As the American philosopher John Dewey once wrote, “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
The content of this website is drawn from my experiences, which have formed my perspective on accessible travel and the important work that must be done to make the world accessible to us all. Each year, I look forward to the holiday season as an opportunity to take a break and look back on the year — now, I share that annual reflection with you, right here in this article!
2024 was a special year in which I traveled around the world, flew more than 100,000 miles across 100+ flights, visited 13 countries (including two new ones — Monaco and Liechtenstein!), and I am happy to report that the guy who robbed me in New York didn’t get away with much.
I share my top 10 trips of 2024 below, with the aim of inspiring your own adventures and revealing what is important to me as a traveler. The list is presented in chronological order rather than as a ranking.
Spokane, Washington — 10 Years of Accessible Travel
On January 5, 2024, I traveled to Spokane, Washington to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of my first trip and flight as a wheelchair user. As I described in the January 3, 2024 Wheelchair Travel Newsletter, this “flightversary” was somewhat impromptu and I was focused on making a quick trip to a destination that I had never visited before.
Not only was this my first trip to Spokane, but my first time visiting Eastern Washington. As it turns out, Washington is a diverse state with a variety of landscapes, and I found Spokane to have the sort of “vibe” that I like — easygoing, crafty and a bit rough around the edges. I hope to return in the future to research and develop a more detailed travel guide — but in the meantime you can read my Spokane Wheelchair Accessible Trip Report to learn more about my trip, how I got around, where I stayed, and which of the city’s wheelchair accessible activities I was able to experience.
Dallas, Texas — 2024 Total Solar Eclipse
On April 8, 2024, a rare total solar eclipse passed through the heart of the United States, and I wanted to be there! Readers of the Wheelchair Travel Newsletter voted on which city I would watch from, and I wrote an article about how I planned an accessible trip to see the Solar Eclipse. Voters sent me to Dallas, Texas, where NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation hosted an official watch party at the Cotton Bowl, which attracted thousands of people from around the country.
Total Solar Eclipses are rare cosmic events, and we only have so many opportunities to witness them in our lifetimes. The next such eclipse will not reappear over the 48 contiguous United States for some 20 years! I was very excited to be attending the official NASA event, which was supposed to be hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (he was a no-show), but ended up shocked by the lack of planning around accessibility.
You can read about what happened in my article, NASA’s Solar Eclipse Event in Dallas Missed the Mark on Accessibility. In short, wheelchair users who remained in the designated wheelchair accessible seating area DID NOT see the eclipsed sun because the smart people at NASA had not considered the experience of disabled attendees. No one from the agency has reached out since I published this story last year. Despite the poor planning by NASA, quick thinking by myself and other wheelchair users meant that we created accessibility for ourselves where it did not exist — and seeing that made the incredible eclipse a bit sweeter than it might otherwise have been. Disabled people are some of the world’s best problem solvers.
Glasgow, Scotland — A promise (finally) kept
In April 2024, I traveled to London, England for a meeting on the laws and policies impacting accessibility in air travel and, after the meeting, traveled to Scotland to keep a promise — a promise to visit one of my very best friends in the world of accessible travel, Emma Muldoon of Simply Emma.
I met-up with Emma in Glasgow, Scotland but, rather than flying from London, I traveled overnight on the Wheelchair Accessible Caledonian Sleeper Train from London’s Euston Station to Glasgow’s Central Station. It was a great way to travel, and an experience I look forward to repeating!
Glasgow is an impressive city, and it offered up one of my more memorable tourist experiences in the United Kingdom. In addition to catching-up with Emma, I was able to explore what proved to be a very walkable and rollable city, while visiting star attractions like the Kelvingrove Art Museum, Glasgow Science Centre and the Riverside Museum, which has on display one of the world’s first wheelchair taxis!
Fort Wayne, Indiana — Power of Tourism Keynote Address and a Genealogy Breakthrough
In May 2024, I visited the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana for the first time, with the purpose of delivering the keynote address at Visit Fort Wayne’s inaugural Power of Tourism event, and to develop a Fort Wayne, Indiana Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide. My experience visiting the city and its world-class tourist attractions led me to label it as my 2024 “Hidden Gem” of Accessible Travel Destinations.
During my keynote at the awards luncheon, I spoke about my life experience, both as a nondisabled traveler and wheelchair user, and shared my four-step process for developing accessible travel products and services. I repeatedly stressed the importance of engaging with disabled people at every step of development — input from those with lived experience is critical to ensuring that physical spaces, products and services are thoughtfully designed and accessible to everyone.
My speech was well-received, and I was met by many local business owners and managers who committed to incorporating my suggestions into their work.
I have extensive experience speaking to audiences both large and small about a variety of topics relating to my life with disability and the business case for accessible tourism. Learn how to hire me to speak at your event!
Hamburg, Germany — Competition for a Wheelchair Space for Airplanes
In 2023, I was the first wheelchair user to test out the Air4All prototype, a wheelchair space for airplanes developed by Delta Flight Products. The prototype was unveiled at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. It was an exciting moment and an important first step.
In May 2024, I returned to Hamburg to see the latest iteration of the Air4All wheelchair securement space — Delta unveiled not only an updated version of its initial prototype, but also a brand new prototype designed for the economy class cabin.
But the real story at AIX wasn’t Delta’s praiseworthy progress, but rather the entrant of a competitor in Collins Aerospace’s wheelchair securement space. Delta Flight Products’ Air4All solution, unveiled a year earlier, had signaled to aircraft interiors manufacturers that a new product was deemed viable not by disability rights activists, but by a major industry player — one of the world’s largest airlines! With the introduction of Collins’ solution, a race is truly now underway, and it’s an exciting step forward on the path to a bona fide wheelchair space in the aircraft cabin.
The Aircraft Interiors Expo is happening a month earlier this year, in April 2025, and I am counting down the days to reporting on the latest developments in accessible air travel!
If you value my reporting on accessible travel in the airline industry and elsewhere, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to my Substack Newsletter. Thanks to the support of paid subscribers, I’m able to cover important events in the travel industry — delivering critical analysis from a disability perspective.
Vaduz, Liechtenstein — 2nd Time’s The Charm to Visit Europe’s 4th Smallest Country
Just over 60 square miles in size, Liechtenstein is Europe’s fourth-smallest country behind San Marino, Monaco and Vatican City. The German-speaking principality is located between Austria and Switzerland and, because it has no airport and limited tourist infrastructure, it receives fewer visitors than any country in Europe with the exception of Moldova. After a failed attempt to visit the country in 2022 due a broken wheelchair that forced me to cancel my trip, I finally made it to Vaduz in June 2024.
I traveled to Liechtenstein on a train from Zurich to Sargans, Switzerland, followed by a bus from Sargans to Vaduz. There, I was able to visit a number of tourist attractions, including the National Museum, Treasure Chamber and St. Florin Cathedral. Though it was only a day trip, it was a very packed day filled with discovery that I truly enjoyed.
If you’d like to learn how to plan you own trip to this beautiful principality, check out my Vaduz, Liechtenstein Wheelchair Accessible Travel Guide.
France — 2024 Olympic Games
I am a huge fan of sports, and traveled to the Olympic Games to see some of my favorite sports played on one of the grandest stages, namely tennis and football (soccer). But the underlying purpose of the trip was to assess the accessibility of those games, in the hopes that I might bring back knowledge and experience that could benefit the major international sporting events that will soon be hosted by the United States: the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympics in Los Angeles, and the 2034 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I learned a lot during my trip, and really enjoyed the sports — including watching the U.S. Women’s soccer team best Brazil, 1-0, in a thrilling gold medal match, and seeing multiple gold medal tennis matches at the iconic Stade Roland Garros, site of the French Open.
I hosted a small meet-up with Wheelchair Travel readers in a Paris, France cafe, and had many other chance meetings with newsletter subscribers — including on a sightseeing boat in Marseille, and at the Parc des Princes football stadium in Paris. It was wonderful to see so many disabled people at the Olympics, readers and non-readers alike! These events should be accessible to everyone and, while Paris didn’t get everything right, there were a lot of positive improvements to be proud of.
Denver, Colorado — Gregory Alan Isakov at Red Rocks Amphitheater
The iconic Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre is widely regarded as one of the best outdoor concert venues, and seeing a performance there has long been on my bucket list. Located about 30 minutes’ drive from Downtown Denver, getting there is a bit tricky as there is no public transportation and the shuttle bus companies illegally refused to give me a ride. Thankfully, a local Wheelchair Travel reader gave me a lift, and I was able to see one of my favorite musicians in concert under the beautiful Colorado night sky.
The concert was incredible, and I can say that the venue is not overrated — my seats in row 1 were spectacular, and the atmosphere was mesmerizing. The 70 rows of seats chiseled into the side of an ancient rock formation, the City of Denver’s colorful skyline visible from the upper rows, and its unmatched acoustics all contributed to a fantastic night.
Barcelona and Madrid, Spain — 2024 Wheelchair Travel Group Trip
Readers from around the country met me in Spain in September for what proved to be a truly memorable trip. It was my first group tour in Spain, and I was eager to share the incredible cities of Barcelona and Madrid with a truly wonderful group of people — including some returning travelers who had joined me on past group trips!
We visited iconic places, including the Benedict Sanctuary of Montserrat, founded in 1025 and built atop the mountain of Montserrat, which reaches a height of 4,051 feet (1,236 meters) above sea level. There we enjoyed a performance by the Escolania de Montserrat, one of the oldest boys’ choirs in Europe that has existed since the 14th century.
Another of the many highlights of the Spain group trip was the gastronomy — we enjoyed exceptional meals throughout the tour, and tasted local dishes like paella, served in a centuries old family restaurant that produces its own olive oil. Group trips have absolutely become my favorite part of the year, and I look forward to meeting you on a future tour!
If you would like to get early access to future group tour itineraries, please consider upgrading to a paid newsletter subscription. Paid subscribers are the first to receive tour announcements, and trips often sell out before being made available to free subscribers. Your readership and support are instrumental in supporting my work in accessible travel.
Lisbon, Portugal — 2024 Wheelchair Travel Group Trip
In October 2024, I traveled to Portugal with a group of Wheelchair Travel readers — it is my most visited group tour destination, and I was thrilled to share it with even more travelers!
We visited incredible cities like Lisbon, Sintra and Nazaré, toured the Ajuda and Monserrate Palaces, and enjoyed some of the best in Portuguese cuisine.
These tours mean a great deal to me, and I am looking to expand them in the future. What continues to amaze me are the incredible friendships that form out of these trips — people from around the country and world who become fast friends while exploring destinations that excite and inspire. I hope you’ll join me on an accessible group trip in the future!
Final Thoughts and Plans for 2025
The ten trips listed here are highlights from a whirlwind year of accessible travel, but they don’t provide the full story. Trips to Washington, D.C. to advocate for increased investment in accessibility, to Cambridge for the All Wheels Up Global Forum on Wheelchair Accessible Air Travel, to San Francisco for the TravelAbility Summit, and to so many other places were critically important. Much of the work I do isn’t flashy and might sound boring, but advocating for a more accessible world — and showing you how to navigate the one we have — is my mission and purpose.
In the New Year, I hope to bring more of that work into focus, providing opportunities for you to get involved in advocating for the accessible world we dream of, while continuing to inspire disabled people to travel, move and explore.
Look out for some big news to come and, if you’d like to support my work, you can join the team by subscribing to the Wheelchair Travel Newsletter. Your support makes everything that I do possible, so thank you!
