Tips - Wheelchair Vacation Travel Helps for the Wheelchair Tourist

Travel Helps for Wheelchair Tourists

Our Tips page offers ideas, suggestions and travel helps for planning and experiencing a successful wheelchair vacation. This page is dynamic – we add more ideas as they come to us so check back often.

The Oculus Go and Wheelchair Travel

I agonize each Christmas on what to get Leslie and it has been this way for a long time. Last year was no exception, but somehow, I came across ads about the Oculus Go. I knew she wouldn’t get way into virtual reality (VR) and so the price point on the Oculus Go seemed right. She could mess around with it some and maybe watch some of the programs she enjoys on it for a more theatrical viewing experience. I ended up buying one and was actually rather excited to give it to her.

Christmas came, and as I expected, the Oculus Go was the thing to play around with during the laid back week between Christmas and New Year’s. We downloaded 3D apps to put on it, we battled zombies and watched ‘Blue’ from Jurassic Park and it was a lot of fun.

I had no clue how valuable it would when it came to helping plan vacations with the wheelchair. There is an application called “Wander” that is sort of a Google Earth VR. You can choose a location from a map and get right down on some of the trails in the area which lets you see nearly firsthand if you will be able to get around all right in a wheelchair, jogger stroller, or whatever else equipment you may be considering to take with you.

We will post more tips in the future!

Expanding Destinaions with FreeWheel

I spoke about FreeWheel in my my first post to this blog, but I wanted to mention it on the “Tips” page so people won’t miss it. Freewheel is a great little wheelchair tool to expand the ability to navigate to more places than just a nicely paved trail or concrete sidewalk.

It is quite portable as well so it is easy to pack along wherever you might be headed for adventure. Know that I am NOT getting any type of ‘referral commission’ for saying this – I am just a satisfied customer who had more terrain opened up to us to explore by wheelchair, so I think it’s a great thing.

It can also provide a measure of safety on those paved paths that have aged some and cracked. I have tried to show this in the photo below – the wheel will glide right over cracks like this instead of stopping dead and spilling the wheelchair passenger.

Obviously, I have enjoyed this little attachment when we have been out and about. Pricey, yes, but worth it!

Reduce Travel Costs with an Access Pass to National Parks

The National Park Service offers a special pass to those with disabilities which basically allows them and family members in the same vehicle free admission to all of the national parks and monuments in the United States. The pass itself is free of charge and can be secured a variety of ways that are explained here.

While visiting national parks in the US is quite a good travel deal to begin with, if you stop at several parks or monuments in the same trip, the costs can add up. On a road trip through Colorado this fall, our pass probably saved us around $100 in admission fees due to our stops at Dinosaur National Monument, Great Sand Dunes, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

The pass is the size of a credit card in inserts into a holder that just dangles for your rear-view mirror while you are in a national park or monument. Photos of a current one are shown below:

Look for Local Events and Exhibits

Earlier this month (January 2020), I reaped the benefits of being a freeloader – my son-in-law got Jamie’s twin, Lauren, a night skiing pass for two for Christmas and so I got to ski free with her one Thursday evening. Feeling slight guilt about not paying anything, I offered to take her to dinner before heading to the slopes and we found ourselves ordering gourmet burgers at The Cheesecake Factory. The hostess seated us where we could practically touch elbows with the people at the next table down, but we knew we would not be there long.

While waiting to be served, Lauren asked me about my recent visit to The Leonardo to see “Pompeii: The Exhibition”. This collection of pristine artifacts unearthed from the ash of the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly two millennia ago is in Salt Lake through the beginning of May and it caught the attention of our entire family. I mean, how often in your life do you get an opportunity like this?! I have to include just one photo of what we saw – the items were in such good shape that I could picture Leslie ordering any of them from Wayfair and eagerly awaiting home delivery:

As our conversation progressed, we piqued the interest of a lady at the next table over and she joined in to learn of the exhibition hours so she could go. So, what does all this have to do with a wheelchair vacation? Well, it got me to thinking of several times on vacations how we just “accidentally” came across things that were going on in the area that ended up being fun. Most recently, when we were waiting to be seated for a late lunch at the Halifax Waterfront, a tight formation of small jets flew overhead with decorative red and white smoke trailing them. They flew over several times and I found myself wishing I had a better view of what ended up being a flyover of the British aerobic team, “Red Arrows”. Another time, and this was on the somber side of travel experiences, we came across an exhibit from Arkansas artist V. L. Cox. while waiting to enter the presentation at the Rosa Parks Museum. It was unique, thought-provoking, and sobering to see. Upon returning home from that trip, I could not help but share this on Facebook:

You can count on events and exhibits to be wheelchair accessible and they will very often give you a once in a lifetime experience. It takes a fair amount of effort to plan a wheelchair vacation, but it might be a good idea while doing so to spend an extra five or ten minutes exploring what will be going on in the area you will be visiting. You might find yourself enjoying an entertaining event or engaging exhibit that would have otherwise been missed.