disability travel

Sorry to read about your diagnosis.
My husband can only walk short distances and has recently started to use a mobility scooter.
This has made us aware of the scale (large) of the arrangements available in UK and Europe to help disabled travellers, all sorts of transport, hotels, attractions.
Sometimes you have to tailor your travel to the available help, but in general you should be able to manage something. The number of wheelchairs we encountered was impressive.
We recently did flights with BA, and the support was amazing. I am sure that other major airlines would be as good - not so sure about the budget ones.
It might be a start to think about the sort of travel you would like to do, and do a bit of research, either by asking on here, or using Google/AI.
Don't give up!

I would suggest looking at river cruises. Many have elevators and sitting on the top of the boat watching the world go by is a wonderful way to travel.

Have you looked at Sage Traveling? Accessible travel is their specialty.

I'd be very careful when looking at river cruises. Not all boats have elevators that reach the sun deck due to bridges they must pass under. Not all boats have wheelchair accessible cabins. Water fluctuations may necessitate the need for gangway stairs rather than ramps. They may require that you travel with an able bodied companion to assist you.

FYI Riverboat cruiser do not have elevators to the top deck. They must be able to collapse everything flat to go under some river bridges. The elevators only cover the main floor and lower floors of the rooms. Also in some ports boats are docked side by side so we had to go up and down stairs. They might make some accommodations to walk through the ships but I don’t know. Most of the town tours are walking with some having steps. River cruises move from city to city mostly at night. Where they dock during the day is not particularly scenic. Ocean cruise ships are a better fit for people needing a wheelchair. These ships have cruises all over world.

Hi Mike, I'm so sorry to hear of your diagnosis, and it's wonderful you'd consider more overseas travel. I think there are some logistical hassles, but why not?? I recall seeing posts about taking a mobility scooter along, check it at the door of airplane. (I have a vague memory of Dave from maybe Atlanta writing about his wife needing one... don't have details sorry.)

I was so impressed with Rick's write-up of accessible Europe here - (And his biography of the founder of Sage Travel taking his wheelchair across Europe.)
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travelers-with-disabilities. There's also a list to the right of the article with more resources. I hope you find some options that work for you!

I am sorry about your diagnosis; that’s a tough road to travel.

My son is age 20 and disabled. He can walk short distances, but we push him in a special needs stroller for longer distances or when we need to move quickly. We’ve made about 6 European trips in the past 8 years with him as well as several domestic and Caribbean trips.

Here is what has made our travels easier:
— planning: researching routes ahead of time (Venice: where are the bridges with steps?), figuring out how much walking/stroller-pushing is needed between train station and accommodation and do we just take a taxi, leaving plenty of time between connecting flights, etc.
— allow a ton of extra time for security at the airport. It can be a giant PTA to get a person in a wheelchair through the process. Two weeks ago at JFK, I came through in 3 minutes and my son (accompanied by my husband) took 30 minutes.
— booking assistance on trains: we’ve been doing this more often recently, specifically in England and in Spain. It is an incredible help and stress reduction to have train staff provide assistance to get on and get off the train. They will help with wheeling on/off, luggage, security processing (in the case of Spain), in general making the whole process easier.
— booking accommodations with elevators and step-free access. I use booking.com primarily, which lets you filter for accessibility. Look at pictures carefully and read reviews to make sure the description matches the reality.
— use taxis. Often it’s easier than trying to deal with public transport. Many places will have a local taxi app and you can request a vehicle with wheelchair access.
— city destinations are usually more accessible than rural destinations
— call the airline after you’ve booked your ticket and request special assistance for whatever your unique needs are. Call the assistance number and speak with someone, do not submit an online form (you’ll never hear back). At this point, we fly Delta whenever we can because their special assistance service is awesome. American is also good. Air France is on our “never again” list. Virgin was not great.
— travel slow. Keep destinations to a minimum, transfers take a lot of time and effort. Plan only one or two things per day. Enjoy the downtime; we love our “enforced” slow travel!

You can do this…. Good luck, and I hope you are able to continue with your travels.

Hi Mike- Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I am disabled after an accident in 2018, and I now travel with my own travel scooter. Most of my experiences have been on Delta so I will explain how it has worked to fly with Delta with my scooter. When I book my flight, I call the special services department and provide them the specs on my scooter such as the weight, length and height once folded. They also will want details about the type of battery of your device. Once at the airport, I fill out a form that is attached to my chair. I also bring forearm crutches, so I leave my chair at the aircraft door and walk to my seat but in your case if you need assistance to your seat on the plane you could request that. There are small wheelchairs that the wheelchair assistance staff could use to get you to your seat, while the maintenance crew stows your primary chair in the cargo hold.

There are some good websites and YouTube channels specifically on disabled travel in Europe that will help in determining which destinations are more disability friendly. I went to London and Amsterdam this past January, and while not everywhere was accessible I was pleased overall. I stayed in a Premier Inn in London near St. Pancras. I like the newer Premier Inns as they are accessible and being near St. Pancras gave me a good selection of accessible tube routes plus buses. The museums in London were pretty accessible. I then took the Eurostar, in accessible car, to Amsterdam. The trams are accessible, although some of the ramps are pretty steep. I had accessible room at the Monet Garden hotel. I used Google Maps to find accessible routes with pretty good success. Only once did I have to turn around. Last month, I did a cruise to Alaska so a cruise might be another option for you but I would avoid a cruise with a lot of tender stops. I’m now working on planning a trip to Italy with my son. Good luck to you.