Help with tour ideas in Europe

[mips]

My father has a buggy and he and my mother will be accompanying us on our cruise in May. From prior experience we know that the buggy is a PITA on ship excursions in the Caribbean at least, so I am looking for suggestions either for private tours who can accommodate a buggy, his is reasonably small and can be taken to pieces to fit in the average boot/trunk. He can get in and out of most vehicles on his own. There will be 5 adults.

Stops are

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

Athens, Greece 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

Izmir (Ephesus), Turkey 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

Crete (Heraklion), Greece 9:00 AM 7:00 PM

Valletta, Malta 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

Palermo (Sicily), Italy 7:00 AM 4:00 PM

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 7:00 AM 8:00 PM

Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

Marseilles (Provence), France 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

 

The 3 of us want very much to see as much of the 'tourist' places in Rome and Athens, plus Pisa (I am going to see the catacombs in Sicily but dad wont want to go) but are very open to anything for the rest of the stops but with a leaning towards culture rather than thrills/swimming etc.

[ZellaLamb]

In both Rome and Livorno we used romeinlimo.com We had wonderful tours in a Mercedes mini van and the drivers were really helpful with my scooter. They are fairly expensive but charge by the vehicle, not the person.

 

When in Rome, they arranged for a special guide to take us through the disabled entrance so we were able to skip those long lines.

 

In Livorno, we went on a special wine country tour. I've seen Pisa several times and, IMHO, the post cards are better than the real thing.

 

Have a great time and you might try going to the roll call for that cruise and see who else is using which tours. We've been able to join others that are going in a van and just throw the scooter in the back.

[DUTRAVEL]

Of the ports you mentioned, the only two that I have been to are Rome and Livorno. I also highly recommend RomeInLimo. We have used them three times in Rome and in Florence. They are great with my wheelchair and will customize the tour to whatever you want to see. If you go to the Vatican, you cannot go from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter's if you have a wheelchair or scooter (because of the stairs) and it is a long walk to go all the way around the outside. Our driver picked us up outside the museum and took us in the car to St Peter's - it was a great help.

[Splinter]

By a "buggy" I assume you mean a powered scooter?? Most of the ports you list are not that friendly to any type of powered wheelchair or scooter.

 

We always took a folding manual wheelchair (which I pushed) for my mother, as these can nearly always be fit, with wheels removed, into the trunk (boot) of a cab. We did that in Turkey and Greece and it worked OK, but we first needed to check that the trunk was large enough as we found some cabs which had taken up most of the trunk space with a spare gasoline tank. Learned the hard way in Istanbul after transferring to the cab...had to transfer out again and find a different one.

[mips]

By a "buggy" I assume you mean a powered scooter?? Most of the ports you list are not that friendly to any type of powered wheelchair or scooter.

 

We always took a folding manual wheelchair (which I pushed) for my mother, as these can nearly always be fit, with wheels removed, into the trunk (boot) of a cab. We did that in Turkey and Greece and it worked OK, but we first needed to check that the trunk was large enough as we found some cabs which had taken up most of the trunk space with a spare gasoline tank. Learned the hard way in Istanbul after transferring to the cab...had to transfer out again and find a different one.

 

The aged Ps live in England and their buggy is used to coping with ploughed fields, no joke, and can cope with cobblestones. So Im not overly worried about terrain, more getting to the terrain he wants to look at :) We will be bringing a foldable as well just as a back up.

[Chunky2219]

Ship's tours! Anything other than a weapons grade scooter will fit in the luggage trunk of a coach and anyone who can haul themselves up a couple of steps using the handrail can have a front seat.

 

Rome and Florence/Pisa are all a good drive away, if memory serves me right but if you can handle cobbles then you should be broadly okay. Avoid the sort of high activity walking tours in the brochure that involve a lot of steps and generally there will be something to do.

 

In Rome the Vatican is a must-see even if you are a complete atheist and although not everything is accessible they do get more than their fair share of wheelchair jockeys so there will be something reachable. I didn't go (concerned about the long drive and a tummy upset) but my DW said I could have coped in the chair.

 

Florence is magnificent, but it's hard to get just about anywhere without cobbles loosening teeth. Pisa is a venue I'd have been happy with an hour to see rather than several hours and I won't rush to go back. It was a big let down but maybe I'm just a culture-less philistine. Good job it was sunny.

 

Valetta is okay for a wander around without much trouble, once you get up that hill from the port and it has a sort of dusty, scruffy charm. My last time in Crete was with legs that worked and I missed the tour of the Heraklion Museum (another tummy upset!), but DW, who loves a bit of culture, reckoned it was like watching paint dry. Maybe it was the guide who was a bit rubbish. IIRC the rest of the island was all kerbs and steps so since being in a chair I've never been tempted back. Some of the scenery is okay, so a driving tour is what I'd pick.

 

I can't comment on the Greek, Turkish or Yugo venues, but talk in detail with the tour director on board ship and even if you are making a private arrangement they ought to have some useful info.

 

If you want your history fix then obviously they weren't thinking about access when the built classic architecture 2000 years ago but most tourist hot spots have better provision than you might expect, especially in EU countries where most have some version of American ADA. To be frank, I've had frustrating experiences in NYC and New England comparable with any that have made me grizzle in Europe. As a rough rule of thumb for the future, the further south and east you go (both geographically and politically) then the more there is to think about and the more challenge to deal with.

 

 

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Edited October 26, 2015 by Chunky2219
typo

[kitty9]

If any of your ports are tender ports, they will not take a scooter onto tenders, so if he can manage some steps to get onto the tender, I can recommend bringing a manual wheelchair for tender ports.

 

Ephesus, or Kusadasi, can be difficult. You can easily look around the port area of Kusadasi as it's a very easy drive from the dock. Some will disagree with me, but I think Ephesus is VERY difficult for anyone in a scooter or wheelchair. It's a ruins area, you go downhill from the entrance, on very slippery, sand covered, broken paths inside the area to see the ruins. It's a very tough tour for anyone with mobility problems. I was able to do this tour many years ago, but now that I can no longer walk do to mobility deterioration, I would not attempt this tour in Kusadasi. You could take a tour to the Ephesus Museum, which is easily accessible.

 

Florence and Pisa can be done in a scooter---I did it with some problems, but nothing impossible. I hired RomeinLimo and they did an excellent job. Many of the sites in Florence are not ramped, so getting inside will be impossible. I did find that getting in the biggest museums was OK, and they did have elevators. I strongly recommend getting time stamped entrance tickets for the Uffizi and Academia museums. You can do that online at least two months before your visit. With the time stamped tickets, you show up at that time and you don't stand in line.

 

I disagree with the poster who said you can't do the Sistine Chapel. I certainly did, and in my scooter. They let me use elevators, mostly industrial-type elevators, that allowed me to see the chapel. Maybe it was because we were on a special tour where there were only 10 of us in the group, and the Museum and Chapel were closed to the general public.

 

I can tell you that anything that's ruins, like in Athens and Crete will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. You most likely will not be able to get inside of many of the ruins, but you can get close enough to see them from the outside. In Athens, you're docked in Piraeus, which is outside of Athens. I recommend finding a local tour company for that, but unfortunately, I don't have any companies in mind.

 

Good luck

Edited October 26, 2015 by kitty9

[born2cruize]

My father has a buggy and he and my mother will be accompanying us on our cruise in May. From prior experience we know that the buggy is a PITA on ship excursions in the Caribbean at least, so I am looking for suggestions either for private tours who can accommodate a buggy, his is reasonably small and can be taken to pieces to fit in the average boot/trunk. He can get in and out of most vehicles on his own. There will be 5 adults.

Stops are

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

Athens, Greece 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

Izmir (Ephesus), Turkey 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

Crete (Heraklion), Greece 9:00 AM 7:00 PM

Valletta, Malta 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

Palermo (Sicily), Italy 7:00 AM 4:00 PM

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 7:00 AM 8:00 PM

Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

Marseilles (Provence), France 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

 

The 3 of us want very much to see as much of the 'tourist' places in Rome and Athens, plus Pisa (I am going to see the catacombs in Sicily but dad wont want to go) but are very open to anything for the rest of the stops but with a leaning towards culture rather than thrills/swimming etc.

 

I've got pretty much a different view on most of ports you mentioned. The following are the ports and years that I used a scooter full time.

 

Dubrovnik (2013), Athens (2013), Ephesus (2013), Rome (2013 & 2014), Pisa/Florence (2013 & 2014)

 

I wasn't going to let anything in my way for any of these stops. None were tender ports and I have a travelscoot so was able to fold it into the trunk or in the case of the minivan in Pisa and Florence the back end.

 

In Dubrovnik I used a ships tour. The only difficulty was going down into the old town, just go slow and you'll be fine. The other people on the tour helped me lift the scooter up a few steps at a couple of sites.

 

In Athens I did a private tour but can't remember the name it was a standard car with just my wife and I. We went to the top of the Acropolis using the elevator toward the back, and visited all the buildings on the Acropolis. We also visited many other sites that was customized for our ability.

 

In Ephesus, I sure did use my scooter to go down the hill to visit all the ruins. The volume of people was more in the way than the roadway although it was rough. Go slow and take your time.

 

In Rome there's nothing you can't do. In 2013 we were in Rome on a land tour and saw almost everything that the "normal folks saw". The only exception was the Vatican Museum. We, my wife and I visited the floor that the lift to the Sistine Chapel was on. While the others visited the floor above. I can confirm that going from the SISTINE CHAPEL TO ST. PETERS BASILICA is not possible without retracing your steps from the Sistine Chapel out the Museum around the museum and into St. Peters Square up to the Basilica and into St. Peters. Because of that we were not able to do the Basilica that year.

 

The following year we did a ships tour that just dropped us off near St. Peter's Square and we were on our own. Because we had to wait for no one, we visited everything we saw in 2013 plus took another elevate up to the floor above and saw everything on that floor. Again because we were on our own we actually did make it into St. Peters Basilica and stayed to our hearts content.

 

In Pisa/Florence we did a private tour with RomeinLimo. About an hour in Pisa and the rest of the time in Florence. Unfortunately in Pisa because of the morning time we were there, we could not enter the Basilica because of services. And in Florence we ran out of time.

Edited October 27, 2015 by born2cruize

[kitty9]

To add to what born2cruise said, which is excellent, when you get to Rome and want to get into St Peter's, if you find the entrance to the ramp locked, DO NOT ACCEPT THAT. Have someone find a guard and insist that they open the gate to the ramp. When I was there a couple of years ago, the ramp to the inside of the Basilica was locked, but a friend went and found a guard who gave us a bit of an attitude, and acted like a jerk, but we continued to insist that the ramp gate be unlocked and it was.