Traveling with mobility limitations — vacations, family events, and holidays

This article offers guidance on travel for older adults with mobility limitations. Travel planning should account for your parent's specific health conditions, mobility aids, medications, and endurance. Consulting with their healthcare provider before major travel is advisable.

Travel stops being automatic at some point. Once, your parent probably thought nothing of packing a bag and getting on a plane or into a car for hours. Now there are questions: Will there be a bathroom nearby? Can they walk to the gate? Where will they rest? How will they manage stairs? Whether these questions loom large or seem manageable depends on the practical work you do before the trip ever happens.

The gift of travel for an older person isn't so much the destination as the assertion that their life continues to include places beyond their home. That they can still see their grandchildren who live far away. That they can still attend their grandson's wedding or their sister's birthday dinner. These events matter. They're worth the work of planning.

Planning Ahead: The Foundation of Successful Travel

The work of accessible travel happens months before departure, not days before.

Start by understanding the destination. If your parent is flying, what's the airport like? Is there transportation from the airport to lodging? How far is it to walk? What about accessibility for someone with a wheelchair or walker? Most airlines provide information about accessibility and assistance. Call and ask. Don't assume. Ask whether the plane has accessible bathrooms, what assistance is available for boarding and deplaning, whether wheelchairs can be brought to the gate, what equipment can be checked.

For the lodging, accessibility is as important as it is at the airport. Does the hotel have accessible rooms? What counts as accessible? Grab bars in the bathroom? A roll-in shower? Doors wide enough for a walker? A bed at a reasonable height that's not a low platform bed? Call and ask very specific questions. Don't settle for "accessible" without knowing what that actually means for your parent's specific needs.

If your parent uses mobility equipment, understand how to transport it. Can your parent's walker or cane fit in the car? If they use a wheelchair, does it fold? Who will push it? If they're flying, how does the wheelchair get to the destination? What are your parent's options at the airport for getting around if walking the distance seems too far? Many airports offer wheelchair assistance at no cost if requested ahead of time.

Plan rest stops if you're driving. Your parent might need to get out and stretch more frequently than you do. They might need bathroom access more frequently. Build these into your route. You're not rushing on a schedule; you're making a manageable trip for someone whose body requires different accommodations than it once did.

Medications matter. Your parent should carry their medications in their original bottles, particularly if they're traveling across time zones or crossing state lines. They should have backup copies of prescriptions in case medications are lost or supplies run out. They should understand whether their medications need to stay cool and plan accordingly. The last thing you need is for your parent to run out of blood pressure medication in the middle of a holiday visit because no one planned ahead.

During the Trip: Managing the Physical Demands

Travel is tiring for anyone. For someone with mobility limitations, it's exponentially more tiring. Your parent isn't weak or out of shape necessarily. They're expending energy working through an unfamiliar environment, managing medical equipment if they use it, walking more than usual, and likely sleeping away from home, which often isn't as restorative as home sleep.

Build rest and sleep into your schedule. Your parent might need to rest for an hour in the afternoon in a way they wouldn't at home. This isn't failure. This is accommodation. The alternative is an exhausted, irritable, unsafe older adult.

Pay attention to pain or discomfort. If your parent's hip is bothering them on day two of a five-day trip, it's time to adjust the plan. That might mean taking a day off from planned activities. It might mean finding a shorter route to the same destination. It might mean renting equipment you didn't initially plan to rent. A wheelchair for one day of shopping when your parent's mobility is temporarily worse isn't a loss. It's the difference between your parent participating in the trip or sitting in a hotel room.

Eating and hydration become more important with travel. Disrupted routines mean your parent might not eat as regularly. Airports and traveling involve dehydration. Your parent should have water and snacks available. Constipation is common with travel for older adults. If this is an issue for your parent, plan ahead with appropriate medications or dietary adjustments.

The social demands of travel matter too. If your parent is visiting family, there will be times they're expected to be present and engaged. If they're exhausted, this becomes hard. The balance is in protecting enough downtime that your parent can actually enjoy the moments when they're present.

Managing Energy and Expectations

The first principle is: your parent won't do everything. There will be activities they miss. There will be events where they're present but not fully participating. This is okay. The goal is that your parent comes on the trip, not that they do everything anyone else does.

Some activities matter more than others. If the purpose of the trip is to see grandchildren, everything else is secondary. If your parent walks two blocks to the park to see the grandchildren and then rests for three hours and misses the fancy dinner that night, that's still a successful trip.

Weather and crowds add to the difficulty. Your parent might manage the event itself fine but struggle with the parking lot, the walking from the car, or the weather getting to or from the event. Again, accommodation is the answer. Can someone drop them at the entrance? Can they arrive later than everyone else after traffic clears? Can they sit somewhere with air conditioning while others are outside?

Talk with your parent ahead of time about what matters most and what they're willing to skip. This conversation takes the guesswork out of it. You're not trying to convince them that they can do everything. You're making a realistic plan for how they participate meaningfully in the parts that matter most.

Medications might need adjusting with travel and different activity levels. Your parent's doctor can advise on this. Some conditions like blood sugar or blood pressure might require more monitoring with activity changes. This is part of planning too.

The Return Home

Travel is an accomplishment. Your parent left their home, navigated an unfamiliar environment, managed their mobility limitations, and participated in the important events of their life. That matters. The exhaustion that comes afterward is normal. They'll need recovery time. They might be sore. They might sleep more than usual for a few days.

The trip will have been worth it though. Your parent was there. They didn't miss it. They weren't sitting at home unable to participate. They did the work of getting there. They did the work of managing their body through an unfamiliar environment. And they got to see what mattered, to do what they wanted to do, to be part of their life. That's the whole point.

Travel planning should be individualized to your parent's specific health status, mobility limitations, and medical needs. Consult with their healthcare provider about any concerns specific to your planned trip or destination.