My barrier-free holidays in Montreux – with dad, sunshine and a few hiccups

Friday – off to a barrier-free holiday in Montreux!

It all start­ed on Fri­day after­noon. I set off with dad from Baden – around 4 p.m. To get an ear­ly start, I took a half day off school. Over­all, the train jour­ney was well organ­ised, but not always easy. Some trains were marked as wheel­chair-acces­si­ble, but still had stairs. Luck­i­ly, friend­ly peo­ple were more than hap­py to help: Some­one car­ried our suit­case, some­one else my walk­ing chair. Dad helped me up the stairs.

First impressions of Montreux Youth Hostel

The ren­o­vat­ed and mod­ern Mon­treux Youth Hos­tel is locat­ed almost direct­ly on the shore of the lake with a great prom­e­nade – it instant­ly felt like a hol­i­day. As soon as we got there, I real­ly had to go to the loo. I tried the non-bar­ri­er-free toi­let at recep­tion, which I was able to use with dad’s help. This wouldn’t have been pos­si­ble for a per­son in a wheel­chair trav­el­ling alone, but the 1st floor has a bar­ri­er-free WC. You can eas­i­ly reach it by lift.

Our room was a bit tight, but super mod­ern. We felt very com­fort­able even though I got stuck with my walk­ing chair a few times. The bath­room was great: It is ful­ly bar­ri­er-free with a walk-in show­er and a fold­ing seat. I was able to show­er with­out any prob­lems.

Dinner & evening atmosphere

I got some tasty chick­en for din­ner and was very sat­is­fied. Dad got a veg­e­tar­i­an dish. We were glad that the nice hos­tel man­ag­er pro­vid­ed and warmed up some­thing for us at all, as we arrived after the reg­u­lar meal times.

After that, we vis­it­ed the veran­da – near-ground, with a beau­ti­ful view of the lake. The train passed over our heads through the viaduct. It was a great evening atmos­phere.

Saturday – bathing areas & barriers

After a deli­cious and sump­tu­ous break­fast buf­fet with hot choco­late, choco­late spread and all the frills, we walked along the lake towards Chillon Cas­tle.
On the way, we dis­cov­ered a bathing spot, almost like a small pool on the shore. Shel­tered, qui­et and with space to stand. I even got into the water a bit, which was won­der­ful. But beware: The area was not bar­ri­er-free. If you’re trav­el­ling in a wheel­chair, you won’t be able to swim there. You can find a bar­ri­er-free spot for swim­ming at the Plage du Per­ri­er, for instance.

At Chillon Cas­tle, we were able to enter the court­yard after an employ­ee opened a side door for us. How­ev­er, the actu­al cas­tle was not bar­ri­er-free. At least we didn’t have to pay any admis­sion fees.

From Freddie Mercury to lido

After an ice cream on the oth­er side of the road, we drove back to Mon­treux and vis­it­ed the small Fred­die Mer­cury Muse­um in the casi­no. I watched a short film, admired cos­tumes – and out­side I left my name on the wall for Fred­die. I loved the fact that he was here often and is still cel­e­brat­ed on his birth­day today.

It was very hot again, so we went to the lido next to the casi­no. The entrance was eas­i­ly acces­si­ble via a ramp – that was great! Get­ting into the pool was also a breeze. I got out with dad’s help, because there was no bar­ri­er-free exit.

A vegetarian evening

In the evening, there was a three-course meal wait­ing for us at the youth hos­tel: Sal­ad buf­fet, gnoc­chi with pesto and a deli­cious dessert. We ate out­side on the veran­da over­look­ing the lake – which we reached via the ramp from inside. After din­ner, we watched a nice movie togeth­er and then fell into bed exhaust­ed.

Sunday – cameras on!

On Sun­day we had to get up ear­ly – Lin­da, Cyn­thia and Jan were already wait­ing for us at break­fast. They accom­pa­nied us through the day for a report in Pro­cap mag­a­zine. They styled, inter­viewed, pho­tographed and filmed us. I felt like a real movie star.

We took the team through our room and then walked togeth­er to the lake. We spent anoth­er hour there. What do you do when you’re sit­ting in front of the lake and tem­per­a­tures are once again mea­sur­ing above 30 degrees? You get in the water of course! We head­ed straight in from the shore. When the boat arrived, we were dressed and ready on time.

Boat trip with a barrier

A table was reserved for us in first class – Lin­da had even con­sult­ed the tourism board before­hand and said that we were trav­el­ling with a wheel­chair or walk­ing chair. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, first class was only acces­si­ble via stairs. Thanks to the imme­di­ate help of the ship’s friend­ly crew, we over­came this bar­ri­er.

Return journey with handicap service

Back at the youth hos­tel, we picked up our lug­gage. The SBB Hand­i­cap Ser­vice was ready to assist dur­ing our jour­ney home. The team was friend­ly and help­ful – but they too strug­gled with the con­di­tions: nar­row doors, stairs, no flat exits. It didn’t sur­prise us, but it clear­ly shows: There is still a lot of room for improve­ment.

Bottom line

It was a won­der­ful week­end – with you, dad. We expe­ri­enced a lot, laughed, swam, talked and over­came it all togeth­er.

I hope that places like Mon­treux would do more to accom­mo­date peo­ple who aren’t as mobile in the future. Bathing areas, sights, hotel access points and pub­lic trans­port – gen­uine acces­si­bil­i­ty is not an option. It’s an oblig­a­tion.
Nev­er­the­less: I’d go back with you right away. Thank you for this week­end.

About the author:

Lena Hoff­mann, 12 years old and affec­tion­ate­ly known as «Tester­füdli», loves trav­el­ling with her fam­i­ly – whether to the sea or to the moun­tains. This time, she was out and about as a hol­i­day tester for the Swiss Youth Hos­tels and Pro­cap!