We are looking for help to find "proper" disabled friendly sites. I recognise that the wheelchair icon shows which site has disabled access and facilities, but unfortunately that doesn't tell us if the site will be suitable or not. To explain, my wife has been disabled for about 10 years now, due to an operation she had she can no longer weight bear with her right foot. She can totter around a bit, using sticks and taking some weight on her heel . I am also unable to weight bear on my right leg as some bugger at the hospital lopped it off in October last year. So now finally I do understand what my "much better half" has been whinging about.
A shower block having disabled access is no good if once accessed we would have to stand up for a shower, we need some sort of seat that we can use. We do carry a folding stool, but on a wet floor it is not the safest bit of kit. How the site is set out and how easy is access to the site facilities is also important. (e.g. we stopped at a site last year where the dog exercise area was a recently ploughed field, no problem with two legs but now .... Whilst we could normally manage to find a solution to most problems when I was able bodied we are going to struggle until I find what level of mobility I am going to be capable of.
We live in Yorkshire so we are interested in sites in Northern England at the moment, although we intend to "do" Cornwall and Devon retracing a trip we did in 1988 just before we gave up caravanning due to job commitments (we returned to caravanning last year ). It would be nice if any disabled members could recomend any sites, or give some indication of how disabled friendly a site really is when doing a review of a site, as that would be helpful to any other disabled caravanners/campers.
Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
my big gripe with a lot of disabled facilites is that the toilet often doubles as afamiliy bathroom. (especially on Haven sites). This means when families are getting the kids ready to go out to the clubs on a night you often can't get access for 2-3 hours.
Having said that Grange over sands Haven site was good. They had seperate facilities. Paths were plat and reasonably maintained. There were disabled parking spaces next to the complex entrances and plenty of ramps to gain access
------------- Good cakes aren't cheap. Cheap cakes aren't good
Most of the caravan club's disabled facilities are excellent, and even have a panic cord alarm to the reception should a mishap occur. I am disabled myself, and whilst I do use our onboard facilities a lot, as mine is more of a walking and breathless problem, and I can stand for a couple of mins at a time, I do use the caravan clubs facilities, and the Disabled pitches ajacent to them, whenever we visit one of their sites.
One thing that annoys me on some sites through, Caravan club included, is when they install speed ramps the full width of the roadways around the site, and the only option to get past them on my mobility scooter is to either drive onto the front of someones pitch, or around them into what is often fairly deep hardstanding gravel, or risk a 'grounding' and damage to my scooter trying to get over these. By all means install speed ramps for safety's sake, but either leave a gap so that wheelchairs and disability scooters can pass safely through the centre of these, or provide a hard surface by-pass path around the sides of them. One of the worst offenders is the CC Sandringham site, where a dirty great speed ramp has been installed between the Disabled pitch spaces, and the Disabled bathroom in the main toilet block, GRRR!
Sorry for hijacking this thread a bit, but this really does annoy me, and hence for the first season since we have started Caravanning again 4 years ago, we will not be visiting Sandringham, especailly as the prices for that site have been hiked up so much.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
All club sites (both clubs), and as far as I can remember all commercial sites that have separate disabled facilities, normally accessed with a RADAR key, have a seated shower area and plenty of room to get the wheelchair next to a loo.
I can also recommend Wooda near Bude if you get to Cornwall, when you get to Cornwall. Our pitch was a way from the disabled facilities so they gave me free access to the family bathrooms which you could also enter in a wheelchair.
------------- Tony C
Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
The main problem with using a family bathroom Tony is that most do not have enough grab rails in the appropiate places for some of us Disabled campers to use them, and a plastic patio chair on a slippery floor is just not good enough, especially for us larger framed people who need something a bit stronger and more sturdy.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Quote: Originally posted by romany girl on 11/3/2013
The main problem with using a family bathroom Tony is that most do not have enough grab rails in the appropiate places for some of us Disabled campers to use them, and a plastic patio chair on a slippery floor is just not good enough, especially for us larger framed people who need something a bit stronger and more sturdy.
Julia
Julia -
Fair point, but I managed ok in a wheelchair and thought it was nice to offer this option rather than a long push to the actual disabled facilities.
I am fairly newly registered disabled ,can walk few yards,but use mobility scooter,can anyone please recommend mobility scooter campsites,I.e tarmac paths and easy,safe access from campsite to local shops in Scotland,North Wales area,would be very much appreciated.Thanks,Fiona.☺
Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
My husband is disabled.We take a sturdy folding plastic chair for use in washrooms.We also carry a grab handle (amazon).some facilities do not have anywhere to sit and dry oneself(when I query this they say it's H&S and suggest the toilet seat yuk).
Sites near shops with mobility scooter paths . Keswick.Hawes.Moffat.Killin.Inverewe.Dingwall.Rosemarkie.Luss.
We have a gogo that comes apart so we park up using the blue badge.It's a bit of an effort so try to do this every other day as I do all the lifting ,driving etc etc.France is really easy .I did 2750 miles last year.municipal sites are near the town's.Traffic kinder.My husband rode his scooter 2000yrs after the Romans over the Pont du gare .Fab!
Check your insurance for the length of time you can be away from home base with the scooter.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: How disabled friendly is the site really?
Whilst we could normally manage to find a solution to most problems when I was able bodied we are going to struggle until I find what level of mobility I am going to be capable of.
). It would be nice if any disabled members could recomend any sites, or give some indication of how disabled friendly a site really is when doing a review of a site, as that would be helpful to any other disabled caravanners/campers.
