International Living Community

I saw Ted's response under PJPLMT. Thank you.

Thank you, Ted!!!

Hi Ray, I faced this issue when cancer restricted my wife's mobility. On a trip to Hawaii, we found a rental company that had a small powered scooter waiting for us at our hotel. That worked fairly well, as we were in Honolulu and the buses were all equipped for accessibility.
On a trip to France, we rented a travel chair in the US and checked it at the airport. I provided the power on that trip. This was less than Ideal, as the travel chairs tend to have small tires - great for the smooth hallways of the Louvre, but tough on gravel walkways at the Versaille Palace. We did find that the French were extremely accommodating; pushing us to the front of the line at passport control, free entry to museums for both my wife and myself, and so on.
If your powered chair has the FAA-approved gel-type batteries, it can also be checked on the flight. Your airline and chair/rollator mfg could tell you more about that.
The main issue will be where do you want to go? Our experience traveling in the old towns in Europe and in parts of South America is that many places are just not setup for mobility issues. For example, aggregate sites like Expedia, Booking, etc. have filters you can use to search for only accomodations that are wheelchair accessible. I just did a search for hotels in Lisbon, Portugal and once I applied the filter, it did find some nice hotels, but it also eliminated 97% of the ones available in my time frame.
So to sum up, a lot depends on your particular needs and choice of destinations, but travel with power chairs or rollators can be dome but definitely requires careful advance planning and research.
Hope that helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi Elissa,

Just saw your email, sending the below via email and posting here:

Conveniently Harry Hunt who was one of the exhibitors at the event divides his time between Boquete and Puerto Armuelles, you might want to contact him and cc his associate Magda Crespo, their info is in the conference booklet but I have pasted it below for convenience. Best of luck with all your Panama plans.

HARRY HUNT
Own Boquete
Tel: +507 720-2506
Email: ownboquete@cwpanama.net
Website: www.ownboquete.com

MAGDA CRESPO
MC Panama Realty
Tel: +507 720-3240; Cell: +507 6671-8800
Email: magda@magdacrespo.com
Website: www.mcpanamarealty.com

Best,
IL Panama Editor Jess Ramesch

Glad you've posted CLAUDETTELC 0 and it would be great if some of the other ILers on this forum are in Panama City to meet up. That said most of the folks on this forum are contemplating a move and may not be there yet. Luckily there are many ways to meet expats in Panama.

Networking apps and sites like LinkedIn (website: www.linkedin.com), Instagram (website www.Instagram.com), and Facebook (website: www.facebook.com) are extremely popular in Panama and are great ways to grow your network. You can create a profile for free and search Panama-related groups. You'll find expat groups specifically on Facebook for many areas of Panama, such as El Valle and Coronado.

Attending events, by the way, is also a great way to get involved and meet new people. There are many sites where you can find out about fun events, including Facebook (check expat groups in your city or town of interest and/or select the events section from the menu), Playa Community (Coronado region; website: www.playacommunity.com), and Internations (Panama City; website: www.Internations.org).

When traveling to specific destinations in Panama, make sure to hit the popular expat hotspots. You’re likely to make friends and glean important information. In Panama City, you might try the Balboa Yacht Club if you're already in the area (it's located not in Balboa but in Amador by the Radisson Hotel Panama Canal and a short drive from the Biomuseum), and in the city-center there are multiple options like The Londoner Pub, owned by fun-loving expat Piers Edgar, or Bdubs by the Waldorf Astoria, or Murphy's Bar on Via Argentina (check their facebook pages to see if they're having live music or other fun events as these are great networking opportunities). International networking platform Internations also holds networking events once a month—a different venue each time (sign up for the website at www.internations.org/panama-city-expats).

Best,
IL Panama Editor Jess Ramesch