For most day to day purposes, I am abled. However, some activities are harmful/dangerous to me. For example, I went to the Middle East recently and was invited to ride on a camel. This sounds great, but standard lifestyle advice is that riding a horse is dangerous, so I had to think laterally and refuse the ride.
Also, I have to be able to access good healthcare at all times (good enough that I can get emergency open heart surgery), so I do research on local hospitals before going. That has meant that I haven't gone to a few countries that could been interesting.
One of the most frustrating things I've had to deal with when travelling as my health got worse is just making the trip longer so I have time to rest and recover. It can feel like a waste of money - spending several days on each side of the flight mostly in bed. So, finding places to stay where I can still do very light activity (something nice to eat, something nice to look at) during that time is really helpful for me.
When it comes to accessible travel stuff, I've only interacted with an accessible company once - to organise a tour in an infamously inaccessible area. I was extremely disappointed - it cost a fortune but I felt more like we were being ferried from place to place and that's it. I didn't get the TOUR side of it - constantly asking for history and local knowledge only to get one sentence answers (and feeling grateful I'm a journalist so I could at least feel comfortable constantly asking questions - even if it pissed me off).
So a big piece of advice I have from anyone (and a lesson hard learned) is that if you are booking a tour, since it's private, make sure with the company that you have a guide who has the skills and knowledge that matches up with your interests.
It does. I think now we better know how to adapt and think about accessibility it has made it much easier. Having somewhere where the view is nice helps a lot, and very easily accessible things very close so you can get even a taste of something too!
For most day to day purposes, I am abled. However, some activities are harmful/dangerous to me. For example, I went to the Middle East recently and was invited to ride on a camel. This sounds great, but standard lifestyle advice is that riding a horse is dangerous, so I had to think laterally and refuse the ride.
Also, I have to be able to access good healthcare at all times (good enough that I can get emergency open heart surgery), so I do research on local hospitals before going. That has meant that I haven't gone to a few countries that could been interesting.
One of the most frustrating things I've had to deal with when travelling as my health got worse is just making the trip longer so I have time to rest and recover. It can feel like a waste of money - spending several days on each side of the flight mostly in bed. So, finding places to stay where I can still do very light activity (something nice to eat, something nice to look at) during that time is really helpful for me.
When it comes to accessible travel stuff, I've only interacted with an accessible company once - to organise a tour in an infamously inaccessible area. I was extremely disappointed - it cost a fortune but I felt more like we were being ferried from place to place and that's it. I didn't get the TOUR side of it - constantly asking for history and local knowledge only to get one sentence answers (and feeling grateful I'm a journalist so I could at least feel comfortable constantly asking questions - even if it pissed me off).
So a big piece of advice I have from anyone (and a lesson hard learned) is that if you are booking a tour, since it's private, make sure with the company that you have a guide who has the skills and knowledge that matches up with your interests.
Great advice - research and communication is so important.
On the rest front I can see why that's super frustrating. Does it help at all to think of the rest as allowing you to enjoy the rest of the holiday?
It does. I think now we better know how to adapt and think about accessibility it has made it much easier. Having somewhere where the view is nice helps a lot, and very easily accessible things very close so you can get even a taste of something too!