It’s your first day in a lovely city and you’re holding a leaflet you received from your travel agent. The paper brochure in your hands lured you with a promise of wonder, excitement, relax and the adventure of the lifetime. When asked about the accessibility, everybody in the travel agency claimed the city was truly modern and friendly for everybody, so you took your chance.
Continue reading “The Great Accessibility Rating (for manual and electric wheelchair users)”
The city on the hills – Lisbon – almost became my travel “the-one-that-got-away”. I visited the city once upon a time, but it didn’t charm me like I thought I would. All I could remember was how Lisbon was anything but wheelchair friendly, especially that I didn’t have my Blumil electric wheelchair then. With passing time, however, something was telling me there’s more to the city than what I noticed. When my friend, a local living in Lisbon, offered to show me his Lisbon, the charming capital I was yet to discover, I packed my bags and gave the Portuguese capital one more chance. That’s one definitely one of the best travel decisions I’ve made. The city, and the country, I was exploring alongside my friend, is an epitome of beauty. I was blown away by amazing nature, architecture, and food. What did I do and see? How accessible is Lisbon? The answers are waiting below!
Flying in the Blumil style is all about experiencing the freedom, and defying the limits. For many people, accessible traveling seems like nothing but a beautiful dream – wonderful in theory, impossible in practice. Things couldn’t be further from the truth. Is every travel destination accessible? Absolutely not. Is wheelchair friendly traveling possible? Absolutely yes! Throughout the years, I’ve visited numerous places (South Africa, Shanghai, USA, Spain, and Kenya to name a few) with my wheelchair alongside, and I had a wonderful time. Since Blumil entered my life, traveling has become easier. Sometimes I have to be extremely careful, sometimes numerous bumps in pavement give me a headache, but the abundance of wonders I stumble upon makes up for every inconvenience. As flying is often the best travel option, I would like to share my experience of flying… in the Blumil style! Things you should know, procedures to remember, tips to make life easier – everything’s waiting for you below!
Under the Eiffel Tower, the world stops for a second. I’d wanted to see Paris for as long as I can remember and once I was there with my electric wheelchair, just in front of the Eiffel Tower, it hit me: I made it to Paris. Cliché? Maybe. A wonderful travel destination? Most definitely! The French capital has been an iconic city for years, and there are definitely good reasons behind it. After all, as the month’s pass, nothing changes under the Eiffel Tower: people come and go, but there’s always somebody admiring the view and whispering “Oh My Paris!”. That’s kind of magic I wanted to experience on my own skin. Wandering around the city and soaking up the atmosphere I found beauty all around me. On crowded streets and in small cafés – Parisian charm would never fade away. I may not be an expert on Paris, but I would love to take you on a tour… straight to Paris I loved so much! What to do, what to see and how accessible the City of Lights actually is for manual and electric wheelchairs? More about it below!
If we put Poland under the microscope, we would certainly see a diverse country filled with interesting places and Tri-City is one of them. Tri-City – in other words, a group of closely-tied cities – is composed of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot. These are cities located in the northern Poland, just by the Bay of Gdańsk and throughout the years I’ve been a frequent visitor there. Sometimes I visit because due to business matters, sometimes because of my personal desires. Either way, I’ve become familiar with Tri-City and I keep coming back for years. High prices and crowded streets should be enough to keep me away, but there’s something charming about the place that I can’t ignore. Considering a visit? Great! Below I’ll be talking more about places to visit, things to do and general accessibility of Tri-City!
Adventure of a lifetime and South Africa go together very well, just like peas and carrots, or me and my Blumil elctric wheelchair :). The story of my South African escapade told in part I has barely covered half of what I would like to tell you about this wonderful country. Cape Town, as breathtaking and fascinating as it is, is just a part of the beautiful mosaic of RSA. Garden Route, filled with many wonders in just under 300 thousand kilometers, is the focus of part II. You must know that my trip was divided into two parts: one week of intense road exploration and one week of relaxing in Cape Town. This post’s covering the road trip, and what a road trip it was! Below you can find out all about South Africa’s must-dos, must-sees, and accessibility!
Continue reading “Adventure of a lifetime: South Africa – Part II”
Adventure of a lifetime – that’s how I would call my trip to South Africa. I hope to experience many more beautiful moments and explore various new places thanks to my Blumil electric wheelchair, but I know wherever I go, South Africa will remain engraved in my heart. I always talk about my love for Barcelona, and I call it my favourite place, but there’s a simple reason behind: South Africa’s just too far away to become my go-to travel destination. Still, if I were to choose my favourite place on the Earth, South Africa would be on the top of the list. It’s the most diverse country I’ve seen: I found everything I was looking for there. I spend two weeks there and these were, hands down, one of the best weeks of my life. RSA has so much to offer that two weeks seemed like two days – diversity and abundance of life around us was astonishing. Since I have so much to tell, it’s the first part of my South Africa story – one post wouldn’t be enough to describe all wonders I saw there. What to do, what to see and how accessible South Africa really is – all about it below!
Continue reading “Adventure of a lifetime – South Africa: Part I”
Thailand, Thailand, Thailand… every time I see the rating of travel destinations, Thailand’s somewhere in top 10. Overrated? Underrated? That was a question I asked myself back in 2010 when I decided to visit it. What did I find? A touristic paradise – and I mean what I say. Stunning landscapes, lively metropolises, sandy beaches? Thailand has it all! From the moment I set my eyes on the diverse mosaic of Thai world, I knew I would fall in love with the place. Friendly people cropped up in every corner, and the word “accessible” was more than an empty promise, so manual and electric wheelchair users can enjoy it as much as I did. What are the flavors of Thailand? What can you discover there and what does accessibility mean in the Thai hotel industry dictionary? More about it below!
Continue reading “In a touristic paradise – Thailand (on a manual and electric wheelchair)”
Living the resort life in Tunisia is full of the sunshine, long beach days and cocktails by the pool. There’s no flavor of the adventure and no trace of the emancipation for something exciting to come. There’s something entirely different on the menu: relax. Nobody’s rushing, nobody’s drinking their tea in haste: all that matters is here and now. Sounds pretty amazing, right? I’ve never been a big fan of the resort life, but I’ve always been in love with the sunshine, so I decided to chase the sun in Tunisia. It was October of 2005 and resort holidays in Tunisia were rather cheap, since the vacation season ended – the timing seemed to work in my favor. What did I do in Tunisia? How accessible it actually was? More about it below!
Tourism without barriers is not just an idea we hold on to until the better tomorrow comes. It’s more than a dream flickering in front of our eyes when we let our minds wander. It’s the vision we can bring into life if we work together. One voice may be only a whisper in the crowd, but the crowd of whisperers will be heard, and perhaps listened to. Watching beautiful Polish mountains and cities full of history, I was filled with a sense of regret. Why? Most of these lovely places are impossible to access on a regular wheelchair. Even electric wheelchairs cannot be transported easily, due to their significant weight. Since I have become a proud owner of my Blumil, I have been able to experience freedom when I travel, but not everybody’s that lucky.