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Wheelchair-accessible and step-free travel planning

Written by Restway's founders. Based on our own family trips and the sources linked in this guide.

This guide is for wheelchair users and anyone who needs step-free routes: someone pushing a stroller, recovering from recent surgery, or living with a joint or heart condition. Plenty of people need step-free options and would never think of it as needing special arrangements. A hip replacement six months ago. Knees that manage fine on flat ground and not at all on 200 steps.

And people who use wheelchairs, for whom step-free access isn't a nice-to-have but the difference between getting in and not.

The advice is the same for all of them, and it starts with an uncomfortable fact: there is no reliable, complete accessibility dataset for the world's attractions. Not ours, not anyone's.

What exists is fragments — a line in a review, a note on a website that may be years old, a phone number nobody answers. Heritage sites in particular are often unprepared, and what's published doesn't always match reality.

Unless a service has verified a specific place, a claim that it's accessible is a guess.

So how do you plan around that?

Plan first, then check. Build the plan, then call or email ahead about anything you're not sure of. It takes a little time, but it's the only way to know for sure. Useful questions to ask:

  • Is there a step-free entrance, and where is it? It isn't always the main door.
  • How far is it from parking or drop-off to that entrance, and is the path flat and smooth?
  • Is there an elevator to every floor you'll need, and is it working?
  • Is there an accessible restroom?
  • Can we borrow a wheelchair there? Many places lend them free, first come, first served, and some only inside the building.
  • Are any areas not accessible, like upper floors or older sections?

Separate barriers from effort. Stairs are a barrier: either there's a way in or there isn't. Distance, uneven ground and heat are different — they add up across the day, including getting from one place to the next. A step-free museum at the end of a long, hot walk isn't accessible in practice, so look at the whole day, not just each stop.

Give everyone real choices. When a stop isn't a good fit for everyone, there's more than one answer. Sometimes it's splitting up for an hour. Sometimes it's an option for some people to sit out part of an activity. Sometimes it's choosing a different stop. All three are fine — the point is that your group decides together, rather than defaulting to one answer.

What we learned on our own family trips

Agree on distances before you set out. On a long walk or a day at a big park, not everyone has to go the full way. Some can do the whole loop while others rest on a bench or at a café, and you meet up at a set time and place. It's different from splitting up for an hour: you're all on the same outing, just going different distances. Deciding it up front means everyone gets a day that works for them, at their own pace.

What we do, and what we don't

Every plan comes with a short list of things to confirm. When we're not sure about access, we say so and add it to that list, and we still show you the option, because someone else in your group may want it and hiding it takes away their choice.

We never state that somewhere is accessible. We don't have the data to say that, and we won't pretend otherwise.

We'd rather under-promise than have you arrive at a door you can't get through.

Official resources