Places – Page 3 – You Should Go Anyway

Wheelchair accessible overwater bungalow in Tahiti

January 4, 2020April 23, 2025youshouldgoanyway

I was fortunate to find the Sofitel Moorea Ia Ora on Moorea in French Polynesia. It’s just a quick accessible ferry ride from Papeete and a great alternative to the larger Tahiti island. I would stay there again in a heartbeat!

I always wanted to stay in an over-water bungalow with a hole in the floor to see the water and this is exactly what I got. It was off-season so it wasn’t as expensive as I was expecting, which was great!

The accessible bungalow on the property is the closest one to the beach. Originally I was a little disappointed it wasn’t closer to the horizon bungalows further on the water, but it was actually nice to be really close to the beach for convenience and for the beach scenery.

The accessible bungalow had a nice big bathroom with a high toilet, grab bars, and a roll-in shower with a seat. There is no step to enter and a very small threshold to get onto the deck. The property would benefit by making the entire sun deck accessible (there was a step down to the sunning chair) and if they got really proactive, they’d have a lift that could drop you down right into the ocean and pull you back up! Unfortunately there was also no lift for the pool.

There was, however, a ramped access to the water which I found useful. The rest of the beach was pretty inaccessible to wheelchairs. You could go along the harder sand/stone along the beach but I was starting to get a little stuck in my power chair. The good thing though is that at least you can roll up really close to someone who is on the beach itself.

There was at least one accessible garden bungalow and you could stay a few days there and then move to the overwater if you wanted to save some money.

The property was a short drive from the ferry port and there is at least one accessible taxi company to get you there. The buffet breakfast is awesome too and the staff was absolutely incredible!

The wheelchair accessible bungalow on the water.

Tahiti to Moorea ferry with a wheelchair

January 2, 2020April 23, 2025youshouldgoanyway

During my trip to French Polynesia I decided to stay solely on Moorea except for one night on Tahiti. As a result we had to go straight to the ferry port in Papeete after landing. After arranging a wheelchair accessible taxi to the port, I did research and determined that I would have no trouble getting a ferry to Moorea.

The ferries run almost all day, every day. There are two companies that operate various schedules. I decided to go with the Aremiti due to our arrival time but there is also the Terevau company.

The staff on the ground at the port was so helpful in getting our luggage on their little luggage carts, but the best part was that they have a disability rate for the ferry. If you have “proof of disability” then you can get this discount. If you don’t have a card because your country doesn’t have one, then go ahead and use my tongue-in-cheek disability card generator, which I used for this purpose. The guy was about to give me the discount anyway but I managed to load mine up and show it to him.

Once the boarding started someone came and guided us up a special ramp to the front of the boat where the elevators were. There is a nice lounge with food and drinks and a quieter front lounge, all with open seating. There was an accessible bathroom and plenty of room to move.

There was no need to set up anything in advance either, which was great! But if you prefer to do this, you can call the number on their site.

Someone will help lead you up the ramp for wheelchairs as cars roll onto the ferry.

Wheelchair accessible taxis in Tahiti & Moorea

January 1, 2020January 1, 2020youshouldgoanyway

The first thing I did after booking my tickets to Tahiti was look for an accessible taxi service in the area. While I didn’t find any that were outright advertising as wheelchair accessible, I did find two companies that make do with what they have.

The first was Robert Carpentier who has a van with a portable ramp. When boarding, we made sure the ramp was on a curb to make the angle more do-able. I use an electric wheelchair and sit fairly high, so inside I was ducking down during the transit, but it was ok for short distances. If you use a taller chair, you may want to confirm that you’ll be ok.

Robert picked me up at the Papeete airport and was waiting for me when we came out of baggage. He took us directly to the ferry port where we headed to Moorea.

You can email Robert here: carpentier.r59@gmail.com

Robert was helpful in connecting me with Taxi Gisele on Moorea for our trips there. When we arrived at the port, the taxi was waiting, also with ramps for me.

We had a little trouble because these were two individual ramps made more for manual wheelchairs whose wheels align. But we made it work. The great thing was that because these two taxis communicated with each other, Robert actually sent his ramps over on the ferry so my future trips with Taxi Gisele would go more smoothly.

We booked a 5-hour tour around Moorea with Taxi Gisele as well and it was totally worth it! Got to check out the distillery and a bunch of great photo spots in addition to the dolphin and turtle sanctuary at the Hilton resort.

You can contact Taxi Gisele for Moorea trips here: pahigisele@mail.pf

Helsinki commuter trains are very wheelchair accessible

November 21, 2019November 21, 2019youshouldgoanyway

It’s always great when public transit is easy and accessible and requires no intervention from staff to get my wheelchair on a train. Helsinki’s train system falls into this category.

The train is perfect for getting from/to the airport to the Helsinki city center. There are two trains, the I train and the P train that make a loop with points at the airport and the main downtown Helsinki train station. You can take either, the only difference is the direction they move — either clockwise or counterclockwise around the loop.

There is no need for a ramp and there is ample space on board and a designated are to park your chair. People were very nice when moving their baby strollers or bikes and in general the Finnish people will be helpful whenever necessary.

The train is inexpensive and fast and I was glad to have used it during my trip. It runs frequently and the stations were level and accessible. You can check out the routes and timetables on the HSL website.

Tower of the Americas in San Antonio is Wheelchair Accessible

November 20, 2019youshouldgoanyway

Had the pleasure of heading up the tower for a very nice sunset and it was easy, and worth it.

To get there, I’d recommend accessing the grounds from Alamo St. near the Pavillion hotel. There’s a pedestrian pathway that heads right up to the Tower. If you go the Market St. route, you end up going all the way around and it feels really out of the way.

Buy your tickets outside first, then head inside and catch the elevator up. We didn’t do anything besides this. It wasn’t terribly crowded and we arrived only thirty minutes before sunset.