In Reply to: elderly in bali posted by balisarah on Tuesday, 24. May 2011 at 07:38 Bali Time:
As well as taking our own wheel chair (airlines will let you take them in the hold at no extra charge) we hired a motorised scooter from Bali Mobility in Sanur and it was great for getting around the hotel. Unfortunately the footpaths out on the street were not suitable for a gopher and even a wheelchair in many places. Not only are there rough sections but you have to battle with the motorcycles that people insist on park across the footpaths.
The beach path was good from the Hyatt, where we stayed, right up to Segara Beach to the north, but we couldn't get the gopher around the traffic hazard posts on the south side near the Hyatt.
The Hyatt is very good for disabled access and you can get a wheelchair or gopher to most parts of the hotel and around the gardens. The only downside is the standard rooms have a shower over the bath which is not easy to negotiate, but the Regency Club rooms have a bath and walk in shower. WOrth the extra $$ in my opinion and you get the bonus of the Regency Club room (which you can easily negotiate in a wheel chair).
Pool access is easy as both pools have steps and handrails. We were able to drive the gopher almost to the edge of the pool, which was fantastic.
We stayed at Kartika Plaza a few years ago and also found that wheelchair friendly but the footpaths in that part of Kuta are hopeless.
As for shopping, forget about trying to get beyond the ground floor at the Discovery shopping centre, or most stores for that matter. Carrefour is better because they have travelators, but they are quite steep so you need to make sure the chair brakes are on!
We found Bluebird taxi drivers to be very helpful but their car boots were too small for our folded wheel chair (but you might find the hire ones fit a bit better). When going to restaurants we left the wheelchair at reception and made use of crutches for the small distance from taxi to restaurant table. A word of advice, though, make sure you ring ahead and tell the restaurant you need access with few or no steps and also make sure your friend does not have too far to walk to the loo.
If you stay at a hotel that has good access facilities, the trip can be painless and enjoyable. We were able to do most things with a bit of planning and even the trip across and back was quite easy. A real plus is that if you organise "meet and greet" through the airline, they will whisk you through VOA/customs formalities while everyone else waits in the queues!