The European Access City Award is an annual prize set up to reward the European city that has done the most work to improve its accessibility for less able residents and visitors. For 2014, Gothenburg was named the EU’s Access City for its holistic and comprehensive approach to access. Sweden’s second city was declared to be “a city for all” and as part of its Access City campaign the city’s 3,000 public buildings and spaces were loaded into an accessibility inventory to make sure they’re up to scratch at all times.
The award, which has been going on for four years now (previous winners were Avila, Berlin and Salzburg), focuses on the government regulated aspects of the city, like transport, museums, sports facilities and other public spaces. This means that the Access Cities are made easier to get around (Gothenburg now provides an accessible travel planner and assistants if needed) and that major attractions are generally more accessible that the norm, although it may not necessarily make a great deal of difference for accessing privately owned venues.
Gothenburg was founded in 1621 and is the largest port in all of the Nordic countries. The city is known for its vintage theme park, fantastic seafood and hip cafe culture. Its archipelago, consisting of 20 islands with charming villages, stunning beaches and various wildlife, makes for a scenic day trip and is more accessible than ever for less able tourists, although the rough, barren rocks and cliffs are unlikely to ever be a perfectly smooth ride. Gothenburg has something for everyone and makes for a great short trip, especially as it remains a reasonably quiet tourist destination despite its many charms. We’ve taken a look at some of the best places to stay, eat and drink in this delightful city.
Hotels
Start looking for a hotel in Gothenburg and you quickly see that the Access City status doesn’t necessarily extend very far at all beyond the city’s public spaces. Our regular (and admittedly expensive) holiday tip is that in most places you’ll find that the higher end, four and five star hotels are most likely to be accessible. However, in Gothenburg this rule doesn’t always seem to apply. For instance, The Elite Plaza Hotel is a swanky four starrer but offers nothing at all in terms of guest rooms for less able visitors.
There’s better news in the form of The Scandic Hotel Group, which has a host of hotels in Northern Europe and is the first collection of hotels in the world to provide detailed accessibility information for each and every of their hotels. What a brilliant idea, why don’t all hotels do it? We think the only way it could be improved is with a PAD. They have seven hotels in Gothenburg which vary in quality, price and accessibility but all are reputable and it means there’s something for everyone. Oddly their newest and most popular hotel doesn’t seem to have the access info up yet so for now we’d recommend the next best – the Scandic Rubinen – which has four adapted rooms for less able guests. It looks superb, with a vibrant, urban feel and it’s in a handy central location.
Another accessible option is the Clarion Hotel Post which is one of the stylish Nordic Choice collection of hotels. It looks great and the Clarion’s website told us that the hotel is “totally disabled”, although this piece of information was lower on their list of the hotel’s services than being pet friendly. We hope that they mean accessible rather than actually “totally disabled” as we like the idea of running water etc. We assume it does mean that but you should never assume. In fact, my brother once told me that you should never assume because when you assume you make an ass out of me and him. So we emailed them to follow up and will report back when possible.
The Upper House, which is one of the city’s trendiest hotels doesn’t have disabled facilities in any of the guest rooms. However, in an odd reversal of the usual dynamic, their lower budget sister hotel, the Gothia Towers, is more accessible. In fact, it turns out that the Upper House is really just the top few floors in the same building as the Gothia Tower which appears to be a perfectly nice hotel. It’s also an especially accessible one (if that’s a sensible turn of phrase to use) since it’s been awarded Category One for accessibility without assistance. They have six adapted rooms with roll-in showers, grab rails… the works really. There is also a disabled toilet in the reception area and with the Upper House just upstairs you may be able to enjoy the best of both worlds.
Quite probably the pick of the lot is the four star Avalon which looks incredibly fun. It’s contemporary and colourful with a real style of its own. It’s the number one Gothenburg hotel on TripAdvisor (not that that is always to be trusted) and the food looks remarkable too. Their way of making the hotel accessible is something of a first on Blue Badge Style, as their accessible room has no railings but still does well for access. They do have a disabled guest room but it doesn’t have any grab rails so they provide a wheeled toilet frame for disabled guests. The showers are wheel in but again have not specific rails or seats – hopefully the frame can come to guests’ aid here too. The restaurant is accessible and does have a proper adapted toilet with grab rails etc.
Restaurants
Gothenburg is renowned for its outstanding fresh seafood and is an ideal place to sample some of Sweden’s finest food. However, we have had difficulty finding the more accessible restaurants. Many of the best loved restaurants have steps at the entrance and/or (our nemeses) toilets which we’re told are big enough for wheelchair users but haven’t had grab rails installed – AKA Quasi Khazis.
Bhoga is a funky little restaurant which may be worth a visit despite limited accessibility. The food looks creative and utilises seasonal ingredients. However, it’s here that we come across our first case of the Gothenburg Quasi Khazi. They told us that they have a big enough toilet for wheelchair users to use but no grab rails inside it. They couldn’t explain why there are none when there’s clearly the space available. There are also two steps into the building but they say they have had wheelchair using guests in the past.
The one Michelin starred Sjömagasinet has been described as the flagship of Swedish cuisine. They offer excellent food, largely seafood, in a picturesque location by the waterfront in Klippan. World-famous stars like Bruce Springsteen and U2 have dined at Sjömagasinet. The restaurant has an adapted toilet for disabled guests and their entrance is step free. The only thing that may need extra consideration is that the restaurant is on two floors so you may need to let them know you need to go on the ground floor when you book.
Bars
We’ve been looking around for the best places to drink in Gothenburg but the overriding impression we get is that there are so many cool, small bars and cafes going in and out of fashion constantly. Often these smaller venues come laden with accessibility issues – the smaller, the less likely to have an adapted toilet – but it seems to be the sort of city where new places are popping up all the time, so keeping your ear to the ground is key. Be warned: we kept finding bars which were largely accessible but often had large toilets with no grab rails – it seemed that the Access City is really the city of the Quasi Khazi!
Hotel bars are always a solid option for an accessible and sophisticated drink but are perhaps a little removed from the hipster cafe culture of the city. The Ruby Bar, in the aforementioned Hotel Scandic Rubinen has a proper disabled toilet, complete with grab rails. It’s an upmarket venue which looks very pleasant and modern.
An extra something to look out for is the city’s special Cerebral Palsy Beer. Last year BBC Ouch reported that, in Gothenburg, bars and restaurants with good disability access are being rewarded with beer instead of a more traditional certificate. The specially brewed beer, dubbed CPA or cerebral palsy beer, is a hybrid of Indian pale ale and American pale ale and is described by the makers as “one that everyone will want to stock in their bar”. The bottle features a stylised picture of a woman with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair and any bar serving this beer should be very cool and of the highest standard in accessibility.
It’s been difficult to track down information on which stylish and accessible bars were awarded the chance to serve the CPA, but two which certainly did were Ölrepubliken and The Rover. We’d recommend these bars as they regularly crop up on lists of Gothenburg’s hippest bars and their access must be both good as they were selected for the CPA beer.
Gothenburg looks like a fantastic place for a city break and as it’s still the EU Access City for a few more weeks we wanted to spread the word on the work they’ve done to improve the city’s access. If anyone’s been to Gothenburg let us know what your highlights were!!
Unfortunately try getting a tram when you have limited mobility ~ I suffered the indignity of slipping in between the gap between the tram and pavement ~ with the usual sympathic looks and noises, flipping embarrassing, we have buses in the UK where the floors can be lowered automatically thank god, people with disabilities and limited mobility still like to go out – or do you expect us to sit at home and vegetate.