Holiday review: Tenerife
In this holiday review we join SIA’s counselling and wellbeing coordinator Stephen Brookes as he and his family share their experience of the friendly and welcoming island of Tenerife.
As a C4/5 tetraplegic, going on holiday takes a lot of planning and preparation, but I love to travel so I’m very fortunate that, with the help of my family and personal assistant, I can.
That love of travel is thankfully shared by my family so earlier this year, my wife, two teenage daughters and I decided to head off to Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, for a week of what we refer to in our family as a ‘fly and flop’ holiday, fly there-flop down.
I don’t travel light! I have in the past rented mobility equipment locally and for me it’s been a little bit hit and miss so I decided to always travel with a portable hoist and shower chair. Most airlines will allow this equipment in addition to your baggage allowance, so it allows me to be completely self-sufficient.
We had a mid-afternoon flight from a very busy Gatwick Airport, but I’m happy to say that my experience of special assistance in the UK and Tenerife was good. I stayed in my wheelchair all the way up to the cabin door of the aircraft, quickly had an assisted transfer onto an isle chair and I was in my cabin seat within ten minutes, ready to head off to sunny Tenerife!
TOP TRAVEL TIP: Apple Air Tags! I have them on all my equipment and wheelchair – you can quickly check the location of your things through an app which gives you the piece of mind that they are onboard with you!
HOTEL
This year we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, which is in the coastal village of Costa Adeje. We arrived early evening and reception was warm and welcoming but with rock music blaring it was a little chaotic.
To be honest this hotel has some of the smallest wheelchair accessible rooms we’ve stayed in, and we were told upgrades to Hard Rock Royalty rooms or rooms that included wet rooms was not possible for guests with disabilities, which was disappointing.
Aside from that, the accessibility of the hotel’s reception, restaurants, pools and facilities, which are all situated on differing levels, was fantastic. I had use of many different lifts, marble floors and ramps to allow access. There was no part of the hotel I could not get to or enjoy so I can highly recommend that.
FOOD
There were plenty of restaurants situated in the hotel; Italian, Japanese, fast-food, but all quite expensive. As we were staying on a bed-and-breakfast basis, we did enjoy the hotel restaurants but we also found it enjoyable to explore the immediate area. There are some great restaurants outside of the hotel, we would recommend Spice Garden Indian, Titanic restaurant and the Shan Chinese at the Rosa shopping centre. Road, cambers of pathways and accessibility into shops does vary though, so be prepared to adapt. Having said that, the overall experience of the local restaurants, food and people was welcoming, friendly, and reasonably priced.
BEACHES
When visiting the beaches in Tenerife, the accessibility was fantastic, they have wooden pathways which make accessible routes onto most areas of the beach with dedicated shaded areas with lifeguards who would delight in transferring you into a floating chair to allow you to access and swim in the sea. They are even there to hose you off with freshwater when you return, just remember to bring a change of clothes! I can’t speak highly enough of the service and access I found at the beaches in Tenerife. Highly recommended.
TRAVEL COMPANY
On the day we were due to fly back the UK National Air Traffic System had a fault which resulted in multiple flights diversions and cancellations. We received a text from the airline informing us our flight had been cancelled, but with no further details. We were left unsure of how, when, if we were going to get home or where we were going to go next.
As it turned out we wouldn’t return home for another week, and never have I been so glad to have booked a holiday as part of a package deal, with the relevant protection and insurances in place.
We had booked with Hayes Travel who took care of everything, from rebooking our flight, locating and booking alternative accessible accommodation and transfers, even providing details of local pharmacies and doctors who would get additional medication and supplies that I would need for my unexpected extended stay!
Being relocated, all at no additional cost to ourselves other than food, made this next part of the holiday a little bit sweeter; there’s nothing like having a free holiday to make a tetra happy!
I found Tenerife to be an excellent holiday for somebody with spinal cord injury. Locals really value tourists and will often go above and beyond to help make your stay enjoyable. Getting around the island is easy with accessible transport and taxis readily available if you don’t mind being guided up and down a ramp into the back of a van. Would I visit again? In a heartbeat, already booked for next year!
This story featured in Forward Magazine
