Touring Northern Spain in a Wheelchair Van – tabifolk, an accessible travel community

Planning an Itinerary (click the link for the full article)

I believe that all mobility-challenged travellers would need some assistance when planning such a trip. In the UK that assistance was provided by ‘Keytours International’ the UK representative for Paradores. In Spain since 1928, a Parador is a state-owned luxury hotel, usually located in a converted historic building such as a monastery or castle, or in a modern building in a nature area with a special appeal or with a panoramic view of a historic and monumental city. Simon Miller, Founder at Enable My Trip spends a great deal of time liaising with appropriate accommodation suppliers. Following a meeting in 2022 with Paradores España, they supplied Enable My Trip (EMT) with a list of accessible Paradores throughout Spain, which are featured on EMT’s website.

We needed to explain that our daughter did not need to sleep in a bed. This is due to her disability as she is more comfortable when travelling, to sleep in her fully reclining wheelchair. She is also tube fed as has no requirement for food in the normal way. The excellent agent at Keytours worked with us ensuring that we were not charged for food for Vicki (e.g. if breakfast was included) and planned the whole trip meticulously., explaining our exact requirements. Getting across this kind of message to multiple properties without help could have proved difficult, explaining in Spanish the needs of the party. Thank you Keytours for a job well done!

The plan was to experience taking our daughter Vicki, a permanent wheelchair user on the Brittany Ferries route from the UK to Spain, and experience staying in Paradores. We needed our large wheelchair van so that we could carry all her essential items easily plus an all-terrain buggy as well as an electric patient hoist. Please click on the link to see the full blog and lots of images of accessible rooms and bathrooms. ( It is 27 pages!) https://www.enablemytrip.com/images/Northern-Spain-Road-Trip.pdf

Published in Travel

About Author

Simon from Enable My Trip

We exist to enable those with mobility challenges to source suitable accommodation and travel services when travelling for business or pleasure. The charity seeks to offer services whereby disabled travellers are offered the fullest choice, not limited to listings purely governed by an organisation's financial strength or corporate identity. When it comes to planning a holiday, disabled travellers and their families can often have a difficult time finding a suitable hotel or wheelchair-accessible transfers, largely due to the lack of accessibility information provided by companies. Enable My Trip is a charity that makes accessible travel easier. Our online directory includes thousands of accommodation listings, tour operators and various support services - all specifically tailored for travellers with disabilities. The charity is run by a small team of dedicated volunteers who research accessible travel services and accommodation, then list them on our website and pin them to our map. We also post regular blog articles on travel advice and recommendations. Unlike commercially driven ventures, we do not charge commission rates or fees to any businesses listed on our website, nor are we affiliated with or funded by private backers. Therefore, everything you find on Enable My Trip is honest and transparent. We do not promote or prioritise one particular type of accommodation over another. We purposefully seek out small, independent businesses that cannot afford the listing fees or commission rates charged by the large accommodation booking websites. We rely solely on donations and fundraising to operate our service. Our function is, simply, to identify travel products and services suitable for travellers with disabilities, and catalogue them on our website. Just so you know, you cannot make a booking through Enable My Trip because we are not an online travel agent. We are a source of knowledge and information

Planning an Itinerary (click the link for the full article)

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