by Margery Wilson

Our April 21 show has a common theme: the importance of planning ahead for travel, and the inspired ingenuity some people have shown in providing us with tools we can use when doing our planning.

Darren Brehm and his wife Faith founded AbilityTrip in 2008.  In 1993, Darren and Faith were both seriously injured in a vehicle rollover accident which rendered Darren with a high level spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegia. Determined not to let Darren’s injury define or limit their possibilities, Darren and Faith have continued to live life to its fullest, working and traveling around the world.

Early into their travels, Darren and Faith discovered the “adventure” of travel that I mentioned above. They found it very difficult to plan trips, as accessible information on logistics, hotels, and activities of a destination are scattered throughout the web. Worse, some destinations have little to no accessible information available online. AbilityTrip was created in hopes of making knowledge on accessible travel easy to find and update for every destination around the world for all types of physically challenged individuals. Planning a trip should not be a painful experience, or involve hours of digging through sites all over the web.

With the input of readers, AbilityTrip offers a wealth of information on destinations and facilities all over the planet. Their site also has useful planning tools. I will step back in to my objective reporter stance but first, let me just say, the site, found HERE, is an inspiration.   

Follow them on Twitter @AbilityTrip

Your pets are family members, right? But, when it comes time for a vacation or trip do you think your only option is to leave them behind?  Travel with pets presents a world of potential obstacles that lead many to leave pets at home with a sitter, or in a boarding facility. But, what if you could find out ahead of time what hotels, restaurants, campgrounds and other destinations would accept your pets?  On our April 21 show we welcome Amy.  She and her husband Rod founded GoPetFriendly.com

Their tag line is Pet Travel. Made Easy. This motto was born through hard experience.

In May 2008 Amy and Rod rescued/adopted an abandoned 65 pound German Shepherd named Buster as a brother for Ty, their 4 year old Chinese Shar-Pei. Three months later, in August, they embarked on a 20 day, 3,200 mile road trip – beginning at their home in the Pocono Mountains, going over the north shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and landing in Thunder Bay, Canada.  They traveled down through Minnesota and Wisconsin, turned left, and headed back to the Poconos.  It took Amy two solid days to find seven hotels that would accommodate their boys along the planned course of travel.

When they returned home, Amy thought there had to be a better way to locate and book pet-friendly hotels.  But, it turned out there was not.  More research led to the eventual creation of GPF.

The website is a gold mine of information. Besides a “road trip planner” and guide to specific destinations, the site has a blog and forum for community members to share reviews and experiences. Amy and Rod take road trips with their boys, and their blog is filled with advice and personal tales. You can read it HERE.

Follow them on Twitter @GoPetFriendly

Raymond, our European Correspondent in The Netherlands joins to give his news and views. Follow Raymond on Twitter@Raymondstar.

For more of Raymond see his videos at Youtube.   He will soon be creating some videos for this site!

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