son, Luke, has a Paw Patrol set. Each side of the side has part of a character from Paw Patrol on it and you can connect them up using the magnet to complete the character. When one character is complete, there are still some that are messed up so it encourages the child to try the next one and therefore provides hours of fun. The fact it can be pulled apart and redone over and over is helpful for travelling with an autistic child because they often favour repetitive toys. The cubes are a good size even for babies to hold and because they aren’t tiny they aren’t easy to lose. Our little girl, Sylvie who is 1yr old has an ocean animal set. Again it is three cubes with numerous animal parts on it that you have to connect up to create one whole animal.
I have done a TikTok video with the MagiCubes – I need to do more for sure as we have multiple sets. The one in the picture to the left is linked in the video and is the ocean animals set.
Make sure to access it via mobile or the shoppable links won’t work.
Just to say, I have two TikTok affiliate shops – so you may go to a link on my @themeldrumsworld account or you may be taken to my @moustashiio account.
I will try to add video of the other sets of MagiCubes we have as soon as possible.
6. Water painting cards
The trick with these cards is that you have a hollow pen that you simply add water to. When using the pen on the cards the water makes the cards change colour to reveal the pictures on the cards. After a while the cards dry back out and the pictures disappear again, making them reusable!
My youngest autistic son particularly enjoys these cards because they have numbers and letters on them, which are one of his special interests. I like them because they are portable for travelling with an autistic child, and at worst all that can happen is a spillage of a small amount of water.
I will get a video and link for TikTok shop for these as soon as possible!
7. Rubik’s cubes
These are specific to my oldest autistic child who absolutely loves Rubiks cubes. He has an entire collection of them at home so it is always a nice idea to bring one in his travel bag. With any child in mind, they can provide hours of fun and challenges – it might be worth looking into some tricks on how to solve them or using one of the Rubiks solving apps to help!
Travis has a fairly impressive collection of different cube types – I’ve made a quick TikTok video to show a few of them with links to buy them directly from the video:
Make sure to click any links on a mobile device or the links won’t work.
8. Yoto player
The Yoto player is perfect for a child of any age, because you can really tailor it to suit any interest. It is a speaker which plays any story cards which are inserted into it. The cards available aren’t all just stories – there are music and games cards too. I have a little bit of an obsession on collecting cards for the kids and so we have a whole range of them!
Click here to buy your own Yoto player using my referral link. This link will give you 10% off your first purchase, which has to be over £59.99 which is the cost of a Yoto Mini Player.
We have a Yoto Mini – because it is most portable for travel. It is perfect, it can fit in the palm of your hand. It honestly won’t take up much space in your bag at all.
Another feature I love is the ‘make your own’ playlists and cards. So you can literally save any audio files you have already to your online account and play them via the speaker any time you have wifi available. You can also copy a playlist to a blank make your own card to make it usable offline. Leave me a comment below if you’d like a tutorial on how to make playlists and save them to cards.
If you prefer, you can also purchase the Yoto via TikTok. Here is a link to a recent video I did about it. The video is about a new cable that was released, but the Yoto player is still linked for people to be able to buy it:
You’ll either buy from my @themeldrumsworld account or you may be taken to my @moustashiio account – either way I wanted to be clear that they are both run by me.
I personally think that the Yoto is an absolute essential for travelling with an autistic child because it offers so many features that can help with different aspects of managing their day such as: providing routine by using the Yoto the same as they would at home, being able to listen to any stories they like as often as they want, being able to download and make cards tailored to their specific interests, it can be used in times of sensory overwhelm and especially it is helpful with a headset to turn off to the world, to play music they find relaxing or stimulating and also for white noise or lullabies at night to help with routing and drowning out unfamiliar sounds.
9. Dinosaur cups
These cups are fantastic for anyone travelling with an autistic child who likes water play! But you can be inventive and use them for other games – like colour matching and sorting games while travelling. The stackable cups have small holes in them to let water filter out of the bottom. Our kids have used them at the pool and in shower.
These are unavailable now on Amazon and I can’t find the same ones on TikTok, but I plan to do a video soon with similar ones I’ve found.
In this picture, the blue ladle looking thing and the green one are the stacking water play cups.
10. Suction animals, numbers or men
These were by far the most-used toy on our trip to Egypt. I took our number suction toys set and two suction buddies. They can suction to glossy surfaces like the shower floor, wooden floors, cabinets and glass. My kids enjoy pulling them off and pushing them back on but also using them for matching games, colour matching, math games and more stereotypical autistic fun like making huge lines or splitting them by colour or animal type.
I have done a few videos of these toys now. I will link them below. Just to mention, I have two TikTok affiliate shops – so you may go to a link on my @themeldrumsworld account or you may be taken to my @moustashiio account. Both are safe to use and it makes no difference to me which one you buy from.
Make sure to access TikTok via mobile or the shoppable links won’t work. Reach out if you have any problems and I will do my best to help.
If you are travelling with an autistic person soon, make sure you have travel insurance by reading our guide to getting travel insurance with autism.