Switzerland and french riviera with elderly, handicapped grandma

Pasteton

Pasteton

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Title basically says it - trying to arrange a 10 day trip (5 days switz, 4 south of france/monaco then back to switz) and the big issue I have is needing wheelchair access basically anywhere I go.
So a few questions -

- to those of you that have been to switzerland before, how wheelchair friendly are the cities? Will it be easy to manage taking someone around places like interlaken, gruyere, basel?

- Starting in zurich and heading to geneva, where all are the must-see places, bearing in mind I am traveling with an older person and my mobility is restricted, and I have basically 4 days for this part of the trip? I am not sure what cities are nice/big enough to stay at overnight, which places I need the most time for etc. It needs to be fairly comfortable and accomodating for an 83 yr old wheelchair bound.

Thanks!
 
Szlia

Szlia

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Some notes on Switzerland:

Not being in a wheelchair and never having to travel around with someone in a wheelchair, I might be more optimistic than realistic, but I think there are some legal obligations for things to be wheelchair accessible. The range of these obligations, I am not sure, but public transportation should not be an issue (you might need to be a little early at train stations and ask the help of the station crew to board though - they have a mobile wheelchair lift for some older train models that are not wheelchair accessible - and as far as buses and trams are concerned you might at worst need to wait a little as in some area only one out of two or three vehicles on each line are wheelchair accessible) and most if not all museums and theaters should be accessible.

Now a nice part to stroll around in most cities is the old town, but for medieval defense reasons, those are often on hills... a notable and worth visiting exception is Bern (surrounded on three sides by a river). I don't know Zurich and Basel nearly enough to comment (Soriak should be able to help), but Geneva (outside of the old town) is a pretty flat city, so moving around should be easy.
 
Pasteton

Pasteton

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thanks for the advice! We were thinking of going to Interlaken and then the mountain that you can take a train to from there - jungfraujoch or something. Is that fairly accessible or is that more of a rugged trip?
I'm trying to find a way to get them to experience the alps but I am worried about their comfort there
 
Eomer

Eomer

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In my experience wheelchair accessibility in Europe is horrendous compared to North America, if only because it wasn't a requirement a couple centuries ago when most of Europe was actually built and it can be a nightmare to retrofit existing buildings for it. Newer stuff is fine, but older buildings/areas can be tough.
 
Furry

Furry

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last time i was in switzerland i remember some grandma in a walker tearing down the middle of a road like she owned the damn thing at a brisk 1 mph. She seemed to have absolutely no fear of death, so I assume drivers on a whole must be courteous to people on the road, or she was looking for a payout for her kids.
 
T

Troll_sl

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Absolutely, absolutely go through Interlaken and the valley to the gondolas up Jungfrau. Even if you don't go all the way up the mountain, at least visit my absolute favorite place in the world, Murren. In my opinion, there is no more beautiful place. And it should be fairly easy to get around with a wheelchair. Just a couple of streets (no cars). Wonderful people too, who I'm sure will help out if you need it.
 
Pasteton

Pasteton

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So we will be spending more time in Geneva than Zurich, is that a good plan? Jesus Geneva hotels are crazy expensive, AND super shitty. Makes San Fran seem like the Midwest with pricing
 
E

Eorkern

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And for France with a wheelchair, you shouldn't have THAT much of trouble, unless you go to really old places. But the south is the place where a lot of old people go to retire so it should be mostly OK...
 
Pasteton

Pasteton

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Yea just did switzerland - can vouch for jungfraujoch is AMAZING - blew away everything else about the trip so far. Buying touristy items is depressing when you see 'made in china' on all of them :/
Can definitely recommend against gruyere with a wheelchair. Unlike old town bern, the gruyere cobble stones were laid by drunk Mexicans and there's no way to get a wheelchair across that savagery . We ended up having to lift her they most of the village.

On my way to French Riviera next. Hopefully the traffic won't be too shitty from Geneva to nice..
 
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