Private Cars In Europe for Tours and Wheelchair Questions

[kitty9]

My sister and I are planning a Med cruise for our 80 year old mom for next year. We will be bringing a wheelchair for her to use on tours. We can't do the ship's tours because I cannot climb onto those huge tour buses with my canes, and we don't want to be encumbered by their time restraints. My question is, can regular size European autos handle wheelchairs? In my many trips to Europe, the one thing I've realized is their cars are soooo tiny. A van is out because neither mom nor I can climb into those vans, so a car is the only choice. The ports we'll be using a private car in will be Florence and Rome.

 

BTW, mom is so very excited because this is her very first trip to Europe.

 

Does anyone know of a company that will provide a car and driver? We don't need a guide, but we will want to get as close to the sites as possible.

[katisdale]

I used http://www.driverinrome.com (I think) for tours in both Rome and Florence. I do not use a wheelchair as I can still manage with a rolling walker. For me the car was fine, they used a mercedes in Rome, just the 2 of us, and a mini-van in Florence for 6 of us. The above website address may be wrong but you can get it right with a google search. I found the company to be very good and we were pleased with our driver. Also, check the Europe board here on CC for names of other companies. I have done well doing that and then e-mailing the company describing my needs.

[DEL67]

Most private tour vendors will provide a full size sedan (or minvan) so a manual wheelchair should not be an issue. I searched the web and used suggestions on the Europe board to find ones for our Mediterranean cruise.

 

As far as I am concerned, you are better off with private vendors than ship tours. They take you where you want for as long as you want. The drivers are not tour guides and can not go into the sites of interest with you, but they are very informative and take you as close as possible to where you are going. Buses have to park in lots that can be 1/4 mile or more from where you are going.

 

Private tours can also be cost effective if you have more than 3 people. Posting that you would like to share tours on your cruise's roll call can help you find others.

[Splinter]

We use a manual chair with quick release wheels. This will fit into the trunk of most cabs with the wheels off. We did learn in Turkey to check the trunk first before transferring into the cab though....many cabs there have an extra gas tank in the trunk and no room even for small luggage. Even where we can't speak the language we do fine with a map and creative use of hand signals and a few local words. A car service is nice, but very expensive in many locations.

 

(KLD)