Top wheelchair accessible holidays

The number of fully wheelchair accessible holidays out there is still not enough, but it’s growing healthily. A day will hopefully come when the only barrier to what people can experience on holiday is their imagination. We have a feeling it’s not too far off. Catalonia is among the world’s most committed destinations for accessible tourism, but it’s far from alone. Wheelchair users can take a classic South African safari with confidence; travel deep into the forest in search of rare mountain gorillas; discover the wilds of the Antarctic, or visit the ancient temples of Japan. Time to take the brakes off.

A land of ancient wonders it may be, but when it comes to wheelchair accessible travel Egypt is certainly not stuck in the past. You can travel world-famous sites such as the Great Pyramids with specialist tour operators who understand that accessibility requirements vary from person to person. And when it comes to touring the iconic temples along the Nile, you can board a luxury, wheelchair accessible cruise ship, with all transfers in appropriate vehicles too.

When to go: All year-round
Our top selling trip: Wheelchair accessible Nile cruise
Read more: Nile cruising travel guide

“On the bullet train there is a choice of regular seating, where one seat in a row of three is removed, or a private ‘multi-purpose’ room, which must be booked in advance. The station staff are typically extremely helpful – 10 minutes before boarding, they will escort you onto the train and also ring ahead to the end station to ensure there is someone to greet and help you at the other end. All bullet trains have an accessible toilet. It’s a similar story on the subway in the main cities. There tends to be an allocated wheelchair space on the city buses too, and more and more wheelchair accessible taxis are appearing in Tokyo.”

“We need to clarify the client’s exact requirements, so we need to ask a lot of questions and encourage people to be as open as possible about their needs. This can be time-consuming for both parties but ensures they will get the best possible experience. We provide detailed information about bedrooms and bathrooms in our Info Packs – this includes layout plans of the bathrooms, and handy English-Japanese phrases so for those with particular needs or concerns, we can provide additional phrases in anticipation of specific issues. We have a bilingual customer support team, based in Nagoya Japan 24/7 and they will sort out problems or emergencies on behalf of the client.”

“A number of traditional restaurants in Japan aren’t wheelchair accessible because they have tatami mat floors and low seating. However, there are a number of fantastic options that are. We know which restaurants are/aren’t accessible and can make reservations in advance. In our experience, wheelchair travellers don’t want anyone else in the party to have to make sacrifices for them. All of our trips are carefully tailored to ensure that everyone gets to enjoy the same activities. We pre-arrange transport so that everyone can travel together and work with a company that runs Japanese cultural experiences in an accessible room.”

“In Rwanda, the walk in the throne chair very much depends on the location of the gorilla families. It can be as little as 30 minutes or as long as four to five hours. There are currently seven main groups that can be tracked in Rwanda; they vary in number from around nine to 39 individuals. Of the seven groups, there are a couple that tend to be found on the saddle between Mount Sabyinyo and Mount Gahinga which is around a two hour walk from the park entrance. Nothing is guaranteed though and you may find yourself tracking a group such as the Susa, first studied by Diane Fossey and often found on the slopes of Mount Visoke, a five hour hike away. So the walk can be very up and down and yes, there can be overhanging branches.”

“In South Africa, some properties are graded as wheelchair friendly, while others have room types that could be used or adapted to suit (ie. closer to the main areas, open-plan etc). The safaris are more challenging in as yet, there are no vehicles that have been specifically adapted for electronic wheelchair users – rangers tend to lift the guest in and out of the vehicle. It is therefore really important to understand the severity of the disability and the size of the guest when we plan their trip.”