10 Tips for Finding Wheelchair-Accessible Lodging

~ Although it’s been well over a decade since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, wheelchair-users and slow walkers still have problems finding accessible lodging. In fact, according to a 2005 Harris Interactive survey, 60% of disabled travellers experienced problems with their overnight lodging choices.

“Finding an accessible room would be an easy task if every accessible room had the same standard features,” explains Candy Harrington, author of 101 Accessible Vacations; Travel Ideas for Wheelers and Slow Walkers. “But that’s not the way it works in real life. In reality, two properties located right next door to one another may have vastly different accessibility standards, so travellers need to ask the right questions in order to get a room that suits their needs.”

In the end, a little advance planning mixed with a healthy dose of self advocacy goes a long way towards finding the appropriate room. Here are Harrington’s tips for accomplishing that task.

• Never just ask for an “accessible” or an “ADA compliant” room. Instead, describe the access features you need.
• In Europe, if you need a room with an accessible bathroom, ask for an adapted room. An accessible room only features a barrier-free path of travel; however an adapted room also contains an adapted shower and toilet.
• Make sure and ask about the availability of elevators, especially in small European properties. It’s not unusual for a property to have an accessible room that can only be accessed by a stairway.
• If you need a roll-in shower, ask for one. This is not a standard feature in all accessible or even adapted rooms. Specify your needs.
• Always call the property directly, rather than calling the central reservation number.
• Bed height is not regulated under the ADA, so make sure and ask for measurements. Many properties are replacing their standard mattresses with high pillow top and luxury models.
• Avoid yes or no questions. For example, ask the clerk to describe the bathroom, rather than just asking if the bathroom is accessible.
• Ask the reservation agent to fax you a floor plan of the accessible room. This will give you the dimensions of the room, but remember that access can vary depending on the placement of furniture.
• If you have difficulty determining if a room will suit your needs, ask to speak to somebody who has recently been in the room. Employees in the housekeeping or engineering departments usually have a good knowledge of access features of the individual rooms.
• Remember to ask the reservation agent if the accessible room can be blocked for you. If the answer is “no” or “sometimes”, then find another hotel. Remember, even the most accessible room in the world won’t work for you, if that room isn’t available when you arrive.

Finally, always trust your instincts. If a reservation agent hems and haws, gives ambiguous answers or sounds inept, call back and talk to another reservation agent or call a different property. When in doubt, always go with your gut.

101 Accessible Vacations; Travel Ideas for Wheelers and Slow Walkers is published by Demos Publishing and is available from your favourite bookstore or on-line at www.101AccessibleVacations.com. Visit Candy Harrington’s Barrier Free Travels blog at www.BarrierFreeTravels.com for more helpful access tips, news, resources and information for disabled travellers.

Image courtesy of Orlando Fun Tickets…

Top Travel Social Networks

~ One of the methods I have been using for help with research into my forthcoming trip is social networks geared around travel enthusiasts.

You will no doubt be familiar with social network sites like MySpace, Facebook and the more recent phenomenon – Twitter. These sites are very general in their nature and makeup in that they attract and appeal to a huge broad range of users. However, if you are currently researching your next vacation, these sites (and the many others like them), may not be the best way to connect with travellers who have already visited the locations you are planning to travel to.

To connect with travellers all over the world, you need to join one or more of the many travel related social networking sites available online. I myself am a member of the Trip Advisor forums, BootsnAll, and the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forums. But there are many more. Thankfully, John Van Kirk, the Travel Answer Man has put together a list of ten of the best travel social networking sites, which includes the three I am signed up with.

Along with the three already mentioned, John includes Dopplr – a site which lets users create trip itineraries and find travel tips created by other travellers; Trip Wolf – which is similar to Facebook for travel because of its “friends” and “travelers” features; and Virtual Tourist – which John claims is the web’s largest travel community and social network, although I suspect Trip Advisor might question this claim.

All these sites have many common features such as the ability to ask questions in location specific forums; the ability to post reviews of hotels, café’s and restaurants, and almost anything else; space to upload trip photographs; the capacity to plan trip itineraries, and many more features. Of course these sites work best when you contribute to the discussions, reviews, and other areas of the sites where input is encouraged by travellers just like you.

Even if you are yet to travel away from your own home town, you can make positive contributions by joining discussions related to your home town or city. After all, those who are best placed to write about a particular location, are the locals. So get involved, and join a world wide community of travellers. You’ll be glad you did.

John Van Kirk has broken his list of top travel social networks into two posts on his blog. Click here for Part One; and click here for Part Two…

The Week That Was #7

~ Welcome to my weekly collection of The Odd, The Useful, and The Downright Bizarre.

The Odd: Top 5 Naked Events And Top 5 Nude Beaches. I bet that got your attention! Those people over at Tripso.Com have a feature on the top nude events and beaches around the world. They even mention Maslins Beach (Australia’s first official nude beach), here in South Australia, which apparently hosts the Nude Beach Olympics in January. I wonder if they will let me down there with my video camera to film a clip for this blog?

The Useful: Ten Tips for Planning a Round The World Trip.

Planning a trip is always part of the adventure of travelling, and even more so if it’s a round-the-world (RTW) trip across many countries on various continents. Planning a trip around the world is a fun experience but keep in mind that there are various distinct aspects involved that are usually a non-issue for a typical ’single-destination’ holiday. These include varying costs and climates in different countries. When I prepared my RTW trip last year, I made many notes along the way, organising them by region. My notes included things I wanted to see, transportation, costs and accommodation options. I also created a checklist for other important aspects such as travel health insurance and things to pack. Read more here...

The Downright Bizarre: 35 of The World’s Most Bizarre Hotels. Hot on the heals of last weeks entry about 21 strange and unusual hotels, comes Newsday with their online feature about the very same thing. Not to be outdone, Newsday has photographs and information for 35 out of the ordinary hotels including covered wagons,

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing – enjoy the rest of the weekend.