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Your hosts, Nancy and Nate Berger, at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India
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Want to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France? The Great Wall in Beijing, China? Or the endangered Gorillas in Uganda?
If you want to go there- or any other exotic places- write and tell us about it. We've been to most of the places everyone wants to see, so if you spot a picture on our site where you have longed to be, write us, ask us about it, because we will be glad to offer tips and advice to make it happed.
We would also love to hear from readers about trips you have taken. If they were good, tell us what was so great and we'll post it to our blog for others to enjoy. If you are trying to plan something special and are running into glitches, we are the "travel repair guys" - write us about the you're running into and we'll see what we can do to get things back on track.
We're never too busy and we won't ignore you. This has become our passion and we love to be able to offer suggestions you might not have thought about. We promise you- Whenever you write, we'll write back with solutions, or ways to erase concerns, and offer suggestions to iron out the wrinkles as best we can.
Reading letters of successful trips, or problems solved by visitors to this site is one of the most enjoyable things we get to do. We are happy to post your letters to our Blog when you write about your adventure and share what you experienced with the whole community. You can share your story with thousands of visitors who check our site each month.
If you are a "Special Needs Person" who has not travelled before, we've got some strong reassurance for you. In traveling more that 60 countries (56 in this book), we've already run into most of the problems you are going to run into- and we have already found many neat solutions so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. . We would love to show you how you can make your own travel dreams come true, whatever the challenges.
And the nicest thing is that we answer everybody who writes to us, no matter if its questions about planning your trip. ABOUT BATHROOMS, TRAINS, STAIRS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES, FLAT TIRES and OTHER STUFF. Or just to tell us what you have experienced. We "special needs people" have to stick together and help one another. |
Ours is a service and information only website. There is no advertising and nothing is for sale. We are not travel agents and cannot book any reservations. But we share what we have learned in our free, experienced-based ebook, "Disabled Travelers Guide to the World", a real hands on book that not only encourages you to travel, but also gives you tons of information on how to get the best out of any trip you take.. |
FLASH NEWS: Nancy and I will celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary December 18, 2010. We will spend a week in Rio, then fly to Manaus and board a ship that will sail the Amazon River for 8 days. Then we fly from Brazil to Panama to New York City, in time to see a Broadway Musical and the Rockettes Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall.
We say, “If we can do it, you can do it, too." And we've got the pictures to prove it! All that we have learned in 28 years of traveling, 23 in a wheelchair, is available to you here at no cost.
We hope to inspire you by our successes and to motivate you to travel on your own. In our separate e-book, Disabled Travelers Guide to the World, we will show and tell you the details of how you can put yourself in this picture of
the Taj Mahal in exotic India, get on an African safari, or tour across Europe. |
Many web sites are written as though you, the reader, can't concentrate on something for more than a few seconds. Our site is different because we let our stories unfold beyond "sound bites", or the blabber you may hear from the operator of a tour bus.
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We very much want you to read our stories, but there is something you must know first. Friends and family, professionals and therapists who have worked with you- all these people mean well and have only your interests at heart. But the truth is they often have no real idea of how limited (or not) you are. Or how determined you are to visit places others only dream about. So when you talk about wanting to travel, they can be very discouraging.
One of the most valuable things you will learn is how to deal with well-meaning friends, co-workers, and anyone else who discourages you from traveling. In Chapter 5, Just
Say No, you will learn exactly how to do it.
| For me, one sure way to gaurantee I will do something is to have someone tell me, "You can't do that!?" |
Nancy is the first woman in a wheelchair to be at the exact spot in the Antarctic where the famous Shackelton Expedition was rescued in 1916. Who could imagine someone in a wheelchair landing in Antarctica and playing among
the penguins?
"You can't do that". they told us, but we refused to let "them" tell us we could not go. We found a way to get on the Seventh Continent, and the photos on this site will really excite you and make you want to go. Antarctica is awesome! Go ahead. Click on Antarctica You
won't believe what you'll see. |
"How many wheelchairs you see on Great Wall of China?"
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Before we went to China the first time, I argued for a half an hour on the phone with the tourism officials there. "Your wife in wheelchair?" they said. "No way. She cannot do. We won't allow." Click. They hung up on me.
Well, we didn't take "No" from them, either: |

It took me, our guide, the driver, a crowbar, two Red Army officers and their rifles, but we got Nan up on the Great Wall. Read rest of the story in the eBook. |
Yeh, But What About Important Stuff- Like Shopping? |
In our Western world, one mall is the same as the next. Same shops. Same merchandise. But in the village markets, souks, and bazaars of the rest of the world, all that is different, intriguing, exotic, even excitingly dangerous. Like this market...
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A seller of forbidden tiger skins (just over man's head on left side of picture) at the fabled Golden Triangle, Myanmar (Burma). I could have been thrown in jail for taking this picture, but it was too tempting not to try. |
In certain parts of the world, there are markets where anything you can imagine is for sale- at a price. This is one such place. It is illegal to sell the skins of endangered animals, and the repressive government here isn't too happy about tourists taking pictures like this one!
The merchant in Burma told us he
would sell us the tiger skin hanging directly above him for $450 US, cash. Just for the fun of it, I haggled with him awhile, and got to the point where we could have bought it for about $75.00. Of course, I do not know what it would have cost to bribe the officials to let me out of jail after they arrested me. "No matter", the merchant assured me, "Such things never happen". Riiiiight!
You can learn the art of bargaining at the street fairs, souks and bazaars in Chapter 12 of The Disabled Travelers Guide called "About Bargaining and Negotiating". In the book are more great photos of such places as the souks in fabulous Dubai,
U.A.E., and the bazaars of Istanbul and Marrakech.
Bargaining is great fun. And once you get the hang of it, you'll find it is an adventure in itself, and can be as enjoyable as whatever it is you buy. Don't be afraid to try it, because saving all that money is a powerful incentive- and gives you that much more money to buy gifts for the grand kids or whomever.
By the way, we did not buy the tiger skin hanging in the picture. We don't do things that are not good for the planet, and certainly we would not do anything that would foster the killing of endangered animals. But being in that market, in the dangerous, surreal Golden
Triangle (Burma, Thailand, Laos) was an unbelievable experience. |
"The Disabled Travelers Guide to the World"
Our book is free, and contains much information not available on these web pages. There are many more pictures to explain and help you understand how to solve the problems you are going to encounter as you travel the globe. |
Nancy explains Why we are doing this. She writes,
" After my strokes, there were days I could only lay in bed and think 'what is going to happen to me? Am I better off dead? Am I ever going to be able to do anything meaningful with my life again?'"
Then, years later while we were in the Antarctic, she figured out the 'reason' she had strokes in the first place: "It was so I could encourage and give hope and determination to anone else as overwhelmed by physical limitations and disabilities as I was. It is a blessing to be able to share what we have learned with others, and besides, it is just the right thing to do."
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The Americans with Disabilities Act became law shortly after Nancy had her strokes. Our lives have been made much easier by the outstanding efforts of those brave people who went before us. Following their example, we want to make life easier for those who come afer us. We hope our website and e-book inspire you to make your travel dreams come true.
Best wishes, Nancy and Nate Berger
Click here to download our free
"The Disabled Travelers Guide"
or click on the picture to read the book online.

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