Can anyone please share experiences with me regarding travelling in Ireland with a person in a wheelchair? We will be staying in b and b's, 3 days near Dublin, then driving 3 days somewhere else. Any suggestions for towns, things to see, names of b and b's. Thanks very much.

Joan<BR>I hope that you can make it to the Dingle Peninsula. The scenery is beautiful!! Drive Connor Pass and Slea Head Drive. YOu won't be sorry! I believe those in the know recommend Heatons B&B in Dingle. Have a great time

Make sure you request a BEDROOM on the GROUND( 1st) floor- most BnB's do NOT Have elevators--and will be hard to roll around--Plus the bathrooms will NOT be handicapped accessible...<BR><BR>Make sure you ask for these things--

Joan,<BR><BR>Irelanmd is not a wheelchair friendly Country unfortunately. Not to say that people won't be helpful as they will but you must notify the B&B's in ADvance that you need a ground floor room. My Aunt owns one and has no ground floor rooms so you could be stuck if they are like this. <BR><BR>If you only have 3 days Cork/dingle is too far. you willbe in the car too myuch. Galway is a lovely place to visit and north of the city is a small town called Spiddle where people still speak Irtish. I was there a few weeksa ago and it is an easy drive from Galway (approx 20 mins)<BR><BR>

Joan:<BR><BR>I haven't had any experience with travelling with a person in a wheel chair, but the Town and Country website:<BR>http://www.townandcountry.ie/<BR>allows you to sort by "Access for disabled with helper". This would probably help. I suggest that you pick an area (county) and then do a search on all towns. The entire county of Galway only had 11 choices under those search parameters.<BR><BR>I would be interested to hear what your plans are around Dublin. I think if I were to be in Ireland for six days, I wouldn't spend three of them in Dublin. Someone bashed me for that once, but generally Dublin doesn't make it into people's top five European cities. There may be something special for you there though. Also, if you are going to do area things (tours to Newgrange, Glendalough etc), that would be a different matter.<BR><BR>Cork is only 20 miles further than Galway, Dingle is about 80 miles further (about 2.5-3 hour difference). If you plan to try the west coast, you will spend a day driving out and a day driving back. The town that xxx was referring to is actually Spiddal and it is directly west of Galway. The further you drive along that coast road, the more Gaelic you will come across. Most of the road signs are in Gaelic there, but you wouldn't get lost.<BR><BR>You probably should consider an area to use as a central touring base and stay there. Depending on what you want to see, I would suggest Kilkenny, Bunratty or Galway in the Republic of Ireland. You could make it to Dingle, but that would be a much longer drive. <BR><BR>Don't forget Northern Ireland though. The Antrim Coast and Glens are spectacular. You will find fewer B&Bs on the T&C site there but the Automobile Association (AA) could probably help.<BR><BR>It would probably help if you gave us a little more insight into what you wanted to see. Regardless, have a great time.<BR><BR>Bill<BR><BR>

Thanks so much for your help. Here is what we've come up with so far. Land at Shannon- 1 night in hotel near Limerick, 1 night in Dromoland Castle, (both wheelchair accessible), 3 nights in b and b outside of Dublin-we are there for my aunt's 95th birthday celebration, and the last night we need to be somewhat close to Shannon. That is still open for suggestions.

There's a Great Southern Hotel right at the airport. The rates are decent every night but Saturday, when they more than double. They can get all of us Americans leaving on Sunday morning. But double-check that they have elevators. I seem to remember a lot of stairs.<BR><BR>As previously mentioned, Ireland is not wheelchair friendly. My mother-in-law is not in a wheelchair but uses a walker, and finds it difficult to go many places because of the lack of accommodation for physical handicaps.