In the 1st week of October 2006 we went on vacation to the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). It's a beautiful area in the south-western part of Germany (Baden-Württemberg) starting somewhere below Karlsruhe and going all the way down to Basel. I have been there before about 21 years ago (please Grandpa, tell us some more stories :-)) when I was still in the Royal Netherlands Air Force and visited the Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden (CFB Baden-Söllingen). I remember the beautiful landscape and till this day I find it the most beautiful area of Germany I have seen so far. Both Ellen and I love the mountains, so this could be a great holiday destination! Take a look at Wikipedia for more background information on the Black Forest.

Since 1989 I have to use a wheelchair because of an accident I had which broke my neck. We live in the northern part of the Netherlands about 800 km away from our holiday destination. We travelled by car and of course took our little one (almost 2,5 years old) with us.

As always it's a real challenge to get something suitable when you are in a wheelchair. When your destination is Germany it's a different story! Two years ago we stumbled upon www.rollstuhl-urlaub.de and found a suitable accommodation in the Eifel. This year we found a great ferienwohnung in Hinterzarten and again by using this great website! Ellen contacted Mrs. Ruth, the owner of the apartment, and booked the accommodation for the first week of October. We communicated via telephone and normal mail because they did not have a website or an e-mail address. More about "Ferienwohnungen Familie Ruth" later on in this article…

Because it was a long trip we decided to start our journey in the evening and keep on driving all night until our destination. That way Dylan could sleep almost all the way and hopefully Ellen would also catch some hours of sleep (I was doing the driving part). The Ellen-and-sleep part didn't work out like we hoped and by the time we arrived in Hinterzarten she was up for 30 hours in a row. She's a hero! 🙂 The trip itself went ok! The weather-forecast predicted a lot of rain but we were lucky! We kept it dry until Frankfurt, about 500 km down the road. After that it was raining cats and dogs! In Germany petrol stations are further apart than I am used to in the Netherlands. But most of the petrol stations are accompanied by a restaurant (Rastätte) which is open 24/7. Great service! Not bad at all when you are on the road in the middle of the night fighting cats and dogs! It was half past 3 in the night and we decided to stop for a cup of coffee and something to eat. The windscreen wipers where moving hi-speed hoping to create some kind of visibility. We took the exit to a Rastätte near Alsbach, and got out of the car. It was four o'clock in the morning and the three of us were sitting in a quiet restaurant enjoying something warm to eat and drink. Outside the rain was pouring down. Life is good! A few hours later and 220 km further down the road we arrived in Freiburg, a city in the southern part of the Black Forest, and about 30 km west of our destination Hinterzarten. Because our car drives on LPG (Liquified Petrol Gas) we first had another mission to accomplish: find the petrol station that sells LPG. In Germany LPG is still kind of rare. If you want to find a petrol station that sells the stuff you better get some kind of LPG Guide Europe or do your homework on forehand. http://www.gas-tankstellen.info is a website with a lot of information. Be aware that most petrol stations along the freeway DON'T sell LPG. And don't confuse LPG with CNG which is something different.

With our gastank filled up we arrived in Hinterzarten were Franziska, the daughter of Mrs. Ruth, gave us a warm welcome. She lives with her husband Clemens and their children above the apartment that is located in a beautiful German-style house (see photo). Mrs. Ruth herself, who lives next-door, was away and would be back the next day. The apartment itself was more than great! As a (partly) quadriplegic I am a fulltime wheelchair user and I had no problem whatsoever. For me everything was well adapted and accessible! But of course everybody has it's special needs and therefore it's potential problems. If you need special adjustments like for example triangles (or whatever you call them in English) above the toilet or an electric adjustable bed you might reconsider. The bed is high enough though! For the average wheelchair user I give it an 8+, and that's one of the best I've seen so far! A bit more about the background of this accommodation…. Mr. and Mrs. Ruth decided to build a wheelchair accessible accommodation out of gratitude for receiving three healthy daughters! I find this attitude to life admirable! They are also the only wheelchair accessible accommodation in this area, and believe me… there are a lot of accommodations in the surroundings! We met Mrs. Ruth the day after we arrived. She is a nice and warm person just as we expected. Mr. Ruth died very suddenly about two years ago. I think his spirit lives on in the house that he build…. More information you can find on rollstuhl-urlaub.de.

Hinterzarten is located in an area called the Hochschwarzwald and has an elevation of almost 900 meters. The highest point in the Black Forest you can find at Feldberg, which is not far away (elevation 1500 meters). From Feldberg there is a road to the top but it is not accessible for normal traffic. You have to walk or take some king of ski-elevator, which is accessible for wheelchair users by the way. The views when going to the top are stunning! But not only Feldberg is beautiful. If you love mountains the Black Forest is the place to be! When driving around you will see a lot of restaurants along the way. Unfortunately most of them aren't wheelchair accessible. We know there are two places in Hinterzarten that are wheelchair accessible: s'Pfännle in the Freiburger Strasse (European kitchen) and one of the Pizzeria's (heard of). Outside Hinterzarten you have an opportunity when travelling north in the direction of Breitnau. Before reaching Breitnau you will have a restaurant on your right-hand side called Muhlen Café. Accessible, good kitchen, affordable! About three kilometers east of Hinterzarten you'll find Titisee. Although the Titisee self is beautiful, the village is not our kind of thing. To me it almost looks like the hotels and restaurants outnumbered the people living there. I suggest driving a few kilometers more to the east to Neustadt which is worth a visit. If you take the L156 from Titisee you will find a big supermarket on your right-hand side before entering Neustadt. As I mentioned earlier in this article Hinterzarten is located 30 kilometers east of Freiburg. If you want to go shopping, catch a terrace, or just enjoy the architecture this is where you want to go! Both Ellen and I fell in love with this beautiful city. Münsterplatz is nice and Rathausplatz is even more beautiful. For more background information on Freiburg you can take a look at the article on Wikipedia. Last but definitely not least: the village Hinterzarten! It's a little resort village with a population of about 2700 people. The village feels warm and friendly. There are a lot of hiking and bicycle trails in and around Hinterzarten. I don't know if the trails are wheelchair accessible, but you can check the local Tourist Information Office for more information. As a disabled tourist in Baden-Württemberg (and maybe other parts of Germany, I don't know) you can travel free of charge with the German railroad (Die Bahn). If you are in a wheelchair you have to call a service number 24 hours in advance of your planned trip. When they know you are coming they will help you to get in and off the train. If you don't call in advance they might refuse you.

After a great week in the Black Forest we left Hinterzarten behind us. We decided on forehand we would catch a hotel somewhere halfway down the road. After a pit-stop at Baden Airpark (the former CFB Baden-Söllingen) we ended up in a good IBIS Hotel in Frankfurt. The next day we drove the remaining 500 km home after we first got ourselfs a cup of coffee in the center of Frankfurt. The end of a great holiday!

The Black Forest is great! The nature is stunning and the hospitality warm and friendly! The members of the Ruth family are great and they will let you feel right at home. Will we go again? Definitely!

In the first week of September 2008 we went on vacation to the Eifel. It was not our first visit to the region. In 2004 we stayed in the Vulkaneifel, located in the eastern part of the Eifel. This time we traveled to the Westeifel, near the border with Belgium and Luxembourg.

I’m a male of 43 years old (2008) and after an accident in 1989, walking became wheeling. I am a partly quadriplegic (C5) using a armpowered wheelchair. We (my girlfriend and my 4 year old son) live in a city in the northern part of the Netherlands. We traveled the 450 km to our holiday destination by car.

When you are using wheels to get around, most of the times it is very difficult to find something suitable! Since we found www.rollstuhl-urlaub.de, back in 2004, finding something in Germany is a breeze. Because we wanted to stay a bit closer to home this year, we started searching the internet for a suitable place in Belgium, Luxembourg or Germany. Because Ellen and I love the mountains, the Eifel in Germany was very much an option! After some consideration, we decided to go to Bleialf, located a few kilometers east of the German-Belgian border. Bleialf is a little German town in the Westeifel, with a population of about 1000 people. It is located in the district Bitburg-Prüm and that name should sound familiar to you, if you are a beer lover (Bitte ein Bit).

Bleialf is located 6 km southeast of it's exit on freeway E42. Our navigation system directed us to Ferienhaus Fam. Gönen, the apartment we rented in the Eifel. The Gönen family have 4 holiday apartments and three of them are fully adapted for wheelchair use. The four apartments are located in a German style house on the edge of Bleialf, but because it’s a small town, the supermarket and other stores are very close by. The family Gönen are living across the street. Some roads are pretty steep, so when you are a wheelchair user like me, you might needs some help from time to time. Downhill is noooooo problem!

Our apartment was located on the ground floor. With a satellite television, electric oven, microwave oven and a washing machine, the apartment is well equipped. Our apartment had two bedrooms (a one- and a two person bedroom), with beds on wheelchair height. The one person bedroom has a bed which is possibly electrical adjustable, but I’m not sure, I didn’t check. The bathroom is also adapted for disabled people. The toilet was high enough for me, but if that’s not the case for you, they will make it higher with some kind of adapter or arrange a toiletchair for you. If you want to shower, you will have to transfer into a shower-chair. As a partly quadriplegic I had no problem showering. If you think you might, ask the family Gönen if they have a solution. I have almost no negative comments about this apartment. The family Gönen offer a great place to stay. The only thing I can think of, is the bad GSM receipt indoors. And our apartment had no room with a view. I believe the apartment on the 1st floor (also suitable for wheelchair use) has a better view. But hey…. who cares! Who wants to stay in?! Get out and have fun! 🙂

The Westeifel and the Ardennes are both regions with a lot of forests, rolling hills and mountains (highest point between 600 and 700 meters). If you love the mountains, you will love the scenery of the Westeifel and the Ardennes. A lot of nature, great landscape and fun roads to drive (me Schumacher 🙂 )! If you love (hand)biking, I have great news for you. There is a great bicycle trail called the Eifel-Ardennen Radweg. It starts in the eastern part of the Eifel near a village called Adenau and goes via Prüm in de Westeifel, to St. Vith in the Belgian Ardennes. The western part of this route, from Prüm to St. Vith, is for a big part placed on the trail of an old railway. This means there are no steep climbs and descends in this part of the route. And that is good news for a (partly) quadriplegic handbiker like me. Near Bleialf, the route goes through a 400 meter long railwaytunnel, which is a unique experience. Of course the old tunnel (build in 1917) is not in use anymore. I think it would be bad for tourism, if it was… 🙂

The Westeifel (and Bleialf in particular), is a great holiday destination! A good starting point for a city trip to Bitburg in Germany or to Malmedy in Belgium (both about 60 km away). Or go to dinner in Prüm, after a great day of walking or biking. When you are disabled, I really can recommend the apartments of the family Gönen, and I’m not getting paid for it. 🙂 Will we go back? Yes, no question about it!

In August 2003 my girlfriend and I went to the district (departement) Drôme which is located in the south of France. Although it was very hot, and I mean VERY HOT, we had a great vacation! This page will be (as the California page) a combination of a travel story and a tips & tricks page. A lot of the tips are useful for people who travel in a wheelchair.

Since 1989 I have to rely on a wheelchair because of an accident I had which broke my neck. I live together with my girlfriend and two children in the northern part of the Netherlands. The vacation to Châteauneuf sur Isère was together with my girlfriend. Our daughter of 16 years old had other plans, our son wasn't born yet…

Planning is half the fun! True…. but first of all you have to find a place to stay which is accessible for wheelchairs. Personally I find this part very frustrating! Most travel-agents on the Internet don't mention if the apartment is suitable for someone in a wheelchair. So… looking for an apartment, to me it often feels like searching for a pin in a haystack. I hope some links on this website will guide you in the right direction! When I searched for a suitable apartment, the use of the English language failed! For me, that was a problem because my knowledge of the French language was kinda poor. To be honest… my French sucks! Thank God for my girlfriend who isn't just beautiful, see also speeks French! If you want to succeed in finding something nice and affordable in France, or in the southern part of Belgium for that matter, start using French when searching on the Internet! When you find something you like, verify that accessible is indeed accessible! If you are a hero: use the phone! 🙂

We found a very nice place near Valence, about 1100 km from where we live. Because this was a vacation, we decided we would travel this distance in two days (by car). Our goal for the first day was Luxembourg-city which wasn't that hard to achieve. Finding an affordable place to stay was another story. Luxembourg isn't really cheap and finding a place on short notice which would be accessible by yours truly would mean staying in a 5 star hotel. We decided to grab a bite to eat on a market in the center of the city and travel further to our final destination. For the night we ended up in Metz, a french city not to far from the French border. In the Ibis Hotel we found a small but clean room on walking distance from the hart of the city. Vacation, a beautiful French city, a very hot summer evening (28 degrees +), a terrace, beer and wine…. it doesn't get better than this!

Early in the evening the next day, we arrived at Nature d'eaux. Nature d'eaux is a pension were you can rent rooms or a gite, and is located near the village Châteauneuf sur Isère (a few miles north of Valence). One of the rooms is wheelchair accessible It has it's own bathroom which is fully adapted! Nature d'eaux is run by the family Combet, and they made us feel right at home with their French hospitality. After a good night sleep, we went to the terrace in front of the building for a good French breakfast. At this time of the day the temperature was still pleasant. It was a very hot summer and the temperature would climb up to 40 degrees in the afternoon. Sitting on the terrace eating our breakfast, we had a great view on the Ardèche! What do you need more?!

Châteauneuf sur Isère is located in a beautiful part of France! To the west there is the Ardèche, to the east the beautiful mountains of the Vercors. We drove around a lot! First of all to see as much of the area as possible, second of all… we had a car with air-conditioning! Driving trough the mountains of the Ardèche, a steep twisting dirt road, passing vineyards, and ending up in a small village on top of the mountain. Or driving trough the rough mountains of the Vercors. Climbing higher and higher, stunning views on the valley deep below. Beautiful is an understatement!

The southern part of France is great when you love the mountains and the French way of life. We loved driving trough the mountains during the day and sitting on a terrace in a French village or city during the evening! A wheelchair is no problem in this part of France, although you might need a push so now and then… Be careful in the mountains though!

In 2007, 2009 and 2010, we spend our holiday in the Vosges mountains in France. The Vosges mountains are located in the northeastern part of France. In 2007 we stayed in an appartment in Lapoutroie, in 2009 and 2010 we rented an appartment about 9 kilometers southwest of the village Orbey. Both apartments were adjusted for wheelchair use. This page will be (as the other travel-pages) a combination of a travel story and a tips & tricks page. A lot of the tips are useful for people who travel in a wheelchair.

Since 1989 I have to use a wheelchair because of an accident I had which broke my neck. We live in the northern part of the Netherlands about 800 km away from our holiday destination. We travelled by car and took our little one with us.

When trying to find a wheelchair accessible accommodation, you can't do without the internet. But even with the internet at your fingertips, it can be really difficult. When searching a suitable location in France you also need to understand the French language. Only a few websites have an English section. Ellen and I found a few suitable accommodations in the northeastern part of France. Life is about choices, so in 2007 we decided to choose a nice looking apartment called "La Repandise". It's located in Lapoutroie, a little village about 30 km west of Colmar. For our 2009 and 2010 vacation, we went to "Les Brimbelles", a few kilometers soutwest of the village Orbey. Both apartments are located in the same area. Although both accommodations are suitable for wheelchair use, I recomment Les Brimbelles in Orbey. If the apartment is available, look no further!

After a trip of 800 km, we arrived in Lapoutroie. Our apartment was a bit hard to find at first, but after a lot of searching and asking we found it west of the village. It was located on a hill, overlooking the village. Our apartment (gite) was located on the third floor of a French styled cottage and accessible via a road going uphill to the entrance. Inside it was very cozy and the furnishing very tasteful. It had all the luxury you can imagine. Washing machine and dryer, dishwasher, microwave, etcetera. It had a toilet and shower suitable for wheelchair-users and a bed that should be high enough for a wheelchair-transfer. The view, overlooking Lapoutroie and the surrounding Vosges mountains, was beautiful! But there was also a downside. The floor in the apartment wasn't exactly flat, and that is an understatement! When you are in a wheelchair with two healthy arms, you might not have a problem with that. For me, as a partly quadriplegic, it was hard work! When you have little children, check the surrounding area outside for hazardous places. When we were there in 2007, the area around the house wasn't child proof and that also is an understatement! No fences where they should have been, for example. Nowadays the apartment is called "La Corneille Blanche".

In 2009 and 2010 we went back to the same area, but this time to another location. Les Brimbelles is located a few kilometers southwest of Orbey, near "Col du Wettstein". Owners are the family Cashin, a cheerful Irishman with his French wife and three little children. The building is located at the edge of a forrest and the apartments are located on the first floor. Two in total, one suitable for wheelchair use. You can reach the apartment using a slope. Because it's a bit steep, you might need a push if you are in a wheelchair. Arriving at "Les Brimbelles", we had a very warm welcome. The owner, Steve Cashin, picked up a bottle of wine from downstairs and while enjoying the wine, he told us a lot of things about the area. The apartment itself is very cozy, with all the luxury you need and as a wheelchair user, I had no trouble at all! Around the house is a big garden and as far as I could see, the area around the house is child proof. Because the apartment is located higher up in the mountains, the temperature is a about 5 degrees lower than in the valley. Great place, very nice family, the place to be! For more info, you can check their website.

The Vosges or Vosges Mountains (de Vogezen in Dutch) are a beautiful mountain range in the northeastern part of France. The highest point of the Vosges is the "Grand Ballon", which rises up to 1424 meter. From 1871 to 1918 a big part of the area was occupied by Germany, which you can see in a lot of things, especially in the architecture. Colmar for example, almost looks like a German city. The landscape is stunning! If you love the mountains, you will feel right at home. Personally I found the area near "Col du Wettstein" very impressive. A lot of people died there during the 1st world war. And don't forget to visit Orbey, a nice town a few km south of Lapoutroie. For more in-depth information about the Vosges, you can look at this article on Wikipedia.

The Vosges mountains is a beautiful area to spend your vacation. For me "Les Brimbelles" is the place to be! A Beautiful apartment in the middle of the mountains, very suitable for wheelchair use and very nice owners!