Holiday ideas for mobility: impaired travellers

Start with your interests and passions

Instead of starting with reduced mobility as a criteria, why not actually tap into genuine passions of the individual with a disability. After all, travel is about growing and expanding our world and perspective. It’s important that whatever activities or places one goes, they’re getting the most out of it for them and what they care about. So our first piece of advice is to write a list with interests and passions:

Outdoors

If you or your loved one is a keen outdoorsy person, then travel offers virtually unlimited options for you to experience. Many countries have walking tracks that are designated as accessible to varying degrees – meaning some will be manageable with a motorised wheelchair, and others may be smooth and flat enough for a manually driven chair.

There’s plenty of other outdoor activities that are perfect for someone with a disability to enjoy like everyone else:

• National Parks – amazing photo opportunities and the relaxing effect of nature’s most scenic places.
• Campsites – if your group enjoys going back to basics every so often, why not spend time in nature at a campsite with a good degree of access and proximity to the road if you need to get anywhere quickly for any reason.
• Zoos and Safaris – animal lover? Almost every zoo will offer barrier-free movement around their park to see animals and get up and close with wildlife. And if you’re looking to really get into nature where animals live, many safari operators will be able to accommodate customers with mobility needs.
• Boating – whether it’s on the sea, in a lake or down a river, there are many options for a group with a disabled member of the party. Simply check out each provider’s website for information about how they handle the safety of disabled guests.

Historical Landmarks

The tourism industry has finally started to adapt to the ever-growing size of the global disabled community, by updating their access with lifts, ramps and wider doorways to accommodate everyone. While not every single landmark will have perfect access, the vast majority of popular places have and continue to make refinements to their accessibility. As we’ve talked about elsewhere in this guide, the number of elderly and mobility impaired travellers is only set to increase, so expect even the oldest of landmarks to adapt if they haven’t already.

Arts and Music

If you or your loved one is a fan of the arts, why not set out an itinerary based around visiting art galleries and attending live music? From New York’s famous jazz scene, to the famous artworks housed in the Louvre, Paris, an art and music lover has many incredible options for travel.

Popular venues within the arts almost always have accessibility sorted – so jump online and start putting together that wishlist!

Great Food

Who doesn’t love good food? Some of us take our food so seriously that our holidays are dictated by the food on offer. And why not – culinary tourism is one of the more popular motivators for people to travel.

If you travel to some of the continents like Europe and America, you’ll enjoy a huge variety of cuisines as you travel. Otherwise if your budget or timeline only allows one country to visit, consider which culture’s food appeals the most. You’ll be doing plenty of eating out!

Disabled cruise holidays – see the world from the sea

There’s a good reason why cruises are so popular with the elderly but mobility impaired as well – they’re perfectly set up to offer all the features of a holiday in a place designed for ease of movement. The main reputable cruise lines have the process down to a fine art of hosting mobility-impaired guests and can deliver a fantastic holiday as a result. If you don’t mind being on the sea for days at a time, this might be a good option for you

Many cruise lines have great accessibility options

Getting around the boat needs to be as easy and safe as possible for a cruise ship – not only to cater to its customers, but in the case of an emergency disembarking process. For this reason, it’s very typical for cruise ships to have lots of ramps, lifts and wide doorways for guests to maneuver through.

Along with movement, cruise ships offer rooms with disability needs accounted for – simply jump on the website and explore the different room options.

Reduce the amount of transferring and movement required

Another benefit of taking a cruise holiday is the only transport you really need to consider is getting on or off the boat when it docks at set locations. Most of these locations will have activities relatively close to port, and for those that require travel, the cruise line will often arrange directly with the tourism operator.

Everything at your disposal on a cruise

Once you’re on the boat, you have all the amenities needed within a short walk – or available via the staff. Guests can eat, swim, play and rest with minimal effort – sounds like a good holiday to us!

Snow trips for disabilities

And if days of sunny weather at sea isn’t really your speed, why not cool things down by visiting any one of the mobility friendly ski resorts across the world – perhaps your nearest ski field has accessibility options too?

While skiing might sound like the furthest thing from accessible, there’s actually many activities that disabled individuals can participate in:

• Ski-mobiles
• Sledding
• Assisted skiing with modified skis
• Dog-sledding
• And the classic snowball fights!

Travelling to the snow can be made possible with the right preparation and research, providing an incredible holiday and memories for all.

Beach Holidays

Ok, back to warm weather. The beach is another place where those unfamiliar with disabled travel may immediately resign to being impractical. The truth is far from it, with beaches the world over offering better beach access, and equipment that helps to move around.

Being close to the sea and relaxing on the beach can be very rewarding for someone with a disability, and even more so an individual who experiences sensory challenges.

Before committing to travelling to a particular beach resort, find out via the travel agent or online if there is both easy access to the beach and if there’s any equipment for hire to make movement easier. A good example of this are specially built wheelchairs with large wheels designed to get over sand easier than a traditional chair. Alternatively, there are long mats that can be placed on the sand to allow your own chair to make it across the sand.

Work with a specialised accessible travel company who can make incredible experiences possible for all.

With travel being so important to many of the huge global disabled community, there are many travel providers who specialise in building holidays for families who live with mobility needs.

Like a travel agent, these businesses can organise the trip for you, but will have an even deeper understanding of the needs of someone with a disability and may be able to connect you with accommodation and activities that have dedicated services for those with mobility impairments.