mediteranean ports with scooter

How accessible (if at all) do you think these ports would be with a mobility scooter? My DH can walk a little (like 500 feet) but that's all.

Barcelona, Spain | Marseille (Provence), France | Genoa, Italy (for Milan) | Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy | Tunis (La Goulette), Tunisia | Sicily (Palermo), Italy | Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy | Naples, Italy (for Capri & Pompeii) | Crete (Heraklion), Greece | Rhodes, Greece | Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus) | Santorini, Greece | Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Thanks

Yoletta:confused:

We are looking at a cruise that stops at the following ports:

Barcelona, Spain | Marseille (Provence), France | Genoa, Italy (for Milan) | Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy | Tunis (La Goulette), Tunisia | Sicily (Palermo), Italy | Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy | Naples, Italy (for Capri & Pompeii) | Crete (Heraklion), Greece | Rhodes, Greece | Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus) | Santorini, Greece | Athens (Piraeus), Greece

My DH uses a mobility scooter although he is able to walk about 500 feet. Do you know how many of these ports are accessible?

Thanks for your help

Yoletta

Some reading on this board will bring up threads that deal with your questions:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2091461

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2069580

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2014124

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2010159

thanks

We are looking at a cruise that stops at the following ports:

Barcelona, Spain | Marseille (Provence), France | Genoa, Italy (for Milan) | Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy | Tunis (La Goulette), Tunisia | Sicily (Palermo), Italy | Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy | Naples, Italy (for Capri & Pompeii) | Crete (Heraklion), Greece | Rhodes, Greece | Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ephesus) | Santorini, Greece | Athens (Piraeus), Greece

My DH uses a mobility scooter although he is able to walk about 500 feet. Do you know how many of these ports are accessible?

Thanks for your help

Yoletta

Being that Barcelona hosted the 1992 International Paralympic Games and Athens host the them in 2004 are more accessible than all the other ports you're inquiring about. However though Athens hosted the games more recently is not as accessible as Barcelona due to its many ancient sites.

You may have difficulty booking tours unless your husband's scooter is a portable travel scooter the breakdowns or folds to fit into the back of taxi trunk. Generally speaking you will have to try to search/find private accessible tours that can accommodate a mobility scooter as most of the cruise lines excursions do not have vehicles with an accessible lift to accommodate a scooter.

Suggest you do a search on the CC forum by port as there has been must posted in the past on many of the ports you're inquiring about.

Being that Barcelona hosted the 1992 International Paralympic Games and Athens host the them in 2004 are more accessible than all the other ports you're inquiring about. However though Athens hosted the games more recently is not as accessible as Barcelona due to its many ancient sites.

 

You may have difficulty booking tours unless your husband's scooter is a portable travel scooter the breakdowns or folds to fit into the back of taxi trunk. Generally speaking you will have to try to search/find private accessible tours that can accommodate a mobility scooter as most of the cruise lines excursions do not have vehicles with an accessible lift to accommodate a scooter.

 

Suggest you do a search on the CC forum by port as there has been must posted in the past on many of the ports you're inquiring about.

Thanks. Yes his scooter does break into 3 pieces. I've been all over CC forums looking for info. I thought if I just posted all the ports I might find someone who had done the same cruise.

Yoletta

Thanks. Yes his scooter does break into 3 pieces. I've been all over CC forums looking for info. I thought if I just posted all the ports I might find someone who had done the same cruise.

Yoletta

I have a TravelScoot ll, which has reverse gear, and folds up aprox. 36"X12"

is 35 lbs, and carries 320 lbs. :D

Look it up on web sit for dealer near you.

Cato. :)

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Naples, Italy (for Capri & Pompeii) -- The city is semi-accessible, Pompeii is pretty much inaccessible, regardless of what anyone says.

Santorini, Greece -- Not at all accessible. Narrow, crowded, uneven stone streets. Additionally this is a tender port and they require the ships to use the tenders operated by the port who may not even allow non-ambulatory to board.

Athens (Piraeus), Greece -- Actually fairly accessible. We found Athens to have some of the best streets and sidewalks. Even the Acropolis has an elevator, although once on top getting near the actual ruins will be a challenge over very uneven rocks.

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy -- I can't really say about the port area, what I saw of it was pretty level. Rome is semi-accessible. Parts of it are going to be challenging, but much of it will be OK. About 75% of the Forum area is inaccessible. Most people seem to think that using a private driver is the best way to see Rome for those with limited mobility, I would absolutely agree--just getting from the Port to Rome on public transit would be a major challenge. St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum are very accessible with ramps, elevators, and smooth floors. The only problem is that they aren't connected and it's a bit of distance between them.

I hope this helps.

We did a Med cruise in July/August this summer. I had polio as a child and now use a travelscoot brand scooter for mobility. We traveled with our family. We used private tours for every stop except Mykonos where our daughter and grandchildren went to Delos on a ship's excursion while my husband and I treated that day as a much needed "ship" day. I would recommend the following: For Barcelona, Barcelona Day Tours. For Florence, Naples and Rome, Rome in Limo. For Ephesus, Ekol Travel. For Athens, Michael Sterianos. We saw a lot on each tour and my scooter was handled easily in the vans.

I am not certain from your post what you are going to try to achieve in each of these ports....but here is our experience:

Civitavecchia- reasonably accessible.

Naples-you certainly can get from the ship to a coach but after that....not so much. But you can certainly do a tour of the Amalfi Coast, towns like Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi are reasonably accessible if you stay on the beaten path.

Kusadasi- the city is very accessible but Ephesus is definitely not, don't even think of it in scooter.

Athens- is fairly accessible including the Acropolis (there is a cage type lift up the side of the mountain) but once at the top it is very tough to get around.

Santorini-the cable lift is accessible but you have to look for the elevator. Once at the top though it is more than a couple of blocks over cobblestones and steps to where you rent a car or board a coach. Basically this port is not accessible.

Op......which line has that amazing itinerary?....trip of my dreams....thanks

Thank you everyone for your input. I really appreciate it. the trip is on the Emerald Princess. I was going to do it on the Island Princess, but they don't have any mini-suites with roll in showers.

Yoletta

For Livorno I would recommend Maurizio of Tuscany Taste Tours. He has a smaller van and a permit that allows him to park next to the sites you want to see. My husband didn't have to use his scooter on our trip to Florence and another one to Sienna, Pisa and San Gimignano.

For Rome we used Rome Cabs with Massimo as our guide. It was wonderful and, again, we didn't have to do much walking to see the sights.

I agree that Santorini is pretty inaccessible, though we did enjoy sitting at an open air restaurant across the street from the top of the tram. The view was spectacular! Just try to get off the ship early or the wait for the tram can be very long.

In general you are best using either a car or small van with a driver. We usually share tours with others and my husband does as much as he can. Sometimes it means sitting in a cafe people watching, but he enjoys just "being there" and doesn't feel the need to go everywhere. Another thing we have done is to hire a cab at the ports. It makes getting to the places you want to go easy and you can usually negotiate an hourly rate.

Kate