This was booked on a spur of the moment and wasn’t fully considered! Croatia is not known for its wheelchair accessibility but I thought I would give it a go as I like a challenge.
This walled city is more famous for Game of Thrones than anything else but it looked pretty and it seemed to be a combination of both beach holiday and a city break which is the sort of thing I like doing.
I travelled on my own with two PA's. Unfortunately due to the size and weight of my powered wheelchair I was unable to fly with some of the other budget airlines and had to go with EasyJet. Ryanair, Jet 2 and some others refuse to take my chair which can make things challenging.
We were met from the airport and all seem to go smoothly and I got my chair back in one piece which is always a relief. Transfer to the hotel was quite expensive but there wa
s seemingly no other option. The hotel I booked had relatively good access although apparently Croatian all-inclusive is slightly different to what we expected! Drinks were only available during mealtimes which were very restricted. Even water had to be paid for around the swimming pool and was approximately £2.50 given the conversion rate at the time. The hotel was adequate. The link is here. The bathroom was a wet room but they were unable to provide a shower chair.A further complaint about the accessibility of the hotel, was that there was no accessible toilet apart from the one in my bedroom which was a long way from the pool area.
De
spite asking several people there was no definitive answer about whether the buses were wheelchair accessible so we took a wheelchair accessible taxi into town. It turns out the buses are fully accessible and are a lot cheaper than the taxi so it was buses from then on! We visited the old town which was beautiful. The main street through it was relatively smooth and easy to negotiate in my powered wheelchair however most of the shops had steps into them as did the churches and it was impossible to climb the walls and walk round the top of the city. However, I made the most of it.
The MS Society had put me in touch with a man called Blaise and they had said they had a wheelchair that would climb stairs. We met Blaise on the second day and he gave us a tour of the town as well as showing us how to access the Cathedral, shown in the picture...
With some trepidation he showed us the wheelchair that the MS Society loan out to tourists that would climb stairs. Using this chair we went into the city Palace and went up to the second floor. You can see from the video that it was terrifying but it was great to be able to see around the
Palace/Museum.
On a separate day I also went up on the cable car which was fully accessible and gave great views over the old town as you can see from the pictures. I was allowed to queue jump but they didn’t seem to have the same policy where a carer is allowed to go free with me. Here is a link to the cable car. At the top I found the only wheelchair accessible toilet in the town!
Most of the restaurants have outdoor eating but I booked the all-inclusive deal at the hotel so I didn’t eat out that often during the trip but prices generally were the same, if not more than in the UK.
The journey home was not without it's adventure (that seems
to happen with me!). The only wheelchair accessible taxi broke down on the way
to the airport. In the end they lifted me into one car and used four men to lift my 140kg chair into the boot of another car. I would have taken pictures but we were too stressed about making the plane on time! I think Dubrovnik is a beautiful place to visit. 4 days was plenty of time to explore and relax but if you are in a wheelchair come prepared for challenges!
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