About This Site

Hi! I’m Dan.

I’m here to share my travel experiences and encourage people to travel more — especially people who have a disability.

I’ve heard a lot of excuses from people about why the don’t want or like to travel. While some reasons are valid and travel prohibitive, most are not. Many excuses come from a place of fear and some are the result of one bad experience traveling. People are quick to complain about their bad experiences, especially online.

I’m here to share my journeys and maybe make the idea of traveling a bit easier for everyone. While a lot of my advice is aimed at addressing wheelchair accessibility in places, I also share a lot of information useful to any traveler.

This site isn’t supposed to be a “look at me, look at me!” sort of thing. I just like to travel and I make it happen even though I could come up with dozens of excuses to stay home.

One excuse I could use is that I have muscular dystrophy and use an electric wheelchair to get around. Another, is that I can barely lift my arms a few inches from my lap. Third, I physically cannot get out of bed without help. Fourth, If a bed’s too high, I can’t get into it either unless I do a pole vault (or get help from someone).

Another excuse I could use is that I have to be lifted and transferred by strangers to a narrow wheelchair to get on a plane, then I have to be transferred again into my seat. Yet another is that I cannot get up to go to the bathroom on a plane. Sometimes I can’t even buckle my seat belt. I can’t comfortably eat a meal on a plane (in coach, and God forbid the person in front of me reclines). I have to wait until everyone disembarks, then wait for help and my wheelchair. Sometimes my wheelchair arrives broken. Sometimes it doesn’t arrive at all.

I’ve fallen on the floor of my hotel room. I’ve been stuck in hotel beds. I’ve run out of wheelchair battery in the middle of Paris. I’ve run out of battery in the middle of Barcelona. Frankly, if I travel day goes by without me getting close to running out of battery, it must not have been a very good travel day!

Despite all of the above possible excuses, I’ve gone anyway. I’ve learned ways to deal with all of the above issues. Many of my trips have been solo trips. In a wheelchair. By myself. In foreign countries where sometimes I don’t even know the language. Occasionally I drag along family and friends and make them pull my ass out of bed.

I understand that fear is a problem for some people. I also understand that money can be a problem. Most importantly, I know that physical constraints such as positioning and equipment can be very daunting. I’m not dismissing this. I won’t say it’s always easy. But if you can figure out a way to do it (it might take more than one try!), then you should give travel a go.

My main purpose in building this site is to encourage you — whether you have a disability or not — to go to the places you’ve dreamed about, meet the people of the world, and discover what it’s like outside of your bubble. All of this will help you improve your attitude, make your life better, and help you feel more positively about the world.

You can do this in a wheelchair. You can definitely do it if you can walk. You can do this for much less money than you think. You can do this now. I’ll help you get started with some tips and tricks, but also some motivation.

In case you missed it earlier, I literally cannot get out of bed in the morning! This could be my top excuse, but isn’t even on my radar. I go anyway and you should go anyway too.