Malta, an unexpected wheelchair friendly destination.

When you have a family member in a wheelchair, you need to consider a lot of aspects when you wanna travel.

How is transportation going in the country?

Will you be able to go to a beach when you pick a sunny country?

How do the local people look at someone in a wheelchair?

What kind of activities can you do?

A lot to think about.

Let me first explain a bit more about this article.
I have 3 brothers and a sister, all younger than me. My sister and my middle brother both have a disease.
From young on they had motorically problems and had x-shaped legs. It was not always easy for them and neither was it for my parents.
Hospital in and out to figure out what they had. Thinking of family holidays where everyone can join and enjoy them, my brother and sister being bullied when they were younger and so on. For us, they are normal, as we grew up with them in our family, to others they look weird.
After 26 years the doctors finally discovered they both had ARSACS also known as Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay. We also discovered my oldest brother and I are carriers of the gene causing this disease as are our parents.

Traveling for my sister (and brother) is always thinking about the above-named things.

I have been living in Malta for over a year now and my sister came to visit me in August 2021. I need to admit, I was kind of scared in the beginning as Malta is hilly and the streets are not always wheelchair friendly.

But we decided to give it a try.
My sister was coming for 10 days and here I will tell you how it went.

1) Public transportation, cabs and other transport:

Getting around Malta by public transport is very easy. You have a lot of connections going to all sides of the island.

Bus drivers are by law also obligated to open up the ramp for wheelchairs if needed. At first, they try to park the bus close enough to the pavement so you can go on the bus without the ramp. If there is a difference in the level or the pavement is just not ideal for it, they will lower the bus if needed and open the ramp.

As they open the ramp, other passengers mostly are asked to wait till we got on the bus before their entrance. All busses have these ramps and have spaces, especially for wheelchairs and strollers.

For our own convenience, we also took cabs. Mostly we use E-cabs but also Bolt is a good option. As far as we experienced all cabs could take a wheelchair in their trunk. Using E-cabs or Bolt is a good way to travel too and it is not so expensive.

When we went to Rabat and Mdina we decided to try a tourist train to see more.
The train had a ramp in the back to drive in a wheelchair.No struggling to get my sister out of her wheelchair, put her in a seat and fold away the wheelchair. She just stayed in the wheelchair and had the full last cart of the train for herself.

Another transportation you can use on an island is, obviously, a boat. We took the ferry to Gozo through Gozo fast ferry. They lifted my sister in her wheelchair on and off the ferry. I didn't need to do anything myself. They were so helpful. Also, the ferry through Gozo Channel was very wheelchair accessible. 

2) Beaches:

Malta Has around 10 Blue Flagged beaches.
To be nominated as a Blue Flagged beach you need to follow some criteria.
One of the criteria under service and safety goes as follow, and I quote from the website:
''At least one Blue Flag beach in each municipality must have wheelchair and accessibility features.''

This mostly means you can either enter the beach with wheelchairs as there is a wooden pathway, they have a water wheelchair or a crane for lifting immobile persons into the water.

We did not know this till the guys from Malta Tourism Authorities explained these things. This was amazing to hear. My sister loves to go into the sea. As her walk asks for support and it can be wavey sometimes, she constantly fell down into the water. Hard to get up every single time. The guys at the beach told us about the wheelchair for the water. They went to get it for us, helped my sister in it and even helped us to the sea. If you are not able to go in the water yourself, they even go in with you to make sure the wheelchair doesn't float away.

I would love to refer to the website about these blue flagged beaches for more information when you travel to Malta or even live here and did not know this.

If beaches are a hard thing to enjoy, Malta is full of pools and beach clubs too. Of course, some of them can be expensive, while others are more affordable and nice to relax too. A beach club might give more comfort and less struggle sometimes. Of course, it is something you need to consider yourself. We only had good experiences on the beaches.

3) Daytrips:

We went on lots of day trips as you can imagine. As Malta is hilly, pushing a wheelchair around can be challenging. Make sure to be in good condition to do so, or stay in the bigger cities.

We went for example to the Dinglei cliffs, which was lovely to enjoy a view and a hike/stroll. I pushed the wheelchair along the cliffs myself. Most of the time it was ok, but some parts went steeper down and also up again.

At the Dingli cliffs, you also have this little church, where most people go for the view. There is again this wooden pathway for wheelchairs to go around here.

Mdina is also a lovely place to stroll around. To enjoy the view at the wall, you do need to climb a few stairs, unfortunately. My sister was able to walk up as there was a railing for support. Thanks to some extra help from other people we managed to enjoy this view. Besides this obstacle, Mdina is relatively good to stroll around in a wheelchair. It does not go up or down too much.

If you look up some museums and other historical places, you might find lots of buildings with a ramp or some lift system to get wheelchairs inside. 

Valletta is the capital of Malta. A must-see when you visit the island. Just keep in mind that it is a lot of hills. You have a lift though from the Upper Barrakka gardens going towards the Valletta waterfront.

If you do not feel like pushing a wheelchair around, you can see the city with one of these touristic trains for a very good price.

Snorkeling in Xlendi- Gozo

Besides museums, beaches, and sightseeing, Malta is also very popular for snorkeling. If the person you are traveling with is capable of swimming, with or without support, this is also a nice one.
My sister for example knows how to swim, but with her disability, it might be exhausting. I made sure I always had a floatable ring with me. Like this, she could just go into the water, put her goggles on, and snorkel around without the constant support of me.
It was so nice to see her enjoy these things she imagined were not able for her to do so.

4) Locals:

As mentioned in the beginning, my sister (and brother) got bullied when they were young. Even now they still get looks from people when they walk or stroll by. My sister can walk with support. This seems to be a weird thing to people. Like you should be in a wheelchair or walk normal, nothing in between.

Going to another country is always wondering if people will stare at you. When my sister bravely decided to walk around with her crutches alone, so many people came to ask her if she needed help. Local offering a ride, making sure a chair is free for her to sit down, supporting her by her arm, and so on.
Even when they saw me struggling with the wheelchair, people would come and offer help straight away. No stares, no ignorance, just acceptance, and understanding.

As Malta is very sunny and hot, almost all year through, it is a popular destination. Knowing people with a disability can travel easily is a nice thought. Cheers to moving forward and including all kinds of people everywhere.