The following article gives an overview of what someone may be able to expect if they are travelling to Nepal with a disability.
Unfortunately disabled travellers in Nepal are confronted by many obstacles which make travelling in Nepal very difficult.
Nepal has very few – if any, facilities to accommodate disabled travellers. The vast majority of hotels do not have lifts, which means that disabled travellers are often precluded from staying in hotels – particularly since there are no reports of hotels in Nepal which have railings and other facilities on site for disabled travellers. An additional issue is that most hotels in Nepal have a number of stories and for the vast majority of hotels accommodation is housed in the upper levels of the buildings.
Nepal is also renowned for twisty routes and tight bends characterised by uneven pavements. Typically, the older parts of Nepal do not have pavements at all. Consequently, disabled travellers who rely on a wheelchair for transportation face incredible issues manoeuvring around pedestrian areas in Nepal.
It is likely that the advice, therefore, of many disabled travellers with very limited mobility would be to invest considerable time planning a trip to Nepal and to engage an agent who can work on your behalf; identifying suitable places to stay and liaising with the hotel and travel industry to ensure that all relevant plans and preparations have been made.
Paradoxically however, disabled travellers have also made significant achievements in Nepal and accomplished things which individuals without disabilities have been unable to achieve. As an example, Eric Weihenmayer climbed to the Everest summit despite being blind and two quadriplegics recently completed a trek of Pokhara. There are also vast numbers of other stories of individuals who have overcome disabilities to complete incredible feats in Nepal.
Clearly however, these individuals have undoubtedly trained prior to their visit to Nepal and have adapted their accessories accordingly.
It is not uncommon for disabled travellers visiting Nepal to stay with Nepalese families as a solution to the limitations in many of the hotels in Nepal.
Consequently, although Nepal is not well equipped for disabled travellers many of these challenges can be overcome. It is also comforting to note that Nepalese society typically goes out of their way to try and accommodate those who may have particular needs.
