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Cape Town is a city of spectacular sights! If in a chair, take a cruise from the V&A waterfront. The city and table mountain will float by. Many wine and safari tours are accessible too!
If you have problems with walking and mobility, avoid the big Metro interchanges as the distances between lignes can be vast - ie Chatelet, Republic etc. You can often change at a stop a bit further down. For wheelchair users and parents with pushchairs, the Metro remains almost completely inaccessible.
Vancouver is consistently voted by tourists as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is also one of the most accessible!
Buses, SkyTrain and ferries are all great ways to explore. Take a ferry to Victoria and look out for killer whales!
North America's Disabled Adventurer
www.bluechairbook.com
Vancouver Tourism info.
If you are in a wheelchair visiting Sydney, getting into town is a breeze by using the subway from the airport to the centre of town.
Once downtown, buy a day or weekly pass. The rails are wheelchair friendly as are the Sydney Ferries. Using the ferries is a great way to explore the harbour and the city by getting off a various points. Some docks, like Neutral Bay, lead to steep hills up, so you may need to ask for a push, but if you smile, the Aussies will always help!
My recommendation is a visit to Manly.
North America's Disabled Adventurer.
www.bluechairbook.com
If you are in a wheelchair, book your trip to the reef on a flat decked catamaran! The ride out is quite smooth and easy for the disabled and if you can't snorkel, the staff may be able to help you into a semi-submersible to view all the wonderful life on the reef. They helped me do it!
Also, the train to the Kuranda rainforest is completely wheelchair friendly, as is the cable car, if you want to try that on the way back!
Cairns travel info, hotels, hostels, or tourist info kiosks.
www.bluechairbook.com
North America's Disabled Adventurer.
For wheelchair users, simply riding on a double decker bus is an excellent and cheap alternative to a special disabled tour. If you learn the routes and get a day pass, you can ride anywhere.
Additionally, in many taxis, you can just wheel in and go. The underground has many wheelchair-friendly stations and links to airports and the Chunnel, if you want a new and exciting way to explore the continent!
Contact any tourist info booth in London for details, or ask at the stations.
www.bluechairbook.com
North America's Disabled Adventurer
The upper track of the platforms are completely wheelchair friendly. Imagine wheeling through over 100 waterfalls in the tropics. Amazing!
Agentinca, Paraguay, Brazil border
www.bluechairbook.com
I have written a book (a series of humourous short stories) of my adventures over the years while backpacking, mostly alone, in my blue wheelchair. The book, 'Travels in a Blue Chair', documents my experiences over all six continents and through 28 countries, containing more than 55 stories. It's a twist on the usual backpacker book!
For a restful break in stunning countryside, we can highly recommend Les Anes de Vassivière, just outside Peyrat-le-Château in the department of Haute-Vienne, in the Limousin region.
There's a website (see below) with a superb selection of moer than 5,000 other farms throughout France, offering a variety of services.
400 of these farms have camping of one sort or another.
Les Anes de Vassivière,
Champseau
87470 Peyrat-le-Château.
www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com
Rome is overwhelming. But I have some reservations. Compared with other European cities its facilities for visitors are primitive. The main bus and tram station in front of the central station was a free for all for traffic (this is true of the city as a whole), and the melted tarmac was churned up into waves so that one had to totter across a petrified sea to catch a bus.
The ticket machines for the Metro were generally not working and there were vast queues for the one booth that seemed to be open. Indeed, queueing seemed to be imposed upon all visitors who wished to see any of the city's sights. Moreover, if you had a mobility difficulty, such as being confined to a wheelchair, you could forget a place like the Forum, which required climbing gear to explore it - so steep were the steps. There was litter everywhere.
In contrast Vatican City appeared well cared for and receptive to visitors. I wondered how much of the money made from visitors to Rome was being fed back into the conservation of monuments and improvements in facilities. I visited Rome for the first time in March 2006, and I would be interested to know if more recent visitors have seen progress in these respects.
Rome, Italy, Eternal City.
Many of the buses in Barcelona are wheelchair-friendly. The driver sees you and sends out an electric ramp to access the bus. These run on the two 'tourist' routes which link many sites of interest. Beware the steep hill up to Parc Guell!
Many of the buses in Barcelona are wheelchair-friendly. The driver sees you and sends out an electric ramp to access the bus. These run on the two 'tourist' routes that link many sites of interest. Beware the steep hill up to Parc Guell!
I have to use a wheelchair for any distance, so we took it on the bus into Seville (from campsite at Dos Hermanos, nearby). I managed the few steps on but my husband had to jam the wheelchair at the top of the rear exit. At a stop it fell out causing consternation to the driver/passengers and embarrassed giggles from us! But on the way back, we inadvertently got on the wrong bus, it stopped at a campsite - but one in the countryside outside Seville, everyone gesticulated at us to get off, we tried to explain it was not our 'camping' and several passengers conferred, then explained that we were miles from where we ought to have been. They told us to get off at the last stop and that the driver would show us a phone to get a taxi. But to our surprise and gratitude the driver just left his route and drove us all the way to our campsite. What a great guy!
Dos Hermanos Camping, south of Seville, bus stop across road, shops etc nearby.
I am 41, have cerebral palsy and am an out-going person and go anywhere in my wheelchair. I am unable to talk, so communication takes time to get used to.
I am interested in animals and anything to do with nature, so when I saw the epic-enabled advert I thought: “Wow, yes please,” quite expecting to be told I was too disabled.
But I was accepted on Alfie's tour in August 2005 and had an absolutely brilliant time. I have to have a special loo seat when I travel and this means I have extra luggage. This was not a problem. I took my carer, Caroline, with me on safari to the Kruger Park.
We saw all of the animals you can imagine, including monkeys, lions, leopards, hippos, elephants and giraffes.
We even saw two giraffes in courtship! They were about 50 metres away from our safari truck. We couldn't believe our luck, it was awesome to see them flirting with each other. I think I will remember that forever. The food was lovely as well.
The only problem I had was when we got to the bush camp and had to get out of my wheelchair to go on a "normal" safari truck. I am very floppy and despite being supported by Caroline and Denise on the seat, I wasn't very comfortable so I had to miss some of the trips round the reserve. Although I did meet Simba, the six month old lion cub. He was really inquisitive of our wheelchairs and very playful toward the rangers and his playmate, a six-month-old Labrador.
Not being able to sit on the normal safari truck didn't spoil my holiday because I had done everything else and met lots of lovely people.
14 Clovelly Road, Fish Hoek, 7975, Cape Town; tel/fax: 27 (0)21 782 9575; www.epic-enabled.com; info@epic-enabled.com
Located in the Huvösvölgy area, among the rolling western hills of Buda, Náncsi Néni vendéglője (Auntie Náncsi) has a reputation as being one of the most down-to-earth restaurants in Budapest. Yet it is an extremely popular restaurant with a formidable reputation among Budapest’s traditional food aficionados. It is reputed to be a favourite of Tony Curtis when he is in town and the place where politicians bring their foreign guests.
Somewhat out of the way it’s worth the effort getting there and is a wonderful place to eat when the courtyard garden is open for the long hot evenings of a Budapest summer and with food that’s ‘a hogy nagy mama főzött’ (just like granny cooked).
Ördögárok Ut 80, Budapest, H-1029
Open daily noon till late
Telephone: 398-7127
E-mail: asztalfoglalas@nancsineni.hu
www.nancsineni.hu/eng/index2.html
Unless you are familiar with Budapest access is easiest by taxi from Moskva tér or the No 157 bus from Hűvösvölgyi végállomás
A pleasant and cheap hotel located in a quiet town. Located 5 minutes from the small but nice beach, it is handy for commuting to the FIB festival (provided you have a car - there are buses though). Friendly staff and it's disabled friendly (there were a group staying there).
List of UK-wide pubs and restaurants with DISABLED ACCESS AND DISABLED TOILETS
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