Why Journeyease Exists:
The Story Behind Our Mission
Introducing Journeyease
At Journeyease, we’re proudly neurodivergent. From everything you know and have read about us, we are a luxury travel consultancy that helps neurodiverse travellers create journeys they’ll never forget. We work with tourism boards, hotels, airlines, across the travel industry to help accommodate the needs of people who have ADHD and/or Autism to make small, reasonable adjustments that make a world of difference to them. We can also help curate and tailor-make a holiday for a high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth family and individuals where their unique requirements, such as less stressful environments or any dietary requirements, are met to the highest standard.
But what you might not know is why we started the company in the first place. We’ve written briefly on the seeds that were sown that eventually led to Journeyease being born, but what were the catalyst(s) that proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back?
The First Signs
To answer that question, this goes back a number of years. In fact, as far back as 2018 on a trip to Barbados. As a music and travel journalist, I went on a press trip to visit Crop Over Festival, a three-day party to commemorate the end of the sugar cane crop for the season. How bad could it be?
What I didn’t anticipate was getting up at 5am to head to J’ouvert, the pre-party before the main event. Picture the scene: loud music, people drinking copious amounts of rum, crowds and a relentless, encouraging MC pandering to the punters by shouting “big up all the independent ladies that don’t need no man..” in between deafening Soca music. I noticed that one or two people in our group wanted to avoid it and sat by our coach far away from the madding crowd. I later found out one of them had ADHD and it wasn’t until a few years later that it all seemed to click. But more on that later.
When Travel Stopped Feeling Like Freedom
Being a travel journalist who had travelled all over the world, I had noticed that some cultures are louder than others, to put it bluntly. I won’t get into specific countries or territories, but unfortunately, this world isn’t made for a neurodiverse mind, but a neurotypical one. I noticed there were often very early starts, intense schedules, very little free time, and extremely structured environments with not much wiggle room for things we wanted to do, let alone any me-time.
This was compounded further by being in environments that were overwhelming to my senses, such as loud music, even though I liked going to gigs and festivals, being in crowds and being rushed into being on time so as not to be late for our next stop on the itinerary. Fast forward to 2025 and a trip to Jamaica. I knew full well that the Caribbean was known for good vibes and loudness from my Barbados excursion, but nothing could prepare me for one particular boat trip that would change the course of destiny.
The Boat Trip That Changed Everything
We were on our way to Dunn’s River Falls and another journalist requested that we get there via a party boat. I thought nothing of it and thought there’d be some nice reggae music being played on our way, and that would be it. At first, it seemed pleasant with everyone (mostly American holidaymakers) getting on well. I hung out with a French group so I could practice my French. The falls themselves were amazing, with ziplining being an extra treat. And that’s where it all started to go downhill.
On the way back, there was a free bar with rum being handed out like confetti, a loud DJ with even louder music, things going on the boat that are too NSFW to mention here, and the worst part of all? The DJ calling me out on the mic for being on my phone, bellowing “Hey my English friend, what are you doing on your phone? Put it down and enjoy like the rest of us!” with seemingly everyone booing me for it. There was nowhere to go, unless I wanted to swim back, but at that moment, I’d rather have drowned to my death. It was like my worst nightmare came true with sensory overload in every sense, and it felt like everyone on that boat was enjoying themselves except me.
When we got back to land, to say I was shell-shocked and exhausted would be the gravest understatement. It was like someone had sucked the life out of me, like I had nothing left. I might as well have just gone home and locked myself in my bedroom for a week to recover from what just happened. Fortunately, the rest of the day was spent at our boutique beach hotel, which was far away from anything remotely stressful or overwhelming. But it did take me a while to process what had just happened.
I wasn’t upset because I’d had a bad day. I was exhausted from spending hours pretending I was enjoying something that felt unbearable. It wasn’t the music on its own. It wasn’t the crowds. It was the feeling that there was no escape. I felt like that had been the last straw and that I would have to be extremely picky in where I would choose to go on trips overseas for work. Something had to give.
Turning An Idea Into Reality
After I got back home, I started to ask myself questions: what if there was an alternative to that boat trip? What if there was something especially for neurodivergents, by neurodivergents, so that incidents like that boat trip would be easily avoided? It ruminated and stayed in my head for a good couple of months until I mentioned the idea to our now co-founder Stephanie, who I thought would reject the idea outright. Turns out she loved it as she wanted the opportunity for the world to open up to her via travelling, literally!
At that point, we went away and the creative juices began to flow: we drew up mock designs for a website via AI applications such as Lovable, researched into suitable names before ending up with Journeyease (it’s simple and sums up who and what we are), and then began to go on hotel inspections in London, but also further afield in Paris, Zurich, Montreal, Belfast and Colombia. After speaking to countless autistic and ADHD travellers, I realised my experience wasn’t unusual. It was incredibly common: their kids not enjoying loud music from the hotel pool, food sensitivities, lack of babysitters so parents could enjoy time together, the list went on.
Why Our Mission Matters
One year on and we’re going from strength to strength with each passing day. There are now four of us in the team, and we’re having important conversations with people of influence within the travel industry, representing airlines, airports, hotels, lounges and more, to ask what we can do to make people who are neurodiverse feel welcome and not a burden because they deserve a break they can enjoy and have lifelong memories for the right reasons. We’ve even been approached by the media for interviews, but we always keep our feet firmly on the ground because at the end of the day, we’re here to serve people who relate to our struggles. We’re a team that gets it, because we each have lived experiences of neurodiverse travel. Being neurotypical and getting through airport security is hard enough, but for people who are neurodiverse, it can present an entirely different set of challenges for someone with ADHD or autism. And that’s where we step in.
For all those reasons above and so much more, Journeyease is here to help people like ourselves not underserved, but properly served. Travel shouldn’t be something neurodivergent people have to endure. It should be something they can genuinely look forward to. That’s why Journeyease exists, not simply to make holidays easier, but to make the world feel more welcoming, one journey at a time.