Useful gadgets for travel wheelchair in Europe
See our new section about Rome Accessible Wheelchair Travel in Rome, Italy.
Can I travel if disabled in a word yes You need more patience than the average traveler, and greater flexibility and possibly a better sense of humor and he did not hurt if you have a little more money, but it can be done.
My wife uses a walker all the time, but needs a wheelchair for long distances - like from the street to the door in airports, stores, and certainly to museums She also little endurance and when we travel takes an occasional day off to rest at the hotel, when I do something she cares or not be able to do, but we will do, and we both enjoy.
Our experience is limited, but I have some thoughts that might help others.
Tell the airline you are disabled and will need a wheelchair at all airports They wheelchairs and carriers to push There's no cost, but the carriers will appreciate advice Make sure they make a note in your reservation it is in their If the computer is not there and they're busy when you arrive they can give it didnt static hurt you to check a few days in advance to ensure your application is actually in the computer.
Arrive at the airport well before the earlier they tell you to be there.
They say one hour for domestic flights and two for international Add 30 minutes to an hour to wait for the man to come with the wheelchair and any other hassles They are usually the first passengers with disabilities and for the benefit of you need to be at the door waiting when pre-boarding begins to ask the Department of Transportation for the New Horizons booklet, information for the discerning traveler with a disability.
Airports and airlines will make serious efforts to accommodate you.
As I say, if you need to change terminals at Heathrow, they all wheelchairs and porters All airports that we have seen have elevators and escalators But, for example, they will ask you if you can get on a bus - with the rest of the passengers If you say no, they will bring a Humphrey, a pickup truck with a hydraulic lift that takes you back in your chair with your luggage and your companion - in this case, me - the next terminal As of usually, on the land side at airports, recommendations are acceptable Don t admit to everyone, but Humphrey ride is rather amusing.
At Fiumicino, passengers on our flights hiked the stairs to get off the plane and climbed another long set of stairs in the terminal, or vice versa For us, they brought the lifts - such as forklifts but with closed platforms - to take us down and again just to be sure they know your needs in advance and when you make your reservations, upon arrival, when you get to the door, when you board the aircraft and any other occasion.
The same rules as for the use of airlines apply to railways and stations Wheelchairs and carriers to push are available in Italy, at least, the rule is that you must notify the railroad 24 hours in advance for the service, but when we failed to do that they have succeeded when even good humor, but they managed.
If you have booked in advance, Termini in Rome has an elevator and a wheelchair waiting at the door of your car when you get off the train A busy Sunday they could not find a large enough wheelchair for my wife and ended by extending all the elevator the way so it was about 10 feet above the ground, and drove her, honking, through the crowd in the station, she said she felt as she entered Rome Sheba she loved it is generally less dramatic than that, but they will take care of you get a porter to handle luggage is more difficult, I guess if you are alone, they will do it.
Carefully consider whether you want to take your wheelchair with you there or rent a share of hassles in the plane, we were told they have a bad habit of banged up on the way the airlines can provide wheelchairs and porters push in airports Your concierge can find a rent to see you as the note on TravelMed below.
Check your hotel's telephone or fax absolutely accessible room offers is truly accessible - and the hotel itself is also available if you make your hotel reservation through a travel agent, call the property itself and even make you that you have an accessible room not only asked BLOCKED and b that really meets your needs, whatever they are ask the person you speak or if she never saw Otherwise the room personally, ask to speak to someone who then takes place to ask questions, ask him to describe the room - describing what makes it accessible to people with disabilities if they don t mention anything you need grab bars for toilets, for example ask if they're there.
Be sure to ask if the hotel itself is available again, we had a room that was ok but found five steps to get up to the hotel entrance.
Check restaurant accessibility for especially bathrooms They have an annoying habit of being down.
Always check for accessible entrances, sometimes far from the main entrance visitors Entrance to St. Peter's Basilica is down almost to the main altar Your taxi can take you to the Swiss Guards left of the St. Peter's guards tell the driver where it is many drivers have never been there and tell you they can t drive in the Vatican City Not so Emphasize the guards will direct is just an example ask your concierge or ask ask each museum in advance.
At the Louvre, you want to go in the main entrance to the pyramid, not the Carrousel du Louvre Ignore the waiting line for Security and go to the exit door You're driving down an open hydraulic lift instead of down the stairs a spectacular entrance incidentally, the entrance to the main Paris museums, including the Louvre, Orsay, Picasso and many others is free to anyone in a wheelchair and someone pushing you save a few francs and, probably more important, unless the online standard time at counters Just walk in, they'll shake you by law.
You may need to hire help my wife needs help bathing and dressing your concierge will be able to find a nursing agency that can provide assistance in nursing for an hour or a day that is what we do at home, and the same thing has worked in other cities and abroad.
More delicate is that I can not push her wheelchair with her for long distances because I have a bad back so we hire a strong man to do, at an hourly rate Again, the concierge will, but not routine I always suggest that someone on staff - a maid or someone - must have a brother-unemployed who wouldn t mind picking up a few extra francs, read or whatever it doesn t always work once in Florence, where there is unemployment, the concierge a professional nurse for an agency, it was a bit more expensive than others, but you can not worry about it improperly and our last trip to Paris, we had a young man from an agency that was strong, but also gay, enthusiastic, intelligent, resourceful and determined, he did not speak English but our French was adequate, I must add that it was also full of tact, he didn t laugh at e my French again.
The agencies have set fees when we were unemployed in the regulations, we relied on the advice of the concierge what to pay and, of course, the concierge also earns a good trick to make the digging, we must find someone we understand a s money well spent When you add air, hotel, restaurant and other expenses, it is not much, it's the difference between taking the trip and no.
The next most - besides making this possible - is that you have close contact with a real Parisian Romance, Florence - all Someone who doesn t regularly with tourists.
They provided some memorable moments Gaston, the professional nurse in Florence, was Cameroon, so that his mother tongue was French, he had lived in Italy for six years when he was fluent in Italian, and he had a little bit of English We spoke mostly french Our french it was as good as her English.
But he had boundless confidence When we arrived at the Uffizi in the rain and we learned that you need to book to get, we were very disappointed Nobody told us Gaston went to the lady at the ticket window and we - before the line of people with reservations he had, moreover, never been in a museum in les six years he had lived outside of Florence we paid very little attention to it just admire paints and waved when we were ready to go at some point, when we had finished with a gallery and walked to the other, Gaston suddenly stopped, pulled the wheelchair a few feet, and stood and watched a canvas for several seconds, and then, satisfied, he moved to the next gallery, he told us at lunch that he has never been to a museum, but he will bring his wife and children to see them, we felt we had f has a real contribution to a family.
In Rome, Vincenzo spoke a word of English, he could say, OK, and that was, but we managed to communicate with our Italian breakfast and lots of sign language when we stopped to admire the baptismal font in the basilica St. Peter, he told me he had been baptized we do not know many people who can claim that he was an unemployed mover, and gave no sign of great interest in what we were doing, but in the Galleria Borghese, he identified some sculptures in the distance, by the sculptor and the subject.
In Paris, we hired a young Moroccan by an agency that was sensational, he did not speak English but our French is useful enough that we can have conversations with him Of course, we are taxis when there were available, but also we went into places you can not go in a wheelchair Sacred Heart is completely inaccessible guides say everything, but he found a way by the education authority, which has an elevator that is not for public use - unless you have a sensitive young french receptionist lady and a beautiful young Moroccan who knows how to use her charm.
Some of our strongest impressions of Europe, in fact, come from these men we hired to push wheelchairs.
Europe tends to be less accessible than the United States, they are aware of disabled people in large cities, certainly, and transportation, as I said, but you do not have a federal agency, you can threaten if things do not exactly go this path is where patience comes t You request; coax you.
And Europe itself has been there a long time and often has not been remodeled to meet special needs My wife says riding a wheelchair limits on paved roads still endurance shopping.
It is usually possible to move, but forget all Venice at each intersection involves a high flight ancient stone steps up and down, I understand wheelchair lifts were installed at four stairs that s four hundreds.
As inaccessible Pompeii, unfortunately you have to climb a steep hill to get there, and once there, it is a constant rise and in the streets doubled sewers in historic times we took a bus tour another mistake we haven t rehearsals and my wife ended up waiting 2-3 hours in the hotel where we had lunch while I went to Pompeii guide told me that the Guide Association has often talked about doing something for make it accessible to the disabled, but has not figured out how.
In other cities, prepare for obstacles everywhere and not insurmountable if you have strong men to help.
Avoid bus tours unless you are sure that you can enter and exit the bus with little or no help, and can follow the crowd Our travel agent got us a couple on our first trip and they were very unsatisfactory the drivers and guides had no patience for my wife There are bus tours especially for the handicapped We do not really charge as visits anyway, if t seemed to haven them.
A good rule of thumb is that you can t be too prepared, but you can t be too flexible plan for every eventuality, but try not to sweat when those you didn t plan for culture up.
Mary AOL tips See detailed notes of Mary Rome accessible.
Tom and Janet OR We have not had experience with travel in a wheelchair, but went to Italy in 1998 and France in 1999 with a parking permit for the handicapped We found plenty of parking that has designated for handicap surprised us in fact, the police were very helpful in helping us find the handicap spaces in areas that were crowded it worked well for us most of the time the largest city we used was in Siena.
Pauline notes on accessibility in Tuscany Many of the Tuscan countryside is not wheelchair accessible - these hills are really cities on hills You park outside the walls of the city cars are generally not allowed inside and you walk, very steep narrow roads to the top of the city, you do not see many people in wheelchairs in Italy.
There are some parts of Tuscany that are not too hilly, where you can drive in towns and cities are flatter Chianti, which is one of the most beautiful regions, is as Greve, Castellina, Gaiole - are not all your standard hill town for a first trip to Italy, I always recommend staying in Chianti It is anyway the most touristed area - which means there is plenty to do, great shopping, great restaurants .
If you stay in a vacation rental, you will need a car, but it will be a more relaxing way to travel if the disabled person needs a day to recover intense activity, they can be comfortable in their vacation rental.
Rick Steves has a good list of resources for disabled travelers.
Disability Now, website with information and travel forums.
The website of Bill Thayer has a page that lists most towns of Umbria and accessibility.
- Consorzio Cooperative Turismo per Tutti Integrate Tourism for everyone a project of the Cooperative Integrate Consortium, known as the Italian branch of a European-wide project to make tourism accessible to persons with disabilities.
No compulsion in train in Italy, a section Disability Now 1999.
The Paris Tourist Office publishes an excellent guide for Paris called Paris for all.
Mobile Site French city list books they book a Paris Commes clockwork, a Paris guide on the wheels, mainly for skaters and skateboarders, but they were intrigued by the possibility that it would be useful to people wheelchair, too.
The insertion of the Groupement pour Handicapped people I H G P Physical Support for the site of the physically disabled in French.
Travel Travel slow disabilities in Europe reached Europe, Travel, disabled, europe, accessible.
Disabled War Veteran's House, Dame Gruev 28, Skopje 1000, Македония (БЮРМ)