Travelling with MND - Reflections on Accessible Short Holiday Stays
February 20, 2025
MND Victoria has developed a factsheet that aims to assist with trip planning and discusses planning your travels, as well as providing some general tips for booking flights, travel insurance, reciprocal healthcare agreements, packing, plus much more. We have also created a video about the experiences of our community members who have travelled.
We are mindful that everyone’s experience of MND is different and not everyone is able to travel interstate or overseas.
Below are the reflections from two members of the MND Community on their experiences with accessible short holiday stays.
Michael and Carol's Travel Experience
"My husband Michael really wanted to stay on a houseboat, and we were very fortunate to find an accessible houseboat in our hometown of Mildura. It was a two-story boat with a lift, accessible bathroom and ramps at each doorway.
We ended up staying 3 nights, moving down the Murray River and docking at a couple of accessible points along the way. The holiday was doable, but did require a lot of organising. Michael was quite progressed in his condition and we did have to bring some of our own equipment on board, including a commode, recliner chair and Sara Stedy. Our normal carers were able to come on the boat each morning and tend to Michael’s needs.
We also travelled to Halls Gap and stayed at an accessible property I found on Booking.com. It was privately owned and had everything we needed, including an accessible bathroom with commode and hoist straight from the bedroom, a lift bed, a tilt chair, wide doorways and ramps. Michael was able to use his power wheelchair each day to travel into town and maintain his independence.
We also used a TrailRider available from the Halls Gap Visitor Centre so Michael could join us on our hikes. We did need a couple of strong helpers as the trail we were on was quite unstable so the motorised function of the TrailRider didn’t work very well.
Accessible holidays are fantastic, and there are many places out there. It’s worth making sure that your specific needs and level of care can be met at the place you want to go.”
- Carol, Michael's wife.
Terry and Janet's Travel Experience
"Since Terry was diagnosed with MND in 2018, we’ve been on a number of holidays with our boys. The most recent trip was to an accessible home on Phillip Island, where we ended up going a second time.
The house was excellent, and we felt like we could relax to a certain extent. We hired a wheelchair accessible van to travel down, which meant we could go out and about as a family and also fit all of the equipment Terry needed.
We used AccessibleAccomodation.com to find the house, and after reading all the information we contacted them to find out what they did and didn’t have, and what we needed to hire. The house was set up really well, but we had to hire a recliner chair and commode, and coordinate people to bring them to us. We also hired carers from the local area who were great. We appreciated them coming in and taking care of Terry for such a short period. Our MND Advisor gave me the names of people and groups in the area who could help.
There are quite a few things to consider when you’re travelling somewhere new. It took a lot of organising to make sure we’d have everything Terry needed and to also pack it all up. On our second trip I actually forgot a part of his PEG. Being a small town nobody had it, so after the carers arrived I drove the hour and a half back home to get it.
Being adaptable is so important. You’ve got to be ready to work out the best way to do things."
- Janet, Terry's wife.
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