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Handicap travel in Spain

Posted by on

My family will be traveling to Spain in April and my dad will probably be in a wheelchair. This would be our first accessible trip so I'm a bit at a loss of where to start. I did read http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/i-shouldnt-be-alive-spain-italyin-augustin-a-wheelchair.cfm which was quite interesting. We are flying in/out of Madrid and will be renting a car to drive down to Andalucia.
My main questions are:
- Any hotel recommendations that would have elevators/wheelchair access? (in Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba/Granada) Any suggestions of websites to book these at? Hotels.com has a handicap filter but I'm not sure how accurate it is and I also don't know how the parking situation will be at the hotel. I don't speak any Spanish so may be difficult to communicate with the hotels directly.
- What are the chances of the hotel having handicap parking? Or would it be better to just park the car outside the city and take taxis around? We do have a handicap placard which I hear should allow us more flexibility with parking.
- Anyone know if you can rent wheelchairs in Madrid or if we should just try to bring one from the States (we do not currently have one, although we may by April. We will see)

My main concerns are mostly just getting around the city. It looks like many of the sights are now accessible, and I guess we will just avoid the ones that aren't. We will probably spend a lot of time parked at a cafe eating tapas or driving through the Spanish countryside.

Appreciate any tips/links you might have! If anyone has had a similar experience I would love to hear your itinerary and how you made it all work!

Posted by
11507 posts

I am sorry I can't help , but I recall reading a great blog by a lady on a wheelchair and she made several good points .

A hotel that says it has an elevator and is handicapped assessable may STILL have stairs , int from street ( no ramp ) or down to breakfast room .

Phone every hotel before you go and be very specific !

Posted by
27142 posts

The hotels I used in Spain were very budget level, and the rooms would in many cases have been too cramped to maneuver a wheel chair, but I was using about the cheapest places I could find that had private baths and air conditioning. I don't know what the size requirements are for the various rating levels of Spanish hotels, but I suspect that the sleeping areas of 3-star places or higher will at least be spacious enough for a wheelchair.

My hotels all had an elevator somewhere, but as already noted, occasionally the elevator did not go all the way down to the ground floor, and/or some rooms required me to negotiate some stairs. So you need to ask specifically about stairs. I'm not sure about bathroom size and access to all the fixtures from a wheelchair.

If you email a hotel you're interested in (avoiding idioms to lessen confusion), I think you'll usually get a response. If you don't, try another hotel.

The Accessible Tourism page of the Spanish National Tourist Office's website may be helpful.

If your father needs a room of the sort that would be labeled "handicapped accessible" in the US--with a wide bathroom door, flat threshold, roll-in shower, etc., I'm not sure whether you can rely on finding that outside of American chains.

Posted by
5217 posts

Ih505,
You may find this website helpful: http://www.sagetraveling.com

I traveled to Spain with my then 88 year old mother who was not using a wheelchair but had trouble with stairs.
We visited all the cities on your list (except for Madrid, we stayed in Toledo instead), & can tell you where we stayed, however, I think some of the hotels had a couple of stairs at the entrance. I called all the hotels to make sure they had a working elevator.

Here is where we stayed:

  • Córdoba.... Hotel Hesperia Córdoba
  • Granada... Hotel Anacapri
  • Sevilla... Hotel Amadeus & Hotel Fernando III

Here is some information about visiting the Alhambra & it's accessibility.
Here is a Map of the Alhambra showing the route (blue line) accessible to wheelchairs.
The Carlos V Palace (within the Alhambra complex) has an elevator, but you'll need to ask one of the staff members, and they will escort you and your dad.

Enjoy your trip!

Edit to add....

You may also want to read RS helpful article about traveling with disabilities.

Posted by
6565 posts

Believe the hotels on TripAdvisor have an amenities section that should indicate accessability. There is also a link to the hotel website and if you have a question, send it an email. With most newer hotels accessability shouldn't be an issue. Some old hotels have very small elevators or no elevator.

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