Disabled travelers can enjoy free, cheap and discounted travel just the same as their more able-bodied friends do. There are many good deals and opportunities for travelers with disabilities to take advantage of for accessible travel. Save yourself a lot of money by taking advantage of the following disabled travel tips.
- Talk about the YMCA and YWCA. They have offered many accessible options for the disabled traveler for years. Many have accessible rooms and most if not all have swimming pools and weight rooms in order to get your daily exercise and fitness workout in.
- Consider staying in a hostel to trim your lodging costs. Although previously only an option for young travelers and backpackers, today hostels welcome everyone. Many hostels are wheelchair-accessible, and some even have private rooms.
- Choose early airline boarding. Some airlines will let you pay a small fee to board early. This will let you skip having to stand as long and will give you more freedom to stow your carry-on where you can get to them.
- If you will be staying in a hotel, find out if they offer free transportation from the airport for guests. If they do then by law they have to provide free accessible transportation for disabled travelers too. If they don't have accessible hotel vans they have to use an outside van service. In any event they have to get you free to the hotel in a wheelchair accessible van or other accessible mode of transpiration.
- Use a Special Needs Group Certified Accessible Travel Advocate. These are agents who can help you with everything from knowing what kinds of hotel rooms and cruise ship cabins would be best to knowing airline regulations. They can also help you with arranging for special equipment, such as refrigerators and sharps containers. Many of the things I recommend can be done for you by one of these agents.
The deals are out there, if you know where to look. The good news is, it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to hit the road if you need accessible services. These are just a few of the best disabled travel tips for free or cheap travel doe travelers with disabilities. There are many more, too many too list here. You'll find more and more freebies are offered to disabled travelers today than ever before. You just need to look for them.