Where can a disabled person go on holiday in the UK?

Two places can both call themselves accessible while suiting completely different needs. One might mean a ramp at the front door and nothing else. Another might mean a ground floor wet room, wide doorways throughout and a hoist on request. Your relative's own situation, whether that is a wheelchair, a walking frame, limited stamina or a sensory need, decides which of those matters, so it helps to write down what your relative needs before you start comparing places rather than after.

The table below sets out four common claims and the question that gets you a proper answer. Ask it of the accommodation directly, or look for a detailed access guide rather than a marketing page.

It is worth asking about the cancellation policy at the same time as you ask about access. A property with a well-adapted room or two tends to have very few of them, and those rooms can be booked up further ahead than the rest of the building.

AccessAble publishes detailed, photographed access guides for thousands of UK venues, hotels, attractions and transport hubs, checked in person rather than written by the venue's marketing team. VisitEngland has partnered with AccessAble to encourage more tourism businesses to publish this kind of specific information. Euan's Guide works the other way round: it collects reviews from disabled visitors themselves about what a place was like to visit, which can catch things a formal guide misses, such as a noisy dining room or a lift that is often out of order.

Getting to the destination is worth checking as much as the destination itself. If you are travelling by train, most operators offer a passenger assistance service that can be booked in advance for help boarding, a ramp and a reserved wheelchair space, and it is worth doing this a few days ahead rather than on the day. If you are driving, a Blue Badge gets you a dedicated parking space closer to the entrance at most attractions and many town centres, which is worth checking for wherever you are going.

For a day out rather than a place to stay, large attractions and estates increasingly publish this kind of detail on their own sites too. National Trust properties list step-free routes and mobility equipment available to borrow, and national museums such as the British Museum publish an access page covering routes, equipment and support on the day. Check the specific page for wherever you are going rather than assuming a general reputation for being welcoming.

If your relative's main difficulty is memory rather than mobility, a different set of things matters more than step-free access. Dementia-friendly holidays and should people with dementia go on holiday? cover what to check instead.

A specialist company takes the planning off your hands and provides support throughout the trip, which suits families who would rather not manage the logistics themselves or whose relative needs help that goes beyond what a hotel's own staff can give. Check what is included in the price and whether support is one to one or shared with other guests before you book, since this varies between providers.

Arranging an ordinary break yourself gives you the most control over the destination, the company and the pace of the trip, at the cost of doing the checking in the section above yourself. Bringing a carer who already knows your relative sits between the two: you still choose the destination, but somebody familiar is there to help with personal care, medication and the parts of the day that a hotel cannot. Can you take a carer on holiday with you? sets out the full cost breakdown, including bank holidays and mileage.

None of the three routes rules out combining them. A family arranging an ordinary self-catering break might still bring a carer for the days the parent or partner needs more hands-on help, or use a specialist company for a longer trip while managing shorter breaks nearer home themselves. The choice tends to come down to how much your relative's condition changes from day to day, and how much reassurance you want from having support arranged in advance rather than found on the day.

1. 1

   Attendance Allowance

   £77 or £115 a week

   Paid in cash with no rule about how it is spent, so it can go towards a carer's fee, a specialist holiday company or the accommodation itself, the same as it would at home.
2. 2

   A council direct payment, if your relative already has one

   Extra hours for the trip

   A council will rarely fund the leisure side of a holiday, the flights, the hotel or the days out. But if your relative already has a direct payment for assessed care needs, a council can sometimes agree extra hours to cover a holiday as part of the care and support plan.
3. 3

   A respite grant from a charity

   Towards a break you arrange

   Revitalise used to run its own accessible holiday centres, but closed them in 2024. It is now a grant-giving charity, so it puts money towards a break, cruise or trip that you or a specialist company arrange, rather than running one itself. Check its current grant amounts and how to apply on its own site.

Attendance Allowance: who qualifies and how to claim and how local authority funding works cover both routes in full. Charity grants such as Revitalise's are usually small compared with the total cost of a break, and each charity sets its own criteria and opens applications at different times of year, so it is worth applying as early as you can rather than leaving it until close to the date you want to travel. If you are paying for some or all of the trip yourselves, companion carer costs has the fuller figures for what company and personal care cost at home, which stay the same rate away from it.