Devin

I am travelling with a woman in a wheelchair. We're ready to take on anything but stairs! <BR>Any ideas as to affordable (ie $100 - $150), central hotels in Paris, which can accomodate a wheelchair? <BR>Thanks!

Alice

Pull up search engine www.google.com, type in this phrase: w/ ( ) <BR>(Paris hotel wheelchair access) <BR>You will get a number of choices to view

Devin

Thanks for the tip!

sandra

contact www.hotelboulevard.com they helped me with a hotel and made arrangements to have a wheelchair ready for me. i am traveling with my mother and she sometimes has a hard time walking. we are staying at the hotel danube rue jacob 6th district. i have also stayed in the 7th at the hotel le bourdonnais and they are very accomodating. there are two small steps tot eh elevator but other then that no real problems

Gina

I have a copy of "Access in Paris," a guide to accessible accommodations, etc., written by Gordon Couch and Ben Roberts. It's unfortunately very out of date; pub date of 1994. They do list a number of hotels in Paris that have varied degrees of accessibility. They *don't*, however, review anything but accessibility, so I can't really tell you much about the hotels other than that. But they do mention that two of the Ibis hotels in Paris are quite accessible, with flat entrances, elevators, and adapted rooms including bathrooms with handrails. They're not as centrally located as others; the one on Rue de Bercy is a bit southeast of Gare de Lyon, and the one on Rue Caulaincourt is near Montmartre. But they're still reasonably well located and I've heard very good things about the Ibis hotels in terms of affordability and quality. They're not 'quaint' traditional Paris hotels, but then again, 'quaint' often also means 'inaccessible.' <BR> <BR>contact info: Ibis Paris Sacre Coeur, 5 Rue Caulaincourt, (+33)1/55301818. I actually can't find the one on Rue de Bercy on their Web site; does anyone know if it still exists? There's an "Ibis Paris Bercy Expo" listed in that area, but it's on place des Vins de France. <BR> <BR>There are also a number of Ibis hotels that have opened in Paris since the book was written; they may also be more accessible than most. The chain's Web site is www.ibishotel.com, although they're not hugely forthcoming with a ton of detail about specific properties. <BR> <BR>Even though "Access in Paris" is quite dated--we're talking really 10 years since the research was done--it might be worth ordering from Amazon or your local travel bookstore just to have *some* sort of base to start from, researched by actual disabled travelers. <BR> <BR>One other note: if you search a hotel site or the Web for "Paris disabled hotel" and the like, be sure to speak to a human at the hotel(s) that sound interesting and confirm exactly what they mean by "wheelchair accessible." I travel with my dad, who uses a wheelchair, and we've noticed that people tend to define "accessible" in a wide variety of ways. One hotel booking service lets you search for "disabled" as a criterion, and lists quite a few in major European capitals that supposedly have "facilities for disabled travelers." I e-mailed the service and asked them what they meant by that, and the response I got was "Good question. I'm not sure. We'll have to get back to you on that." Of course, they never did.

Caitlin

I agree that you must inquire very specifically via phone or fax. Many hotels in Europe will tell you that they have ground floor rooms (always ask for ground floor, as what they call first floor we call second floor), but neglect to mention the step or two at the entrance. Also ask about the size of bathrooms and elevators; tiny bathrooms are common in Paris (along with tiny hotel rooms), and some oldee buildings have very small elevators with narrow doors.