Tag Archives: accessible attractions

Days Out, Quingo Scooters

Quingo Accessible Days Out: RHS Garden Rosemoor

Here at Quingo Scooters, we encourage you to get out on your mobility scooter and explore various accessible venues across the UK. You can enjoy everything nature has to offer by heading to various garden centres. In our series of articles, we’re highlighting days out you can enjoy as a mobility scooter user and today, we’re looking at Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Garden Rosemoor.

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RHS Garden Rosemoor

Based in Great Torrington, Devon, RHS Garden Rosemoor features a stunning show garden and other natural attractions.

The main formal garden is a nature-lover’s paradise. It houses ornamental spaces featuring shrubs, roses, perennials and bulbs, along with highly cultivated long-term projects. It has various themed areas for you to check out, including a stream and rock gully, a woodland green and a fruit and vegetable garden, where you can learn how to grow your own produce. It also has a quaint cottage garden, lined with brick pathways and flowering shrub/perennial filled beds.

Here you can also visit the stone garden, where plants like camellias, acers and peonies are cultivated in a sheltered, courtyard-style space. RHS Rosemoor Garden regularly hosts seasonal shows for you to attend. It’s putting on a Winter Sculpture exhibition which lasts to 19th February 2017. Open daily from 10am to 5pm, it showcases pieces from a diverse range of sculptors. It’ll also host gardening workshops and courses across 2017, teaching you how to cultivate your own outdoor spaces.

It’s open every day except Christmas Day, from 10am – 6pm between April and September and 10am – 5pm between October and March. You can buy an adult ticket for £12.10. If you are bringing children aged five to 16, they can enter for £6.05 per ticket. You get unlimited free admission if you’re an RHS member, which you can become for as little as £44.25 per year.

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Accessing the gardens 

You can reach RHS Garden Rosemoor easily by using the information listed on the ‘how to get here’ section of its website to plan your trip. There is parking near the venue’s main entrance, which features 26 easy access parking bays. You can find out more about its access facilities on the RHS Garden Rosemoor’s official online portal.

RHS Garden Rosemoor features a level ramp leading up to its main entrance and the venue’s ground floor is easily accessible for mobility scooter users. We should note that there is an accessible toilet near the site’s main entrance and there is another behind its Wisteria Tea Rooms, located in Lady Anne’s Garden, which was named after the garden’s original creator. RHS Garden Rosemoor has good signage for accessible routes throughout the site.

The site’s formal garden is mostly accessible for mobility scooter users. Most of its offshoot areas, such as the fruit and vegetable garden, are accessible, but Lady Anne’s Garden, as well as lake and woodland walks supply limited access, due to their steps and slopes. We would recommend that you plan your route through the site’s outdoor spaces before you visit, to get the most out of your visit. Meanwhile, RHS Garden Rosemoor’s Visitor Centre, shop, plant centre, restaurant, lecture hall, library and Peter Buckley Learning Centre are all fully accessible.

Share your accessible days out with Quingo!

If you’ve been to visit any great accessible places on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you! You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.

 About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Attractions, Days Out, Quingo Scooters

Quingo Accessible Attractions: Scottish Seabird Centre

Quingo Scooters encourages our users to get out and about on their mobility scooters, so they can visit interesting, or even unusual places, particularly those that you didn’t think were accessible enough. In our series of articles, we’ve been shedding light on some very accessible attractions across the country that you can discover on your mobility scooter.

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Editorial credit: Edinburghcitymom / Shutterstock.com

Scottish Seabird Centre

Today, we’re going up into the UK’s most northerly country, to find out more about the Scottish Seabird Centre. Based at the North Berwick Harbour, in the county of East Lothian, it’s a marine wildlife conservation and discovery centre.

It costs £8.95 for an adult ticket to the Scottish Seabird Centre. However as a mobility scooter user, if you bring ID you’ll qualify for a £6.65 concession ticket, while children’s tickets total £4.65, but those under the age of three can enter free of charge. At the attraction, you can check out a range of marine wildlife, including seals and dolphins, as well as seabirds like puffins, fulmars and gulls. It features the world’s largest Northern gannets colony and biggest colony of puffins on Britain’s East Coast. At the moment the centre is open 10am-4pm on weekdays and 10am-5pm on weekends, opening times vary depending on which month you visit.

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What is there to do?

This venue’s main attraction is its Discovery Centre. Here you can control remote cameras, to see wildlife living in its natural habitat, across the Firth of Forth Islands. The centre also houses a wildlife theatre, where you can view short films across the day, a fish tank which features sea urchins, flatfish and Eel pouts and a scope deck, which provides stunning views of the Firth of Forth. Visit the wildlife calendar to find out which animals you can check out at different times of the year.

You can also try other activities at the Scottish Seabird Centre. It runs a Forth Ferry, which takes you on the 45 minute journey between North Berwick and Anstruther to enjoy great days on either side of the Firth of Forth. Until March 2017, you can visit its Tomorrow’s Lobster exhibition, where you can learn about the life cycle of this fascinating creature. In addition, the Scottish Seabird Centre has East Lothian’s only sundeck and a great café, which serves both gluten-free and vegetarian cuisine.

Accessibility

The Scottish Seabird Centre, which lies just 30 minutes’ drive from Edinburgh, is a fully accessible building, making it easy for you to visit as a mobility scooter user. You can travel to the Centre via train, bus, taxi, ferry, or by car, and you can use the find us tool to easily plan your trip. You’ll find disabled parking in the Scottish Seabird Centre’s carpark and adjacent to the main building.

When you arrive, go up the Centre’s tarmac-covered path to reach its step-free, 880mm wide, double doors. The push button by the side of the doors will open them and allow you to enter the Centre’s ground floor, which has a flat vinyl surface that’s suitable for mobility scooter users. The Centre also has accessible toilets and you can access its Boat Trip Booking office by going down the side road to the nearby harbour and up the adjacent ramp. Meanwhile, you can take an 880mm wide lift up to the venue’s popular Discovery Centre. Find out more by reading the Centre’s Accessibility Statement.

Share your accessible attraction with Quingo!

If you’ve been to visit any great accessible places on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you! You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.

About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Attractions, Days Out, Quingo Scooters

Quingo Accessible Attractions: Watershed, Bristol

Quingo Scooters always encourages users to get out and about to visit interesting or unusual places on their mobility scooters, especially to places which you didn’t think were accessible enough. Over our series of blog posts we’ve been sharing with you some extremely accessible attractions to explore on your mobility scooter.

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Watershed

Today we’re checking out the ‘leading film culture and digital media centre in the South West’. Bristol’s Watershed sits in what was once a derelict harbourside area, and is now a popular media destination. Watershed is a buzzing multi-arts venue, comprising of three cinemas (one of which is an arthouse cinema), studios and a warehouse events space overlooking the water.  The fully accessible venue also hosts a monthly ‘Deaf Conversations about Film Club’, which includes a signed introduction, a descriptive subtitled screening and a signed discussion afterwards.

What’s on?

Watershed has a vast variety of different films, Q&A’S, discussion groups and film festival highlights from around the world. Some current highlights include:

  • Snowden – This film captures the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Directed by Oliver Stone, Snowden is a thrilling dramatic explanation of international surveillance. This will run at various times from 9th-22nd December, and more information can be found here.
  • Conversations About Cinema – These talks will usually be held after a specific film, which will be the topic of discussion. A really informal and laid back chat about the film you’ve just watched, Conversations About Cinema is held in the café and bar area of Watershed. You also receive 10% off any drinks you purchase upon presenting your cinema ticket. More information on upcoming talks can be found here.
  • The Unknown Girl – Directed by the two-time Cannes Palme d’Or winners the Dardennes brothers (Two Days, One Night and The Kid with the Bike), The Unknown Girl tells the story of a doctor seeking to uncover the truth behind the mysterious death of an unidentified caller. Find out when the film is showing here.

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Accessibility

Watershed is a fully accessible building, especially adapted to make your visit as easy as possible. The main entrance and Box Office are located on the ground floor, which is accessed by a ramp and electronically assisted door.

All of the cinemas are accessible, and all have induction loops if required. The café and bar are large and spacious, and the events spaces are too. The different parts of Watershed are accessed via a lift located in the main entrance foyer.

On the first floor you’ll find an accessible toilet, level access to the front of cinemas 1, 2 and 3 and lifts to the back of cinemas 1 and 3. More information about accessibility at the Watershed can be found on its dedicated website page.

Share your accessible attraction with Quingo!

If you’ve been to visit any great accessible places on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you! You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.

About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Attractions, Days Out, Quingo Scooters

Quingo Scooters Top 5 Christmas Accessible Attractions

Quingo Scooters know that the Christmas period is the perfect time to spend with close ones, and what better way than to enjoy a festive accessible attraction? In this post we’ve put together our top 5 Christmas accessible attractions – maybe you’ll be tempted to visit one!

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The London Eye – London

If you want to see the capital in a completely different light, the panoramic views offered by The London Eye simply cannot be beaten. And, for a real breath-taking moment, try getting on at night so you can take in an amazing array of Christmas lights across London! Fully accessible, The London Eye offers an assisted boarding service, which you are advised to pre-book.

Faiytale Farm – Oxfordshire

If you’ve got some smaller members of the group to entertain this Christmas, they’ll love Fairytale Farm! A sensory wonderland that the whole family will enjoy, Fairytale Farm has an adventure playground, an enchanted walk and the chance to meet some friendly animals. Fairytale Farm was the UK’s first visitor attraction to bear in mind accessibility for children when building.

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre – Buckinghamshire

If you’ve ever been captivated by one of Roald Dahl’s classics, you’ll find this museum fascinating! The Roald Dahl Museum comprises of hands on displays, chocolate doors and secrets about the people and places that inspired Dahl’s books. This fully accessible attraction also offers writing tips from the likes of J.K. Rowling and Jaqueline Wilson too – definitely one for a group of all ages.

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway – Cumbria

This is the Lake District’s oldest, longest and most scenic railway. Ravenglass is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park, and there is plenty to see and do. This includes shops, museums and places to eat and drink that are sure to make you feel festive! The main station at Ravenglass has accessible toilets and parking, as well as accessible carriages on the train itself.

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The Roman Baths – Bath

Containing the preserved remains of one of the greatest religious spas of the ancient world, The Roman Baths has unique thermal springs. Incredibly fascinating, The Roman Baths have audio guides with a range of commentaries for different age groups, interests and languages. See if you can spot the costumed characters too! Lifts are available throughout, making the site is fully accessible.

About Quingo

The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.

Attractions, Days Out, Quingo Scooters

Quingo Accessible Days Out: Windermere Lake Cruises

Here at Quingo Scooters we’ve been sharing places with you that would be perfect for a day out, especially places you’d never think to visit or you didn’t know existed! It’s great finding brand new accessible places to visit on your mobility scooter.

This week it’s another boat themed day out, as we explore the largest natural lake in England. Windermere is in the heart of the Lake District, and offers some absolutely stunning views of Cumbria and the surrounding areas.

Offering cruises that range from 45 minutes to 3 hours, Windermere Lake Cruises is the most popular attraction in Cumbria. This is perfect if you fancy a relaxing day out where you can enjoy some picturesque mountain scenery, secluded bays and many wooded islands.

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The Cruises

You can start your journey from Bowness, Ambleside or Lakeside, and if you fancy making a day of it you can break up your journey with some great local attractions. There are range of different cruises available, depending on how long you want to be on the water and the places you want to see. All of the cruises include fascinating commentary on the history and points of interest surrounding Windermere. Here are just a few of the many cruises available:

  • Islands Cruise – A shorter trip, this 45 minute journey is a circular cruise from Bowness. This cruise is great for exploring the islands of Windermere, and runs all year round.
  • Yellow Cruise – This 90 minute cruise runs all year round, serving Bowness to Lakeside or vice versa.
  • Buffet Cruise – If you’re fancying something a little more luxurious, treat yourself to the buffet cruise! With live music and a 2 course buffet, this cruise runs in the summer months so you can take advantage of the sun bouncing off the lake. 

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Accessibility

Around half of Windermere Lake Cruises are in mobility scooter accessible ‘steamers’, which are marked in black on the timetable. There is also space to sit either inside or outside on your mobility scooter. Although the toilets on board are only accessible by steps, there are fully accessible toilets on the quayside.

To get on and off the boats, there is a ramp which differs in steepness depending on how high the boat sits in the water. The site has a long stay car park, and blue badge holders get one extra hour of car parking free.

Windermere Lake Cruises do strongly advise that you call them to confirm which vessel is operating on which service, so that they can ensure you can travel on an accessible steamer at your chosen date and time.

Share your accessible attraction with Quingo!

If you’ve been to visit any interesting attractions on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you. You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.

About Quingo Scooters

The Quingo Scooters range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.

Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC).  AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.