Smodaig

Hoping someone can advise me.
Where can you hire electric wheelchairs and other disabled paraphenalia in Vienna?
How easy is it to travel round Vienna in a wheelchair in terms of dealing with:
kerbs, cobbled streets, stairs and disabled access to public toilets, public transport, museums, castles, cafés and accommodation etc?

nytraveler

Sorry not to be specific - but I would think your hotel can organize an electric wheelchair. Do you need it right from the airport - or can the person take a few steps in or out of a cab?

In Vienna all we did was walk - yes, quite a few cobblestones - and took the tram - which I don;t believe had any access for wheelchairs - but this was about 4 years ago.

For hotels you will have to contact and ask specifically about stairs and a handicap bath..

kybourbon

http://www.wien.info/en/travel-info/...essible-health

Smodaig

@kybourne thank you!

greg

I was in Vienna last year. The metro had elevator access somewhere. We took elevators when we were with luggage, and we found one eventually. The cobblestone streets in Vienna were relatively smooth compared to similar pedestrian zones in Italy. The trams come in different styles. The classic trams have high floors, and it is not accessible by wheelchairs. If you wait further, the next one is probably a modern sleek one with the platform level floor you can just slide into the tram. The biggie palaces, the Hofburg and Schönbrunn are flat once you reach the apartment level. Both attract huge tour groups that block the tour passage and the view of the exhibits. The core of Vienna is a pedestrian zone and there are no sidewalks or curves. Take a look at Kärntner Straße, for example, on Google street level and you can get a feel of what the center looks like. Just around the core where the cars are allowed had curves cut at the intersections. The restaurants generally had generally good access. The tough ones were the Beisl restaurants that kept the classic interior layout. Some were very tight to get around even those on two feet. I saw a man on a walker who had to abandon his walker to go up a spiral staircase to an upstairs dining room. It wasn't clear if he was a local and that was where he always ate all his life or that his party could not find a table big enough at the ground floor level that night.

Smodaig

That was very helpful. Were you using a wheelchair?

molker

The Wien Info siten quoted above has good info.
Vienna becomes more friendly to those with disabilities.
A good firm with many products including wheelchairs

Bstandig

www.bstaendig.at

they have many shops in Vienna

most central in the very city center is on Freyung 5

Major sites usually have access.
The Fine Arts Museum has chairs for rent too for visits there. This a fine but large museum .

www.khm.at

Subway / UBahn stops all have elevators judt look for signs .

city center small bus has " feature to lowe /kneel bus- make this need known to driver.

Many streetcar routes now getting new almost flat floor to ground entrance way . If not this by the first car coming - probably soon.
Numerous hotels with special feature rooms.

I think above website has a list of cafe / restaurants with easy access, but enough to be found. some perhaps with just one step.

It seems some Churches fail to have easy access

State Opera and Volksoper have special space arrangements for wheelchairs- end of an aisle with good viewing - this a nice thing for music lovers.

Enjoy the trip.

greg

No, I don't use a wheelchair, yet. I have volunteered at a non-profit organization in Boston for several years to create a very early city guide with maps with cut curve locations and the business lists with wheelchair access or how to get a help getting into them.

violetss

I was in Viena last two years, and I'm a wheelchair user. ALL the museum and palaces are accssible. In Schonnbrun, you just ask (when buying tickets, which are more tham 50%discount for w-chair users and companion)where the elevator is and VERY kind personnel wil escort you so it's absolutely no prblem to reach the 1st, aprtment floor.Greg obviously din't bother to ask. Same goes for Belvedere, Museum of Arts and Historic museum, Hofburg (with one obstacle on one exibition floor, only mechanical whilchair can handle, so a few rooms are not accessible for motor wheelchar). ALL metro stations have elevators, the problem of finding them is our ignorance not the lack of accessiblity. They are visibly marked but for a first time visitor (like every first visit enywhere)it takes little patience. I went into several stores and restoraunt - no problem. Maybe some Viennese who wanted THAT particlar restoraunt had serious problem with his stroller. I'm very sorry for that, but these scary anectodes are hardly informative. Vast majority of restoraunts are accessible around Inner Stadt, and I actually didnt see unaccessible one. Getting into metro is no problem for majority of trains but some do leave a small gap so entering backwards - big wheels first - is recomended.

fourfortravel

I live in Vienna. but do not require use of a wheelchair. Especially in the tourist-frequented areas, accessibility has improved even in the two years I've been here.

The main trams that circle the InnerStadt are often, but not always, high-floor and are not wheelchair accessible. Most stops now have electronic displays and indicate whether an approaching tram is low-floor or not, with a blinking wheelchair symbol. Wheelchair access to the U-Bahn is available, though sometimes it is not easy to find in a retro-fitted subway system. Transit personnel are very helpful to those with wheelchairs and, usually, those with strollers.

I would not agree that ALL museums and palaces are accessible. The ones most frequently visited by tourists are, but not all.

"Rollstuhlgerecht" is the German term for wheelchair accessible, though in the tourist areas you are more likely to see the universal symbol for access. For restaurants, a useful website is http://www.falter.at/web/wwei/ to help you select everything from accessibility to non-smoking to whether dogs are permitted (Vienna is very dog friendly), as well as cuisine type and district.

violetss

"I would not agree that ALL museums and palaces are accessible. The ones most frequently visited by tourists are, but not all."
Yes, I stand corrected on that one. I was thinking about places of interest for someone having short-time visit to Vienna. But I did use term "all" inappropiately. Maybe, because existing elavators in most popular museums were not mentioned by one of the previous posters. This link was useful to me too: http://www.wien.info/en/travel-info