Wheelchair Accessible Adventures

Tweet
Share
0 Shares

What is This all About?

Wheelie what? It’s my travel blog recording my accessible adventures from my wheelchair.

I’m now a 53 year old bloke with MS. I’ve been a full-time wheelchair user for about six years now. During this time my physical ability has declined with my wheelchair ‘kit’ constantly changing. It’s also becoming evermore numerous, (and bulky, and weighty) so that I can continue to travel. I’m blogging about my wheelchair accessible adventures when I travel. And on my MS ‘adventures’ through life generally – an MSer’s cradle to grave travel blog.

Why am I Bothering?

I spend a lot of time researching holidays for me – a disabled old(er) bloke with MS and wheelchair living – to make my adventure all that it should be.

This isn’t just the ‘vanilla’ research that everybody should do. The basics to ensure you are getting the most out of going on holiday. The fundamentals of knowing the sights around you and making sure you enjoy the ones that you want to enjoy.

It’s the extra research that I have to do solely because I’m in a wheelchair. This is researching the accessibility of the resort, and the museums, galleries and the sights I want to see. It’s these essentials that make sure that my holiday does all of the things that I need it to. It’s the extra research I have to do to make my wheelchair based holiday run smoothly.

Unfortunately, I’ve found out that if I don’t do this research and ask these wheelchair related questions then nobody else will. Everybody else related to the booking process will assume that I’m a two-legged, abled-bodied ‘walker’. I have to vocalise that I’m not.

So, if sharing my travel experiences helps someone else avoid making some of my sometimes spectacular mistakes then I’m a happy roller. I also love pushing my own mobility boundaries, sometimes a little too much according to my wife. If I can sail into Venice rather than taking the, no doubt, easier train, it’s water taxi all the way. My Venice blog is in my Blog Posts section, but seeing as I’ve mentioned it, here’s a direct link, https://wheeliebigadventures.com/wheelchair-accessible/3-nights-in-venice-italy/

Special Assistance. Memorise the term.

Then there’s the Special Assistance teams for the airlines and airports, god-bless their little cotton socks. That sounds a little harsh; they are generally great. Special Assistance is the term that becomes ingrained. Special Assistance are the team that make sure you get assistance around the airport. And when boarding/disembarking the airplane. And when battling through customs/passport control and baggage collection. Knowledge of Special Assistance is not something I was born with. Neither was it was it acquired through osmosis, but when you’re a wheelchair user you need to know it. There’s a three part series in my blog – here’s a link to Part One, https://wheeliebigadventures.com/wheelchair-accessible/things-to-consider-when-flying-with-your-wheelchair-part-1-aka-the-rules-and-your-rights/

You need to know all of this because if the Special Assistance process breaks down, it will be in spectacular fashion. Trust me on this. Being left waiting for the special assistance that I needed to board my flight to Belgium, before seeing the plane eventually take off without me, all because Special Assistance didn’t turn up to board me, is one travel experience that I’d sooner not repeat. I must be feeling very helpful, as here’s a link to my Brussels blog, https://wheeliebigadventures.com/wheelchair-accessible/how-accessible-is-brussels-for-a-wheelchair-user/

But you will find that your travel agent’s knowledge is usually limited. Sometimes embarassingly so, when it comes to accessiblity advice for the hotel stay they’re trying so hard to sell you. They’re also non-existent with accessibility advice for things to do when you arrive at your chosen holiday destination. But in fairness to them, it is your holiday after all.

I suppose it’s not really the airline’s/travel company’s fault. I’m not criticising them – well, not too much. Disability isn’t ‘one size fits all’.

One size doesn’t fit all

Are these your issues?

In my opinion, if I want to travel and have the enjoyable experience travel should be, I have to take responsibility and ‘own’ my medical condition. And all of the limitations it places on my travel. I have to clearly communicate how my disability impacts me and the others I travel with.

With my growing list of disabilities I can’t book a last-minute holiday like an able-bodied person can. This isn’t an inequality ‘shout out’, but yes it’s bloody frustrating. I just need to make sure I’ve answered all of my accessibility questions before I book for my latest wheelchair accessible adventure.

Research, Research and More Research!

Booking my holidays is still an exciting process, they just taker longer to research than they used to. Spontaneous, last minute holidays still exist. Just not for me.

When I was able bodied, the process was easy. At its most simplest it was a passport, travel documents, money and clothes and I was off.

Now, I need to make sure that I have a wheelchair accessible room with a roll-in shower. The hotel has to be accessible by wheelchair. It’s amazing the number of ‘wheelchair accessible’ hotels that have a number of steps that need to be climbed to get into the hotel. The subsequent embarassed silences when I’ve raised this fact with the hotel staff are ‘fun’. All of this makes booking more complex and time consuming, (and unfortunately the holiday price is usually considerably more).

But, I still want to travel. So…

Some Final Thoughts…

Hopefully, these blog ‘scribblings’ of my wheelchair accessible adventures will help somebody else on their adventures. Especially if they’re thinking “…it’s all too hard, so I’ll stop at home instead.”

Hopefully, my scribblings might also make you chortle. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed researching and living them.

There have been curveballs along my way so far, and there will be more of them I’m sure. That’s just the wheelchair travelling way. But I’m not ready just yet for the alternative of staying at home doing nothing. Enjoy!

Handy Web-links?

I’m NOT affiliated to anybody. If I am in the future, I’ll make this point clear. But the links below are for Corporates or Products that are making my wheelchair accessible adventures possible and easier. There’s no web-link for Lisa, my number 1 carer and life partner, (that’s the cheesy, mushy bit done), but without her, the adventures would be a whole lot harder.