I'm Matt Getze and I like to travel. I don't just like to travel; I like to travel to unique places and experience breathtaking adventures. I also happen to be a paraplegic in a wheelchair (caught polio as a baby) and I travel within a modest budget.

When planning trips, I suggest that you keep your mobility and comfort levels in mind when planning out trips. Mine is one small step and a bathroom I can fit my wheelchair in.

It's hard to find wheelchair accessible hotels that are centrally located, affordable and supported by authentic photos on travel websites; thus I created the Wheel Adventure Travel site. The places in question are Europe and Asia. It sucks to research online for hours and come up blank. I've researched photos of hotel entrances to see if the hotels had steps at the entrances or ramps. Most travel sites have generic, stock photos which don't reveal much. A lot of hotels indicated as having "facilities for disabled" aren't handicapped accessible. I checked out tons of hotels in person and it turned out that the hotels may have had elevators but there were steps at the entrances without alternative entrances.

In each place I've traveled to, I deliberately set out to find affordable, centrally located and handicap accessible hotels. I took pictures of the entrances then asked the hotel staff if the hotels had wheelchair accessible rooms; that is, a bathroom with either roll-in showers or bathtubs with handles. I also tried to see the actual rooms. Sometimes I emailed hotels. I took pictures and videos of tourist attractions, streets, sidewalks, ramps, restaurants, etc.

Help and Strangers
Man, there are so many great people I've met in various parts of the world. I traveled alone throughout Prague, Madrid, Frankfurt, Thailand and Cambodia. Needless to say, I've relied many times on the kindness and help of strangers to aid me in areas like directions. Steps and stairs pose the largest hurdle for wheelchair travel (narrow doorways, turnstyles and gates as well). Traveling solo as a physically handicap person wouldn't have been possible without some of the wonderful people I've met along the way.

Food - most restaurant, food and bar discussions are based on a shoe-string budget. You can eat a tough steak at an Australian steakhouse in Bangkok for $20 or eat both beef satays and chicken and rice on the street and mingle with the colorful locals for $2 to $3. You can get a $4 iced coffee at Starbucks or $1 on the streets of Bangkok. Hmm.

Hopefully you use Wheel Adventure Travel to make informed, intelligent travel decisions. Keep an open mind and don't limit yourself.

Have fun. Kick ass. Enjoy life.