Drift Away Suite at Twillingate & Beyond

Accessible Travel, Accommodations, Beyond the Overpass, Uncategorized / By
A photo of the main bedroom of the suite. There's a queen sized bed with a red headboard and a colourful quilt on it, and in the corner you can see a jacuzzi.

Last summer I headed to Twillingate for a little staycation. I was invited by the owner of Twillingate & Beyond to stay in their gorgeous, wheelchair-friendly Drift Away Suite. I had such a wonderful, comfortable two night stay and was able to provide the owners with some accessibility feedback so they could make some small changes to enhance the experience for other wheelchair users. I call this suite wheelchair-friendly because it met most of my access needs as a wheelchair user, but I did recognize some barriers that might exist for other wheelchair users. The suite was nestled in the back …

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Alt Hotel

Accessible Travel, Accommodations, Restaurants/Bars/Cafes, St. John's & Surrounding Areas / By
A photo of the Alt Hotel lobby with lots of very fun, modern couches, chairs and ceiling lights.

Last summer I needed a change of scenery when I was laid up in bed with a really bad back. I decided I would rather spend a night laying in a hotel bed looking out at the harbour, so I headed to Alt Hotel to check it out. I had already heard good things about their accessibility, and the pics I saw online of the lobby and rooms looked so dreamy. I was not disappointed! It was beautiful and cozy, and I had such a relaxing night not very far from home. For anyone interested in going for a (mostly) …

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Manuels River Trail

Public Spaces, St. John's & Surrounding Areas, The Great Outdoors / By
A view of Manuels River and the surrounding trees from a bridge above it.

Last fall I went on a very fun adventure to Manuels River to try out an all terrain wheelchair that can be booked out from the Manuels River Interpretation Centre and used on their trails. The chair is called the Grit Freedom Chair and has been available at Manuel’s for the last two years thanks to funding from the Community Healthy Living Fund and the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development (Government of NL). Since then it has mainly been used during educational programs as students in wheelchairs often visit with their class and are able to participate in the …

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Creating Accessible Accommodations

Accessibility Advice, Accessible Travel, Accommodations / By
A white background with coral bold text that says "creating accessible accommodations"

A message to everyone in the hospitality and tourism industry in NL: One of the hardest parts of planning any vacation when you’re a wheelchair user is actually being able to trust that the place you’re booking your accommodations with is as accessible as it claims to be. A lot of places list themselves as “wheelchair accessible” but upon further investigation there are obvious barriers that would make staying there difficult or impossible. I worry that I’m being misled when I see a place claim to be wheelchair accessible but see no specific details of what makes it accessible, or …

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Round Da Bay Inn: Bonavista Peninsula

Accessible Travel, Accommodations, Beyond the Overpass / By
A photo of the exterior of Round Da Bay inn, a large two story red inn with white trim and decks, with two wings of single story rooms on either side of the middle two story building.

I want to tell a story about Round da Bay Inn and the owners Karen & Chris Ricketts. When I first set up Access YYT, I think Karen/Round Da Bay Inn was one of my first followers. And as I continued to post accessibility tips and advice on my accounts, I began to notice a trend. Basically everything I shared as suggestions to make a business and their social media presence more accessible was promptly followed by Round Da Bay Inn. If I said that businesses and public figures should use image descriptions for any photos they share across their …

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Harbourside Park

Public Spaces, St. John's & Surrounding Areas, The Great Outdoors / By
A photo taken at the edge of the wharf at Harbourside Park, looking out at the Narrows in the harbour.

Last week I sat with one of my best friends at Harbourside Park while sipping on a latte and taking in the view. I always love getting a drive thru coffee and then heading to Harbourside. There’s an accessible parking spot right in front of the entrance, some nice ramps all the way down to the water, and lots of benches to sit at if you don’t always have a seat under you like I do. There is some gravel on each level of the park which can be hard for some people to push their mobility aids through, but I …

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Landwash Brewery: Mount Pearl

Restaurants/Bars/Cafes, St. John's & Surrounding Areas / By
A red sign on a white wall that reads Landwash Brewery. Underneath is a smaller white sign that says Taproom.

Another local brewery that I really love is Landwash Brewery! It is such a beautiful venue with delicious beer and an amazing food truck – Saucy Mouth. It isn’t perfectly wheelchair accessible but it has a lot of accessibility features and I believe they’re currently working on adding more. ⁣ For those of you who need to know about accessibility features before heading to Landwash, here’s what you can expect:⁣ ⁣ – The parking lot has multiple accessible parking spots and there’s a proper curb cut to get onto the curb that leads to the main entrance.⁣ – There is an …

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A Trinity Staycation at Blueberry Cottage

Accessible Travel, Accommodations, Beyond the Overpass, Restaurants/Bars/Cafes / By
Image: A photo of the exterior of Blueberry Cottage - a dark blue house A frame house with white trim. Photo credit: Artisan Inn.

Please note: This blog post was originally written on  June 13, 2019. At the time of this vacation I was an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning I mostly relied on crutches and my rollator and sometimes used a wheelchair. The accommodations worked for me based on my needs at the time. I also haven’t been back to many of these places since this post and cannot speak to whether accessibility changes have been made, but I am returning to the Bonavista area later this summer to do an updated post A few weeks ago we packed our bags, hopped in a truck …

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Cape Spear

Public Spaces, St. John's & Surrounding Areas, The Great Outdoors / By
A photo of me from behind, sitting in my wheelchair on a different observation deck near the end of the trail. There are rails in front of me and then cliffs and ocean beyond.

I recently headed out to Cape Spear with one of my best friends to check out their new accessible trail. We heard rumours that a portion of the trail was recently renovated to provide wheelchair accessibility, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Like most accessibility-related things, my expectations were low. But I was pleasantly surprised! We parked in one of the many accessible parking spaces and then wheeled past an accessible washroom (well, it says it’s accessible but I didn’t look inside and I did notice there was no automatic door) and then past an accessible visitor centre …

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