Wheelchair Accessible Travel: Rhodes Island, Greece

Photo Credit: Col Lymburn

Another travel blog time! This time: My family holiday to Rhodes in Greece!

Flying

First up, Flights! I need to preface this by saying that I used my manual wheelchair for this trip so any wheelchair mentions are talking about my manual wheelchair. On arrival at Birmingham airport, we made our way to bag check in where we were also able to pick up a luggage tag for my wheelchair which I saw as an unexpected bonus and a way to streamline the process. From there I thought everything was ok and there would be no need to go to the assistance desk (because all I figured they needed to do was tag my chair since assistance was prebooked, how wrong I was) and no one at the airport told us to go to assistance. On arrival at the gate, we learned that no ambulift had arrived to take me to the plane, apparently BECAUSE we hadn’t headed to the assistance desk, so there was a delay in waiting for that to arrive. For the flight home from Rhodes airport, we were one of the last called forward for boarding which meant having to wheel down the ramp onto the tarmac through all those who were already waiting to board. One unexpected bonus though was a fully wheelchair accessible private transfer from the airport to the hotel and back.

Hotel (Amathus Beach Hotel Rhodes)

Next up, the hotel!

Firstly, it must be said that the customer service here absolutely CANNOT be faulted. Particular shout out to the staff in the main restaurant for always making sure to seat us specifically at the most accessible tables every mealtime. Now onto the access. The accessible route to the main pool was through the car park/ drop off section, which is not the kind of trip I would have liked to do on my own. There was however a very doable accessible route from our room to the top level bar (the pool and the bar are the only important parts of a holiday right?!). In terms of the room itself, there was a bath and grab rails in the bathroom, I do prefer a wet room for ease of access but I’m used to baths and grab rails in hotel rooms now. The layout and size of the bathroom also made it easier to leave my chair outside and transfer into the bathroom. One of the bonuses here was adjoining rooms which made it easier to get assistance from my mum when struggling with some things like transferring in and out of the bath using the grab rails. This room was also a two level room with steps down to the balcony area which meant I had to be lifted down to the balcony which was an unexpected accessibility issue. I must also say that there are fully accessible rooms elsewhere in the hotel but I wasn’t in one of those so I can’t comment on what they are like.

Rhodes Town

Now, on to Rhodes town itself. In terms of public transport, the buses do have ramps which are manual so you have to ask the driver to lower the ramp out, which is situated in the middle of bus. We had a mixed experience with this, with no problem sorting it out on the way into town but what I think was a language barrier issue on the way out of town meaning we couldn’t get the driver to put the ramp down and I ended up having to be lifted on.

In terms of the town itself, the old town is so historic and beautiful and entirely worth going to, particularly if you like wandering through quaint little side streets, but it is quite cobbled so beware of that and be prepared. The modern side of the city has much better ground with just standard asphalt paths, I think it does have quite a confusing layout though so if you struggle with directions I’d probably prepare to get lost.

Waterpark

And finally, to the waterpark. We took a taxi to the waterpark from our hotel after seeing how full the free transfer bus from town to the waterpark gets. This was simply a case of folding my chair and transferring into the back of the taxi. Overall, I’d say the physical access at the park was ok with smooth asphalt paths most places although there were a couple of large hills. The actual ride access was less so, I was only allowed on about 2 of the rides (according to a list on display upon entry) due to safety, which made sense when I saw some of the rides available here, and I was glad to be made aware of ride access upon entry rather than trying to get on a ride and being turned away. I did get free entry though which I think balanced out the lack of ride access. The rides I could access were the lazy river and the wave pool, which was perfectly fine by me as those are my favourite rides.

I hope this gives everyone an insight into this accessibility of this trip!

Stay Invincible!

Em (InvincibleWomanOnWheels)