Candy B. Harrington - 101 Accessible Vacations. Travel Ideas for Wheelers and Slow Walkers

TRAVEL IDEAS
FOR
WHEELERS
AND
SLOW WALKERS

TRAVEL IDEAS
FOR
WHEELERS
AND
SLOW WALKERS

Candy B. Harrington

PHOTOGRAPHS BY
CHARLES PANNELL

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2008 Candy B. Harrington. All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Harrington, Candy.
101 accessible vacations : travel ideas for wheelers and slow walkers / Candy B. Harrington ; photographs by Charles Pannell.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-932603-43-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-932603-43-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. People with disabilitiesTravel. I. Title. II. Title: One hundred and one accessible vacations. III. Title: Travel ideas for wheelers and slow walkers.
HV3022.H36 2008
910.873dc22
2007028496

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Book design by Steven Pisano

Made in the United States of America
10 5 4 3 2

TO
Charles

A project of this magnitude doesnt happen without a lot of help. The research for this book was, at best, daunting, and a big thank you goes out to every PR person who answered my questions, showed me a room, set up an itinerary, gave me directions, arranged an interview or otherwise granted my special access-related requests. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated and if it werent for your help, Id probably still be researching this book.

Several other people deserve to be singled out, and to them Id like to offer a more personal word of thanks.

To PB, who helped put things into perspective when I had 75 more destinations to write about, no clean clothes, a broken telephone and a very big headache.

To Noreen, Phyllis and Steve for their encouragement, knowledge and assistance.

To Jenna, for encouraging me to use Alder Springs as my creative space. You gave me the final push I needed.

To Chet and the boys, for making the Alder Springs property a very comfortable place to write this book.

To Bonnie, for setting the bar high and always encouraging me to do things the right way instead of the easy way.

To all of the Emerging Horizons readers who have written or e-mailed me about an accessible destination, lodging or activity. Many of your suggestions were used in this book.

And, most importantly, to Charles, for taking and cataloguing thousands of photos for this project. And for tirelessly reading my text, choosing the right photos and captioning them. And for climbing that fence to get the cover shot! But most of all, for just being there.

Where can I go on vacation?

As the editor of Emerging Horizons, Ive been asked that question a lot over the years. A whole lot.

There Id be, giving a presentation on accessible travel, and somebody would stick their hand up in the air. Since I was talking about air travel, I figured they had a question about seating or wheelchair assistance or even the boarding procedure. But no, the question was always the same.

Where can I go on vacation?

At first I didnt know quite how to answer it. I mean, here was this person who I didnt know from Adam, asking me where I thought he should go on vacation. What was I suppose to tell him?

So I usually answered it with my own question.

Well, that depends, Id say What do you like to do?

That usually just confused people more. It was routinely met with that standard deer-in-the-headlights stare and the dreaded, What do you mean?

Well, I clarified What kind of things do you like to do when you are on vacation? Do you like to visit museums, hike, shop, ski, gamble, drive, boat, enjoy nature, see plays, visit historical buildings or perhaps something else? Tell me what you like to do so I can give you recommendations based on your tastes After all, if you like museum hopping, my suggestion to visit the Everglades would be pretty useless to you. Give me something to work with here.

Again, the deer-in-the-headlights stare.

And so the dance continued, until one day I finally figured out the problem. All of a sudden it hit me when a business writer interviewed me for a piece on accessible travel.

So, where can disabled people go on vacation? he asked. Well, I quipped, They can pretty much go wherever they want. Last time I looked, there were no laws prohibiting them from crossing state lines.

Dead silence.

No, he said, Cant you just list the accessible destinations for meyou know, like Disneyland. Everyone knows disabled people like to go to Disneyland, but Id also like some other suggestions to share with my readers. Ill make it easy for you; just give me a list of accessible destinations in the US.

At that moment, the little light bulb went on in my head. This writer, like a lot of other people, thought there was this great master list of accessible vacation spots, with Disneyland at the top of the list. It never occurred to him that people should look for accessible vacation destinations the same way they look for any other vacation destinationbased on their own personal tastes and preferences.

Now dont get me wrong; I dont have anything against Disneyland or any other theme park for that matter. Truth is, most theme parks have gone to great lengths to make their attractions as accessible as possible. My point is, just because you happen to be disabled doesnt mean that you automatically like theme parks. If you dont like theme parks, you just dont like theme parks.

Unfortunately, over the years, theme parks have usually been the top (and sometimes only) accessible recommendation by many travel professionals. Even today, if you happen to run across a travel agent who is not well versed in accessible travel, she or he will undoubtedly recommend a Disney World package the minute you mention the word wheelchair.

But thats not the way it has to be. Really. In fact, thats the reason for this book.

Over the past decade, Ive spent a good deal of time on the road researching accessible destinations for Emerging Horizons. Truth be told, Ive covered everything from accessible tide pools and sailing to museums, national parks, cruising and factory tours. Granted, some destinations took a little more research and legwork than others, but, in the end, I came home with some great resources and vacation ideas.

And this book contains many of those ideas, along with the resources, information and access details to make those ideas a reality. Think of it as an accessible-vacation idea book with substance.

Of course, once I got all this information together, the real challenge was putting it in a logical order. Most travel books arrange their chapters geographically, but that just wouldnt work for this book. After all, how do you know if you want to go to California or Texas or Indiana if you dont know what those places have to offer? Ultimately I decided to organize the book by activity, so people could decide where they want to go based on their specific interests and travel preferences. Truthfully, thats the way most people plan their vacations anywayby interest, not necessarily by location.