One of the biggest challenges that I have had since the injury which left me in a wheelchair, is finding great hotels, and making traveling as easy as possible. I love to travel and I always have but since the accident it has become far more complicated to get around and see all of the things that I wanted to see. I recently went on a trip to London and for the first time in a long time, I had an amazing experience and wasn’t limited at all because of my chair. If you are interested in getting around and finding accessible hotels in London, here is what to look out for.
Hotel Specs
As one would expect with a city like London, there are a huge amount of accessible hotels available to you depending on your specifications. My experience in other parts of the world with accessible hotels has been pretty poor and it seems that many think just because their rooms have large bathrooms that it somehow makes it disability friendly. In London however, things are how they should be with large doorways, plenty of large bathrooms, stair lifts and chair lifts as well as ground floor rooms for those in chairs.
Locations
Whilst I did say that getting around was pretty easy, I must stress that the reasons behind this were because of the smart decisions that I made. To begin with I decided to stay in Central London, close to all of the landmarks and places that I wanted to visit, this meant minimal traveling on public transport. I also decided that I would avoid the tube and the bus, and spend a little extra on black cabs to get me to the places that I wanted to go to. I must add that even pushing myself around the streets was pretty easy as the paved streets are well maintained and there are no holes or broken footpaths on the main streets. Work out what it is that you want to see and then select a hotel which is close to them all.
Shuttle
I learned after my trip to London that there are many hotels which specialise in hosting guests with limited mobility, and these hotels very often have shuttles which can take their guest to certain points around the city. I would definitely recommend that you look out for these hotels as my bill for the black cabs did end up running quite high. The idea of having a shuttle on hand which you can use as and when you like is a massive bonus, especially if you use a wheelchair and want to see as much as London as possible.
The underground and the buses are wheelchair friendly but the sheer volume of people who use them can often cause problems so I would avoid them. London does have some excellent hotels for wheelchair users but still make sure that you check all of the details about the hotel to ensure that it is the right fit for you.