If you are a wheelchair user you will already be more than aware of the fact that doing anything in your daily lives requires that little bit of extra planning than someone who does not use a wheelchair. Whatever handicap you happen to have, you always need to ensure that the places that you are going to will have sufficient support for your chair and traveling is no different.
In fact, through the years I have made some errors when it comes to planning my vacations and I wanted to share some tips with you that I have picked up as a result of these errors, without further ado then, here are my top wheelchair accessible travel tips.
Getting The Destination Right
The first challenge is to ensure that the destination which you choose for your vacation is just right and that you won’t face any unnecessary complications whilst you are away. When it comes to choosing your hotel, you will of course need to ensure that you pick one which has plenty of accessibility and even rooms which can accommodate both you and your wheelchair. Once you have found a great hotel, spend some time looking at the surrounding area to see what the landscape is like. I went to Greece a few years ago and didn’t check out the area which happened to be filled with hills and climbs, it is fair to say that I will not make that mistake again.
Travel Plans
Whether you are taking a plane, train or bus, or even a combination of these, you need to ensure that it is going to be able to accommodate you. Now, almost all transport companies have plans in place for those with disabilities but they very often rely on you to notify them of your condition or circumstance. Airlines for example are always great with wheelchair users and can offer specialist treatment for you when you fly, should you fail to notify them ahead of time however, this whole process becomes very difficult. Check out the terms first and then make sure that you notify the companies involved so that they can make special allowances for you and your chair.
Take Parts
Whilst it makes absolutely no sense at all to take a second chair away with you on your vacation, you should not overlook the fact that it is possible that your chair could break whilst you are away. For this reason I would advise that you take some small and important parts with you when you go away. Equally you should make sure that your destination has somewhere that you could go to either fix or replace your chair should the worst happen. This has happened to me before so don’t think that it can not happen to you because it most certainly could.
The key is to be aware of all aspects of your vacation destination before you leave so that you leave absolutely nothing to chance.