Madeira

I travelled with a friend who is also a wheelchair user (paraplegic) and some of his family as well as to my own carers. We chose Madeira as it seemed to have a mixture of relaxation as well as some things to do and explore. More specifically we stayed near Funchal which is the capital. It's a beautiful island and although quite mountainous was quite accessible.

After quite a lot of research we decided to stay at the hotel Enotel Lido, click here for a link to their website. As with all holidays, it's much cheaper to arrange it yourself rather than go through a travel agent so we booked the hotel through e-book is as they had the best deal and then e-mail the hotel directly to make sure we had accessible rooms. It all worked really well. The flights were arranged through Monarch airline (see information re-flying) and after some research online I was able to find a wheelchair accessible taxi picked this up from the airport.the driver(Miguel) spoke fluent English and I can't recommend him enough as he did further tours for us as well. Click here for a link to his website.

The hotel itself was really accessible, although there was no pool hoist. I booked a junior Suite for myself and two carers and my friend had a disabled room so I was able to use his room for showering. The junior suite did not have an accessible bathroom and the standard accessible bedroom had a very steep ramp onto the balcony but other than that we can get round the entire hotel easily. We booked all-inclusive and the food was relatively good with the buffets style dinner every night and some themed nights. They also put on entertainment in the evenings although some nights were better than others!

Despite there being no hoist to get into the pool, I wasn't going to let that beat me. The hotel staff were really helpful and helped to lift me into the pool.

Outside the hotel there was a bus stop with a wheelchair accessible bus service running into the capital Funchal so on one day we took a pretty bus journey. The capital is really pretty with lots of shaded streets to walk along. We found one alleyway that had all the doors painted in a different style. There were loads of restaurants with different types of tapas to try. The streets were quite cobbly so it was quite slow going but well worth it.

The Mercado dos Lavradores is Funchal's bustling, vibrantly coloured marketplace. Filled with tropical fruit and vegetables such as mangoes, figs, guavas, custard apple, cherries and possibly the most famous of Madeira's fruits, the small, sweet bananas.
On the ground floor of the market there is a fish market, with possibly the best buys being the huge tuna fish , sea bream, red mullet and swordfish.
The building that houses the marketplace is itself famous, designed by Portuguese architect Edmundo Tavares (a student of Corbusier) and is built in an art-deco style with some superb painted tiles (azulejos) by the entrance.

Tour of the Island
We decided to do a day tour of the island using the wheelchair accessible taxi. He was an excellent tour guide and showed this all the different areas of the island, it really was beautiful.he took us to the highest clifftop in the islands which was awesome. There were steps down but he used his own ramp so that I could get access.