Travel resources
Blind travellers
Holidays for blind or visually impaired people, and sighted travellers (who get substantial discounts) can be booked through Traveleyes (08448 040 221, traveleyes-international.com). Itineraries include six days in Edinburgh and Skye, for £799pp (£199 sighted travel assistants), two weeks in Brazil and Argentina (£3,399/£1,999 including flights), a tour of Kerala, India, or of Vietnam, or to hear the best music in the US's deep south. Blind bloggers to read include Tony Giles (tonythetraveller.com), and Canadian Ryan Knighton, who wrote a great piece for the Observer on his trip to Cairo (ryanknighton.com). Whitestick.co.uk collates useful websites with holiday ideas for blind travellers. For advice about air travel and travelling with guide dogs, visit direct.gov.uk.
Travellers with learning difficulties
Netbuddy (netbuddy.org.uk) helps carers and families travelling with someone with learning difficulties to plan a break, from accommodation to independent activities, with personal recommendations and tips. The Disability Holidays Guide (disabilityholidaysguide.com) lists all sorts of trips, from city stays and beach holidays to respite breaks.
Earlier this year, this paper ran a story about Seahorses, a B&B on the Isle of Wight run by people with learning difficulties, for learning-disabled and mainstream guests. For information and reservations: 01983 752574, seahorsesisleofwight.com.
Transport
According to Abta, under European law (regulation 1107/2006), all passengers who have a disability can receive assistance when they fly, free of charge. For information visit abta.com. Services such as I Love Meet and Greet (ilovemeetandgreet.co.uk) park travellers' cars for them at Gatwick, saving you the trudge from the car park. Children's disability charity Meru (meru.org.uk) has designed a TravelChair to give in-flight postural support to severely disabled children, available on Monarch and Virgin, among others.
Spas
Spabreaks.com (0800 043 6600), which books breaks to more than 500 spas in the UK and abroad, has launched an Accessible Spas initiative. All venues that have accessible facilities will marked with a symbol on their website.
Stylish hotels
I-escape.com, which lists fabulous affordable hotels around the world, offers 331 properties with disabled access, including 11 in Costa Rica, 25 in France, 17 in Argentina and 13 in Australia. Search under its "must-have" section for "disabled access".
Holiday ideas
Safaris in Africa
Gordon Rattray, author of Access Africa – Safaris for People with Limited Mobility, recommends Go Africa Safaris (go-africa-safaris.com), which specialises in east African trips; Endeavour Safaris (endeavour-safaris.com) for South African safaris, and Epic Enabled (epic-enabled.com), a southern African operator offering overland adventures. Also, in Zambia, Norman Carr Safaris' main lodge, Kapani (normancarrsafaris.com) on the banks of the Luangwa river, is wheelchair-accessible, as are most of its lodges. Sanctuary Retreats (sanctuaryretreats.com) operates several luxury camps. In Kenya's Masai Mara, Olonana, a riverside camp with opportunities to spot the big five, now has wheelchair-accessible pathways. Gorilla Forest Camp in Uganda's remote Bwindi Impenetrable Forest offers customised sedan chairs on its walking safaris, so less able-bodied guests can be carried into the rainforest to track gorillas (though they do regularly come into the camp).
Canada
The host of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, Whistler, a mountain resort in British Columbia, offers many accessible sports venues and public spaces. In winter, the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program offers skiing and snowboarding lessons; in summer, kayaking, canoeing, hand-cycling and hiking are led by staff and volunteers. Snowmobiling, sleigh rides, dog-sledding and even wheelchair bungee jumps can be arranged. In summer it runs the free three-day Freewheel Whistler Camp (liveitloveit.org) for people who have recently sustained spinal injuries, offering kayaking, trail rider hiking, bungee jumping, ziplining, rock climbing and mentoring workshops. For general details on accessing the resort, visit whistlerblackcomb.com.
Caribbean beaches
Virgin Holidays (0844 557 3998, virginholidays.co.uk, email special.assistance@virginholidays.com) offers free use of special beach wheelchairs in selected hotels in Antigua, Barbados and St Lucia. A week in Antigua, including flights from Gatwick, costs from £965pp at the 3V+ Jolly Beach – the property is fully accessible and has a wheelchair-adapted room.
American adventure
The spectacular state of Utah is pushing itself as a great accessible destination, with access to thrilling activities such as skiing, exploring the five national parks, and white-water rafting on the Colorado river. For information on the national parks, visit nps.gov, stateparks.utah.gov/about and blm.gov.ut, and for holidays and activities, Trails (Therapeutic Recreation And Independent Life Styles) has developed programmes for those with spinal cord injuries. Splore (splore.org) organises rafting, rock-climbing and more. Salt Lake City airport has a useful website (slcairport.com/special-needs.asp), with details on car rental companies offering hand-controlled cars (slcairport.com/rental-cars.asp). Wheelchair Getaways (wheelchairgetaways.com) can meet visitors at the airport with a fully-accessible, ramp-equipped van hires out accessible vans all over the US.
Culture in China
Travel agency The China Guide (+86 10 8532 1860, TheChinaGuide.com) provides customised trips – from day excursions to holidays – for wheelchair users around the country's cultural attractions and cities, such as the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and in a cable car up to the Great Wall. In Shanghai, most popular sights are wheelchair-accessible.
Europe
Germany's tourist board (germany.travel) is trying to promote "barrier-free" travel – with suggestions that include exploring the North Sea landscape on a mudflat buggy across the Wadden Sea mudflats, and rail journeys with DB Bahn. Düsseldorf (duesseldorf-barrierefrei.de) offers guided city tours for the hearing impaired, blind people and wheelchair users. Reader Bella D'Arcy wrote in to suggest Accessible Italy (accessibleitaly.com), through which she hired a mobility scooter to explore Rome, for around £100 a day, delivered to her hotel. Then the fun started, she said: "In Rome, the traffic was excellent at avoiding me. Sometimes there was a slope from the pavement to a lower level, for an alley, sometimes not. But both Italians and tourists were very good at stopping to help my friends push the scooter up and down. Going up and down the pedestrian narrower streets on the way to St Peter's was a doddle, with lots of coffee shops to stop at."
Rail holidays
Railbookers (020-3327 2423, railbookers.com), which arranges rail holidays direct from the UK all over Europe, says Eurostar has two designated wheelchair areas for which it offers reduced fares. Railbookers also arranges rail journeys combined with a flight in destinations such as Malaysia, Tanzania and Kazakhstan, and can look into access on each route and find suitable hotels.
UK
Various UK cottage websites collate or let you search for accessible properties. Try enjoybedandbreakfast.com, which has launched an Accessible B&B Collection, featuring places that can offer support for the hearing/visually impaired or those with mobility problems, who might need wet rooms or wheelchair access. Premier Cottages (01580 200 452, premiercottages.co.uk) has a range of cottages awarded mobility, vision or hearing grades under the National Accessibility Scheme, such as Bardown Farm in East Sussex, a collection of several cottages which can be rented individually (the Calf Shed sleeps four from £485 per week) or together to sleep 16. It has a rare 5-star Gold award, a pool, and stylish rooms with wooden beams. There's also Kerridge End Holiday Cottages in Cheshire, with a converted barn, the Hayloft, sleeping six and suitable for wheelchair users, from £525 a week.
In Cornwall, the hip art deco-style St Moritz hotel (stmoritzhotel.co.uk) has developed a fully accessible area with a main suite and two additional rooms for family, friends or carers, a low oven and kitchen units for wheelchair users, a hoist rail in the smartly decorated bedroom, wheelchair accessible shower with waterproof chair, and Chiltern invadex body dryer. It also works with local surf company Wavehunters, which is experienced at providing surf lessons for wheelchair users. The hotel also has a cowshed spa. A package in the suite costs £210pp per night, including half-board, a cocktail and a surf lesson.
Bournemouth's seven-mile beach has lifts all along its cliff-top for easy access, and specially designed beach wheelchairs for hire. New, accessible beach huts from Seagull and Windbreak, are available for daily or weekly hire (from £8.50 a day, 01202 451773). The huts all have mobility scooter charging points, accessible public toilet and shower, and changing rooms with a ceiling-mounted tracking hoist. The stylish four-star Norfolk Hotel (norfolk-royale.co.uk) in the town centre has four specially adapted disabled rooms.
For general information on holidays in England, Visit England's website (visitengland.com/accessforall). For Scotland, see visitscotland.com/accommodation/accessible, and Web Cottages (webcottages.co.uk) lists disabled-access properties.
In west Wales, Disabled Access Holidays (disabled-access-holidays.co.uk) is a stylish retreat in Aberporth, Ceredigion, sleeping five from £600 per week. Or try Bryn Elltyd, in a gorgeous spot in Snowdonia (ecoguesthouse.co.uk); the owners' daughter is an occasional wheelchair user, so the staff have received disability training and some have sign language. There is also the Lake Vyrnway Hotel (lakevyrnwy.com/home) in mid-Wales, which has a good spa. Many Gower beaches (Caswell Bay, Oxwich Bay, Rhossili) have ramp access, and Landeez beach wheelchairs (01792 635483) can be hired.
For more information on accessible visits in Britain, see Open Britain.net, for national parks, nationalparks.gov.uk, and for gardens, accessiblegardens.org.uk.
