Barrier-Free Travel Tips

I tell my mother, who can't even move most of the time due to Parkinson's disease: ''You can't walk, but you can go abroad.''

A loved one of yours can't walk, or you've made plans for a vacation with a friend, but their leg breaks just before you go. However, you want to go on vacation with the people you love and don't want them to miss out on this vacation. Here are some tips for such situations.

Information, experience and advice about the airport and flight:

• First of all, when you buy your loved one's ticket from the airline, you choose the wheelchair option, or better yet, after buying the ticket, you call the airline and have the wheelchair service added to your relative's ticket. The most important thing to pay attention to here is; when it's check-in time, NEVER do an online check-in for your relative's ticket or your own ticket! If you do, they remove the wheelchair service from the ticket. You don't even know.

• When you arrive at the airport, you go to the special service counter designated for passengers who receive wheelchair service. The staff here take your luggage and your loved one's and do the check-in procedures. They make you wait in that section until close to the plane's departure. When it's time to go, an officer comes with a wheelchair and takes your loved one. You all go to the gate together. It actually happens like this. The officer stands at the back of the electric wheelchair and uses the chair. You run after them. They come to the gate, seat you and leave. If the plane has docked at the bridge, they come and take you to the gate again at boarding time. If the plane is parked outside and your loved one cannot climb stairs (you state this on the phone when you receive the service), then they take you to the plane with an ambulift (a vehicle with an elevator) at takeoff time.

• There is a question that comes to mind a lot. What happens if the gate changes and the officer doesn't come on time to take me to the new gate and I miss the plane? In that case, the airline company gives you the closest plane tickets to that moment free of charge and if they don't have them that day, they provide you with accommodation at the airport hotel and give you a seat on the next day's plane.

• When you get off the plane, an attendant picks you up with a wheelchair. However, there is something here. You are always the last to board the plane and the last to get off. You wait on the plane for almost half an hour until the entire plane is empty. Even after everyone has gotten off, if the attendant has not arrived yet, you wait for him/her as well. Of course, since they are very busy, sometimes there can be a bit of a wait. The attendant accompanies you to the passport and baggage claim and drops you off at the airport exit gate.

• Regarding the luggage, I only buy luggage for one ticket for my mother and me. Because my mother does not have a situation like carrying luggage anyway and I cannot manage two suitcases at once, this method is quite convenient.

Now, let's come to the car rental issue:

Definitely send an e-mail to the company you are planning to rent the car from in advance, briefly explain the situation and ask if they can pick you up in front of the airport gate. Because some rental companies and their cars can be a few kilometers away from the airport. In that case, getting there after leaving the airport gate can be a problem. For example, when we went to Bucharest, they left us in front of the airport exit gate with a wheelchair and told us to leave the chair there while we were leaving. Someone from the car rental company came and picked us up and took us to the office. All of this made things easier for us. Otherwise, it would have been difficult.

Wheelchair rental:

There are companies that rent wheelchairs in some touristic cities. They leave the wheelchair at your hotel or home on the date you arrive. They also go and pick it up after you leave. If you are going to other cities and are returning to the airport on the last day, you can leave it with the company on your return. (You need to talk to the company about this in advance.) There are also many types of wheelchairs. The electric scooter-style ones can also be handled by the user. These are a great option for people who only have problems with their legs. However, when renting these, both the weight of the user and the weight and dimensions of the scooter are important. If you are going to put it in the trunk of your car and go somewhere else, you need to check whether it will fit in the trunk and most importantly, whether you can lift it to put it in the trunk.

When renting a house or hotel, you also need to pay attention to the following:

• The accommodation must have an elevator or be on the ground floor. There should be no steps.

• If you are traveling with a wheelchair, you should check this in the filters when searching for a hotel or house. This way, you will be sure that there will be corridors and doors wide enough for your wheelchair to pass through.

• It should be in a central location as much as possible. In other words, you should be able to leave your house and come to the historical city center, beautiful squares and restaurants by walking a little or pushing a chair. You should not be on a slope either.

• It should also have a parking lot. However, there is a very important point here. Maybe you have experienced it yourself. Even if you mark the parking lot in the filters section of the application where you will rent a hotel or a house, the accommodation units you come across may not have a private parking lot for you. They may talk about free and paid parking lots on the street or paid parking lots nearby. This may mean difficulty or even impossibility for you.

  
  

In order to be sure of all this, it would be very good to send an e-mail to the landlord or hotel and get information.