You can also count on trained staff who are used to dealing with particular needs - anything from offering physiotherapy and care services to catering for special diets and cutting up food.

Here's a good example of an accessible hotel: Access Centres Turkey. It's allegedly the first fully-fledged "accessible hotel" in Turkey, just opened in May 2007 in the Aegean resort of Icmeler.

With a 4-star, 25 accessible rooms, mobile hoists, pool hoists, an accessible coach and two accessible minibuses, a light sensory room for stimulation, theatre and cinema, and Turkish bath and fitness/relaxation centre, it looks like a pretty damn fine choice.

There's a private accessible beach next door and individual care or therapy packages can be put together by staff to give your family and usual carers a break as well.

The problem with 'accessible hotels' is, or rather the problems are, that:

· Costly: They tend to be far more expensive than "ordinary" hotels of the same quality, because of all the health and safety regulations and the special facilities on offer.
· Location Woes: They're not always where you want them to be. In fact, they're almost never where you want them to be - unless you simply want a beach holiday and don't much mind where in the world you are.
· The Scene: You have to spend your holiday with a group of people you wouldn't usually choose to be surrounded by and with whom you have very little in common, by virtue of the sole fact that you're all "disabled" in one way or the other.

In an ideal world, all or most hotels would offer accessible facilities to guests who needed them. But until that ideal world appears, "accessible hotels", booked through agencies such as Accessible Travel & Leisure (not related to T+L at all), are one of the more reliable, convenient choices for travellers with disabilities.

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