Italy! Disabled non driver due, genetically disabled family and audhd

[Holidaymodeon]

As above.

Single mum to teens

Non driver due to visual impairment

Genetic Disability impacts whole family so can’t walk far

Would like a real beach holiday but a chance to experience Italy

Not a huge budget but want something nice ideally with separate rooms for teen privacy

Cannot camp due to disability

Ideally flying from West Country

After boardmasters ( 5th - Sunday 9th August)
or ideally last week of term for price but one child has work experience,( 13-17 July).
Don’t have prom dates yet but can also consider before boardies.

Ideally £3k or lower, fantasy?

thereabouts, possible?

7 nights

Ten minute walk max from beach , amenities etc or decent public transport / organised tours to sights

Flat access to beach.

anything beyond short walk or clear transport links becomes a stressor two autistic kids.

I know that what I want exists, I just need help to put it together because I have cognitive dysfunction and trouble coordinating and planning to the point I have nearly lost holidays before due to how my disability affects my thinking!

I’ve tried agents but often end up in hotels with close beaches which turn out to be hilly and precarious walks or hideous restaurants where my kids can’t eat due to the noise and chaos

I have been fortunate in a recent financial situation and this could be the only time we ever get the chance to go somewhere we all really want rather than just where’s cheap and easy.

My kids are growing up and I want it to be meaningful. we know there’s beaches and beach holidays in Italy flying from Bristol and potentially Exeter .

I have cognitive disabilities and if there’s people here with first hand knowledge that would be great, thank you

So far these have come up:

• Bibione : Purpose-built and flat;
• Lido di Jesolo : Same logic
• Caorle : Similar region, often calmer; still flat and beachy
• Rimini : Big, flat-ish beach city with a long seafront and strong rail links for “Italy” days out;

Any relevant ideas or experience gratefully received, hotel easier than air bnb just for pure convenience and stress reduction

I wonder if Spain might be a better fit for this holiday - Italy doesn't really do beach resorts the way Spain does, and therefore limits your choice and budget.

In August, with your accessibility and other requirements, I would be tempted to look at an AI resort. And definitely consider TUI or another agent to do the heavy lifting for you, particularly tapping in to dedicated accessibility support from booking to airport to transfers to resort itself.

I love Italy but it's not a country I immediately think of for an easy beach holiday.

I hope you find a wonderful holiday for you and your DC.

You could fly and transfer by taxi or boat into the center of Venice or Rome if seeing Italy was important

Venice will be packed in the summer. Absolutely full of gormless tourists. Much better to find a nice hill town (stay in the centre, then no hills!) somewhere - but not in Tuscany. Assisi or Gubbio are lovely. If you want the experience of Italy.

But these wouldn’t give you a beach holiday!

I’d be looking at small fishing towns in Portugal, frankly. Some are really nice and would give you what you want - away from the package holiday hordes.

I've been many times to Grado, it is very beautiful and all flat with very little traffic as it's a small island. You can go on boat trips from there to Trieste and a few other places but the transport links aren't amazing- no train station for example. We always go by car so I'm not much help op.

The resort itself certainly would be suitable, actually there are quite a lot of people with disabilities there usually as a lot of the hotels have therapeutic spas.

These ‘big beaches’ people are talking about - aren’t they filled with sun lounger shelters owned & run by the hotel behind that section of the beach, leaving only a 3m stretch at the waters edge that the hotel wardens shout at you not to sit on, even though it’s perfectly legal to do so? Meaning that, unless you’re staying in a beachfront hotel or are happy to pay a €60/day hire charge, you can’t actually sit on the beach? That’s been my experience of Italian beaches….apart from the time I found a scrubby strip of ‘public beach’ a mile away, with no amenities.

I also thought Marina de Venizia. You are not in the middle of real Italy but the campsite is a flat walk to a great beach. Great pools. Lots of restaurants for choice or can take away, supermarket etc. Buses around the campsite as it's huge. Local bus to the water bus depot and can get to Venice, Murano etc easily. We got a transfer from the airport to the campsite. The only problem is mosquitos but I can share our formula for dealing with that!

Yes, you do pay but I guess that's for the facilities. Where we go there are lifeguards, immaculate toilets, showers, proper changing rooms, play areas, sport facilities and equipment you can use for a small deposit and everything is clean and well kept. You don't have to be staying in a hotel, you can pay on entry. Obviously, I only know the one we have been to but you do get something for the fee. There are some free areas too but they don't have toilets or lifeguards.

Exactly.She's looking for a unicorn of a holiday.It doesn't exist.

Italy in the summer holidays is going to be tourist.Hell, both with foreign and italian tourists.

Rimimi is where italians go for their beach holidays.

If you want everybody to be quiet for your children in restaurants or find very quiet restaurants because your children can't cope with it.Then, it's not going to work.It really isn't.

You guys have to stay in the hotel room and eat. Unless you go out very late at night.But that won't work either.Because unlike the u k continental, parents have a much more relaxed approach to bedtime.

When I was in spain in december, they were children in prams out sitting at restaurants with their parents at ten o'clock at night.

A problem you'll have is the best beaches in Italy are in the islands and the south which are away from the sites you might associate with Italy.

I would look at a holiday park in Tuscany. HU do some with massive pools but there are loads, some near the coast. HU Albatros is massive, HU montescudaio is smaller.

They offer excursions to places like Florence and Siena while being near the tuscan coast which has some nice enough beaches

Venice will be hot and noisy and crowded. And Italy in August is prime time for Italians too so it will be mobbed in all the usual tourist resorts.
If you want something that is beachy but less busy I'd agree with PP that Portugal may be nice. The West Coast of France can be nice too and less hot, some areas less busy. But tricky maybe without car but you could book transfers. Have you considered Slovakia or Croatia?

Does it have to be a sea beach?

Lakes have beaches too. And they tend to be in the north so not quite as hot.

www.mammaprada.com/home/most-beautiful-italian-lake

I am Italian and the locations you suggest are all uninspiring, mass tourism resorts, with little in the way of natural or cultural interest. I wouldn't recommend. My recommendations given your access requirements would be San Vito Lo Capo in Sicily (but avoid the hottest months) which has lovely sandy beach and a more authentic Sicilian culture, the Maremma area of Tuscany especially north of Baratti/San Vincenzo area for ease of transport, Sardinia (maybe less doable for sightseeing due to not driving)...lots of options.

I would make contact with Trailfinders and give them your requirements and let them come up with a package

Amazing thank you, Sicily was on our list but I thought it might be out of our price range!

Thanks, I’ve never heard of this before

Have used them several times over the years.