Whether you are interested in heading to the beach or touring the Colosseum in Rome, nothing should hold you back.
Lynn Farrell, president of travel and tour website Traveloni, knows why providing patients with safe, assisted-traveling options is so important. As a breast cancer survivor, she understands how the unknowns in battling illness can ruin any hopes of relaxation. “The biggest challenge can be anxiety,” she says. “Where do you go? Can I get a wheelchair van to transport my family member to/from a resort? Can I get a Hoyer lift at a resort? Will they have the treatment I need if I get sick?”
Teaming up with travel specialists like Farrell and her team can help answer some of these questions, even when your dream vacation doesn’t come prepared in an already-organized package.
Is it truly possible to find places to vacation where accessing the right care options won’t limit your ability to relax and have fun?
“The answer is yes, yes, and yes,” Farrell says. Specialized packages from resorts or adventure packages like safaris offer everything you need. Resorts have staff available to cater to you, but more adventurous vacations can be a challenge due to health concerns.
Whether you’re looking to unwind on the beach or you’re searching for more of an adrenaline rush, we’ve teamed up with Farrell to provide a roundup of the best international destinations for vacationing with ease.
BEACH
Mexico’s Riviera Maya
The Riviera Maya region of Mexico, located within the state of Quintana Roo, is the perfect place for a quick getaway or a week-long family vacation. The area offers many fabulous cultural experiences like the Mayan ruins of Tulum along with great resorts and fantastic medical care.
Due to its extensive and ever-growing medical tourism industry, the Riviera Maya has numerous tourist-friendly clinics and hospitals where staff speak multiple languages, including English. Most hospitals will accept your traveler’s insurance or will provide an itemized breakdown of services so you may receive reimbursement from your American insurance company.
The hospitals Galenia, in Cancún, and Hospiten, with locations in Cancún and Playa del Carmen, include on-site oncology services. And Dr. Jesus Kumate Rodriguez General Hospital, which recently opened in 2017 with an investment of $52 million (1 billion pesos), is large enough to serve people within the five municipalities of Quintana Roo.
If you don’t have a severe medical emergency, most pharmacies have pharmacists who also serve as consultation doctors. Consultations run around $2 (45 pesos). Many pharmacies can also deliver medicines to hotels 24 hours a day.
If you’re looking for greater mobility around the area, you can rent anything from wheelchairs and scooters to car seats and oxygen tanks from PlayaMobility. Visitors can get equipment delivered to their hotel or pick up items from the company’s Playa del Carmen office.
NIZUC
With 274 private suites and villas and six world-class restaurants dispersed across 29 acres of beachfront property, NIZUC, located in Cancún, may seem like any other Mexican resort. But don’t let its size fool you. As the first ESPA-branded spa in the Mexican Caribbean, NIZUC offers an array of one-of-a-kind wellness experiences using some of the purest natural ingredients available. The resort’s thermal experiences include vitality pools with hydro-massages and a relaxation solarium. Guests may utilize the resort’s Mayan Mindfulness program, which focuses on one’s awareness of the present moment and is a part of other treatments like facials and massages. But current and recovering cancer patients may find special comfort in NIZUC’s Mayan-inspired signature therapies. We’re fans of the NIZUC renewal in particular, which includes body purification through natural sea salts and Mexican agave, a gemstone massage, and a meditative scalp massage. Sounds heavenly!
Rooms start at $540 (10,000 pesos) per night.
SANARA TULUM
This quaint, 19-room boutique resort touts itself as “a curative boutique hotel where guests [can] heal, breathe, and be free.” Voted the number three greatest hotel in the world by Harper’s Bazaar in 2017, Sanara Tulum includes a little bit of everything—from workshops with wellness gurus, to vinyasa and hatha yoga, to a locally sourced, organic, and free-range restaurant. But their most show-stopping offerings stem from their whole-body holistic amenities. Sanara Tulum employs a mix of independent therapists as well as visiting alternative medicine practitioners who provide traditional Mayan and crystal healing, aromatherapy, clay and mud detox therapy, and nutritional and lifestyle consultation. If you’re interested in a more complex wellness program, you can sign up for Cleanse & Heal, a three- or seven-day course which includes a dietary cleansing plan catered to your specific needs, consultations and spa treatments, physically appropriate exercise, and counseling sessions. Sign us up!
Rates start at $275 (5,000 pesos) per night.
ADVENTURE
South African Safari
There is something sincere, grounding, and elemental about South Africa. Perhaps it is the country’s majestic diversity, which pervades everything, from the multitude of flora and fauna to the beauty and kindness of its people.
Despite its history of oppression and apartheid (the effects of which the country continues to unravel and address to this day), South Africa has also become one of the most popular tourist destinations on the continent. From sleek metropolitan cities, to beautiful coastal shorelines, to the dry, wondrous beauty of the safari, South Africa offers a bit of it all.
And now, the thrill and excitement of South African safaris are not just for the non-disabled. Epic Enabled, a South African company started in 2001, specializes in creating physically accessible safaris and tours for both the non-disabled and people with disabilities.
We serve the many “enabled” people who are willing and able to push the boundaries of their disabilities and wish to experience the same sense of adventure and thrill,
Epic Enabled’s website proclaims.
The company provides all necessary camping equipment and meals.
But most importantly, Epic Enabled offers the tools, equipment (think oxygen tanks, scooters, and electric wheelchairs), and support staff (carers and nurses are available upon request for an additional cost) to ensure you and your companions may enjoy your safari as stress-free as possible. Finally, the wonder and beauty of Africa is available to all.
Kruger Safari
Length: 8 days
Departing from Johannesburg, this tour heads to Kruger National Park, where the group will spend three full days. Days will be spent seeing the Big Five (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo) and other animals and plants. Nights are at group or private camps throughout the park. Attendees also spend three nights at a private game reserve well-known for reintroducing animals to the wild and hand-rearing orphaned animals. You’ll encounter lions, cheetahs, and hippos up close.
Rates start at $1,885 (35,500 pesos) per person.
Kruger & Cape Town Tour
Length: 12 days
After the Kruger Safari experience, this option adds four days at the company’s guest house in Cape Town. These extra days provide time for rest along with day trips to the city center, the top of Table Mountain and Signal Hill, the waterfront, plus wine tastings and a visit to the penguin colony at Boulders Beach.
Rates start at USD $2,440 (46,000 pesos) per person.
Garden Route
Length: 5 days, can also be added to the Kruger and Cape Town tour
This tour explores South Africa’s coastal paradise. Travel to Hermanus to see the famous Antarctic whales that calve in Walkers Bay, then see beautiful orchards and farmlands along the route to Sedgefield, where the tour stops for two nights. While in Sedgefield, the tour visits ostrich farms, wildlife farms, and the beautiful dripstone Cango Caves. The highlight of this route is the Tsitsikamma National Park, a massive strip of coastline and marine reserves. Sanctuaries for elephants, exotic birds, and monkeys abound before the tour ends in the bustling metropolis, Port Elizabeth.
Rates start at $1,580 (29,900 pesos) per person.
ADVENTURE
South African Safari
There is something sincere, grounding, and elemental about South Africa. Perhaps it is the country’s majestic diversity, which pervades everything, from the multitude of flora and fauna to the beauty and kindness of its people.
Despite its history of oppression and apartheid (the effects of which the country continues to unravel and address to this day), South Africa has also become one of the most popular tourist destinations on the continent. From sleek metropolitan cities, to beautiful coastal shorelines, to the dry, wondrous beauty of the safari, South Africa offers a bit of it all.
And now, the thrill and excitement of South African safaris are not just for the non-disabled. Epic Enabled, a South African company started in 2001, specializes in creating physically accessible safaris and tours for both the non-disabled and people with disabilities.
We serve the many “enabled” people who are willing and able to push the boundaries of their disabilities and wish to experience the same sense of adventure and thrill,
Epic Enabled’s website proclaims.
The company provides all necessary camping equipment and meals.
But most importantly, Epic Enabled offers the tools, equipment (think oxygen tanks, scooters, and electric wheelchairs), and support staff (carers and nurses are available upon request for an additional cost) to ensure you and your companions may enjoy your safari as stress-free as possible. Finally, the wonder and beauty of Africa is available to all.
Kruger Safari
Length: 8 days
Departing from Johannesburg, this tour heads to Kruger National Park, where the group will spend three full days. Days will be spent seeing the Big Five (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo) and other animals and plants. Nights are at group or private camps throughout the park. Attendees also spend three nights at a private game reserve well-known for reintroducing animals to the wild and hand-rearing orphaned animals. You’ll encounter lions, cheetahs, and hippos up close.
Rates start at $1,885 (35,500 pesos) per person.
Kruger & Cape Town Tour
Length: 12 days
After the Kruger Safari experience, this option adds four days at the company’s guest house in Cape Town. These extra days provide time for rest along with day trips to the city center, the top of Table Mountain and Signal Hill, the waterfront, plus wine tastings and a visit to the penguin colony at Boulders Beach.
Rates start at USD $2,440 (46,000 pesos) per person.
Garden Route
Length: 5 days, can also be added to the Kruger and Cape Town tour
This tour explores South Africa’s coastal paradise. Travel to Hermanus to see the famous Antarctic whales that calve in Walkers Bay, then see beautiful orchards and farmlands along the route to Sedgefield, where the tour stops for two nights. While in Sedgefield, the tour visits ostrich farms, wildlife farms, and the beautiful dripstone Cango Caves. The highlight of this route is the Tsitsikamma National Park, a massive strip of coastline and marine reserves. Sanctuaries for elephants, exotic birds, and monkeys abound before the tour ends in the bustling metropolis, Port Elizabeth.
Rates start at $1,580 (29,900 pesos) per person.
RESTORE
Sedona, Arizona
There is a vacation, and then there is the Sedona Wellness Retreat. To describe this radically transformative, all-inclusive experience as a mere escape from the every day would be an understatement. Whereas other resorts and companies create worthwhile but depersonalized wellness experiences, the Sedona Wellness Retreat curates its multitude of opportunities for each of its guests.
The retreat specializes in alternative therapies for a wide variety of illnesses and conditions, including fibromyalgia, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and yes, even cancer. From customized natural medicines and meal plans to IV therapies and supplements, the Sedona Wellness Retreat will work with you and your physician to find a treatment to suit your needs.
Located on two lush acres of serene gardens featuring mature pines and unique rock formations, the Sedona Wellness Retreat is one of the most gorgeous and unique wellness escapes in the country. Days will be spent on a variety of activities to work with your individual needs and capabilities, including cooking classes, art therapy, yoga, and meditation.
Despite their wide-ranging opportunities for people with different illnesses and ailments, the Sedona Wellness Retreat is not an end-all, be-all. In fact, the resort requires guests to be self-reliant. In this case, self-reliance includes going up and down stairs and taking care of one’s daily hygienic needs. The resort will provide an assessment, examination, and regular monitoring from their medical staff to ensure guests maintain self-reliance. If a guest needs additional care and support, the guest must provide it for themselves.
Rates start at $7,500 (142,000 pesos) per person.