Barrier-free holidays at our youth hostels

Making holidays possible for everyone

What does bar­ri­er-free mean? Is it just ramps, wide doors and wheel­chair-acces­si­ble rooms – or is there more to it? Spend time at the insieme Luzern sum­mer camp at Kreu­zlin­gen Youth Hos­tel and the answer quick­ly becomes clear: Above all else, bar­ri­er-free hol­i­days mean equal oppor­tu­ni­ties, gen­uine inclu­sion and shared expe­ri­ences.

But much of what makes these ini­tia­tives pos­si­ble remains invis­i­ble to many. We were able to take a look behind the scenes and talk to four peo­ple who make this kind of hol­i­day offers acces­si­ble to peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. In the video inter­view, they talk about chal­lenges, mov­ing moments and their very per­son­al moti­va­tion.

For Eliane and Lau­rent, who have been run­ning the insieme hol­i­day weeks for sev­er­al years, it is the many return­ing faces that make it so spe­cial. Some par­tic­i­pants have been com­ing for years – and the joy is mutu­al every time. The youth hos­tel itself also plays a key role for them: The loca­tion on Lake Con­stance, the uncom­pli­cat­ed accom­mo­da­tion in a mul­ti-bed room and the open envi­ron­ment cre­ate the ide­al con­di­tions for a var­ied pro­gramme.

Seli­na Zah­n­er is respon­si­ble for organ­is­ing bar­ri­er-free group trips at the Swiss Youth Hos­tels. In the video, she talks about her per­son­al moti­va­tions. For Seli­na, one thing is clear: Bar­ri­er-free means much more than just struc­tur­al mod­i­fi­ca­tions. It’s about atti­tude, open­ness and cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment where every­one is wel­come. This is pre­cise­ly why she is pas­sion­ate about ensur­ing that hol­i­days are acces­si­ble to as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble.

Hos­tel Man­ag­er Nas­ta­sia Jurscha talks about the spe­cial moments that unfold when the camp group encoun­ters oth­ers. The joie de vivre and ener­gy that the group brings with it are con­ta­gious – often result­ing in touch­ing moments of togeth­er­ness. For her and her team, it is a joy to be part of the camp every year and to see how the youth hos­tel is trans­formed into a place full of open­ness and con­nec­tion.

Holidays for everyone at the Swiss Youth Hostels 

The major­i­ty of our youth hos­tels have bar­ri­er-free or par­tial­ly bar­ri­er-free access. We are also active­ly com­mit­ted to mak­ing hol­i­days avail­able to every­one so that peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties can trav­el inde­pen­dent­ly and par­tic­i­pate ful­ly in social life. Would you like to find out more about our bar­ri­er-free youth hos­tels and our com­mit­ment?

Hol­i­days for every­one