Visiting the Azores as a Silver Traveler
Feels so good to travel again. Our first foray into travel was a one week trip to the beautiful Azorean island of Terceira. A little bit of Portugal in the middle of the Atlantic. A 5 hr flight from North America.
We got a fabulous deal through Azores Getaways and felt that was a good way to go. We are seniors mid to late 70s who, after covid lockdown felt comfortable with having someone else help with planning. Our trip included our flight on SATA airlines – quite good and transfers to hotel. We had a few hotels to choose from and our choice I felt was quite good. The hotel was in the city centre and most things were an easy distance away. The city is quite compact. We did two island tours and then took public transit to two other places. We would have like to have been able to do public transit to a wooded area we visited on one of our tours but that was not possible.
I have some walking issues as of late and found the cobbled streets quite difficult. I think someone in a wheelchair might find the jostling a bit much.
I understand that there is an accessible taxi that offers both airport transfers and tours Taxi Awigo +351 963 729390. We received that info from the Information centre in town of Angra Heroismo but it must be noted that there was not a ramp into the office
We went to the main museum which was next to our hotel and were pleased that they had thought to make the place as accessible as possible with many ramps in a very old building The last ramp was too steep.
They did provide a wheelchair for use and there was an accessible washroom.
The hotel we stayed at (Hotel Azoris Angra Garden) had an accessible room on each of the 4 floors They let us take pictures of one that was being repainted.
In our travels we did not see anyone in the main town with a disability but when we were in Praia Victoria we did see a community group of maybe 10 people going for a walk/wheel along the beachfront who had various disabilities.
We did talk to some people on our flight home who used canes and they said the cobbled streets and sidewalks were tiring but not impossible.
Right next to the hotel was a fabulous garden with extensive ramps built in nicely.
There are also public toilets and here is an example of one that has a separate compartment to meet the needs of wheelchair users.
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