Traveling with frail elderly

Visiting Japan is on my 86 year old father's bucket list. He is frail and short of breath easily. For sure, he will not be able to follow a typical tour. My mother is relatively healthy and I plan to travel with them. This would be our very first time in Japan. What are the best places to visit that is slow pace and wheelchair accessible if needed? Would it be useful to get a personal driver? Any insights on cost and hotel accommodations would be appreciated. I am looking at January / February 2016.

How long do you wish to travel? I would suggest perhaps one week in Tokyo and one in Kyoto, so you can take it as slow as you need to.

Wheelchair accessible services and places are called "barrier free" in Japan, if you search around for that with places you might be interested in, you should be able to get some info on where you can take your father. Having a quick search, this is what I found that might help you:

http://kyoto-universal.jp/en/universals/index.php
http://www.japan-accessible.com/city/kyoto.htm
https://www.gotokyo.org/en/administration/barrier_free/index.html

Mon, thank you so much for your response. I'm thinking one week only. Do you know of any private tour guides/drivers?

For one week I'd probably stick to one area. You could do Tokyo, or if you father was more interested in "old Japan", you could fly into Osaka instead and do a week in Kyoto.

I don't know any drivers sorry, maybe someone else can help you there.

It would be pricey but if you look at the Japan Guide main page there are two such agencies. They do the ryokan bookings and a vehicle with a driver is at your disposal. Tour guides can be added too. But this is more used for when traveling within cities.

If only within a city, it may be better to just hire a taxi to get around. Kyoto is very small and it would be less costly to get around. You can go to Tokyo via the shinkansen. The luxury level is similar to or better than a no frill airline. (Only issue being lesser of cabin space)

For a week, well it depends on where you want to go. If you want to enjoy scenery and to dip into hot springs with various minerals to help your father's health: Hokkaido
If not, spending 3 days in Tokyo and Kyoto each is sufficient. You won't see everything, but then again those cities are so large a full week can only get you so far. A day in a commercial/shopping district, a day seeing the technology of Japan, and a day seeing the most popular tourist attractions. Kyoto would be three days of sightseeing along the eastern and northern mountains. You can probably walk from Silver Pavillion to Kiyomizudera. Though there are a number of slopes especially around Kiyomizudera.

https://japandeluxetours.com/

http://www.royalroadginza.com/

Thank you so much for the options!

Just to comment on the pricing side, we get a few inquiries from people and family groups where there are special needs or requirements. Normally people are ok to walk, but sometimes not very far, or things like steps are not manageable.

In those occasions you are looking at a private/exclusive tour option where you only have two (or a few) people from the same family as it is not too practical to have wide mix of fitness/ability in the group. As a result, you end up needing to cover the tour fees for a small group of 4-6 people even if there are only two. Also your transport costs are higher as you would make more use of private hire (taxis normally work ok) as the sightseeing is more point to point.

I'm planning a trip to Japan with my 80+ parents next year. I've figured out that they can cope with 2 x 2hrs activity per day (train travel longer is OK), max walking distance around 3km total for day. This may be higher capacity than what you are dealing with. I've been to Japan a couple of times, so have some places I'm familiar with.

A few things I've realised will help for them:

Stay in accommodation as near as possible to things they want to see/do - ie. walk out the door and be there or within a few hundred metres.

Sort out whether western beds are needed, and whether can sit and eat at low table - this dictates accomm style and restaurant options.

'Walk' routes in street view on google earth to check for ease of travel.

Mornings are slow -buffet breakfast in business hotel seemed easiest.

Use taxi even for a few hundred metres - use energy only at site of interest, not in transport.

I've trained them in lightweight packing, and will carry their bag (carry-on) most of the time. My bag is just a few kg.

Over 9 nights our itinerary looks roughly like the following - the activities are options according to energy levels/interests on the day:
Asakusa - 2 days - Sumo/Senso-ji/Don-quixote/Kappabashi street wandering, sushi/loach
Matsumoto - 2 days - Castle, old district wandering, soba/basashi
Kamikochi - 1 night - lodge, mountain views, onsen
Takayama - 2 days - morning market, old district wandering, hida beef

This seems hard core compared to the other suggestions, but it revolves around me doing a lot of work and not much of a holiday myself.

I won;t recommend kamikochi if they are that frail.
Better just to drive through some scenic spots without having the need to stay overnight.

Thank you so much for all the detailed suggestions. It is heartwarming to see the detailed planning in advanced for elders!

Not sure about your budget but if you go to Kyoto, you could maybe do this.

http://www.mktaxi-japan.com/#!sightseeing-courses/c1r2i

Hope this helps!!
Have Fun!!

Can't offer any suggestions but just wanted to say how heartening this thread is.
I hope our child will do this for us when we're older.
Good luck with your planning. Your parents are very lucky to have such a caring child.

The parts that I found most difficult in planning were:
1 - trying to find out what they wanted out of the trip. A week in Japan could range from just visiting different Ramen restaurants in Tokyo or a week of meditation in a mountaintop Buddhist retreat - the options are too boggling. In the end they just wanted a sampler - one temple, one historic house, a selection of different foods, a view of Fuji, one onsen, one traditional accommodation, a market, a view over tokyo, a bullet train, a slow country train to see the countryside, some bridge and tunnel engineering, 'how the japanese live'. This framed the options, with the transport legs offering aspects of these.
2 - managing expectations about how much they could do. I need to build in sufficient flexibility to allow for the things they believed they could do (based on their last trip 10 years ago) but have a base of some easily-achieved activities so that every day is a success, no matter how many of the options are actually pursued.

We're basically only going to Tokyo to see the Sumo, (with Asakusa offering a good mix of easily accessible experiences) as they wanted to see more of non-urban Japan and didn't want to spend too much time in tokyo traffic or feeling at risk of being bowled over in tokyo train stations.

Kamikochi would not be a natural choice, but it fitted with the priorities (engineering, onsen, ryokan-like experience, slow train) and route, and the flat 500m walk or wheelchair between the bus station and accomm at Kappabashi Bridge is easily done except in consistent rain. I also get to point out some of the ridges I've teetered along between peaks. I doubt that it would be a sensible inclusion for you.

Thank you for your generous additional input. There are no specific expectations of sites to see. For my father, it is more being able to be in a new place that he has never seen and an opportunity to spend time with his children. My mother also has no expectations. There will just be the three of us to Japan if all works out.

In mild weather, he is able to walk about 6 flat blocks. In Jan/Feb, Japan will be cold and I suspect walking 3 flat blocks is all that he can handle at one time. He can probably tolerate one outing, 2 hours at a time and out for meals.

Any crowded area or train stations would not work. He moves slowly and with an unsteady gait. I think more staying at a decent hotel that is near a few easy places to visit by taxi or walking distance and perhaps the warmest location in Japan during Jan/Feb would be good.

He moves slowly and with an unsteady gait

This reminds me of my travelling experience. My advice is get wheel-chair when ever possible. There are places where wheel-chair can be used for free.

No problems! - even if what I'm doing doesn't completely relate to your circumstances, I think others will find this thread useful when considering this type of assisted travel.

I think you've got a tougher gig than me on the physical side, although my mother might only be able to walk a few hundred metres on a bad day.

What you're suggesting makes sense to me, and I agree with the suggestion of a wheelchair - this would make exploring the neighbourhood a lot easier. A couple of years ago I needed a stroller for a 12 month old, and a scooter for a 4 yo, and wheels made it a lot easier.

Another suggestion would be to consider shifting hotels halfway through. This would allow you to access a new range of nearby sites and experiences, a different hotel feel, and maybe different breakfast options, rather than travel further and further afield each day. Also, a different hotel feel, maybe different breakfast options, and different view out the window all adds to the variety of experience.

Some hotels promote rooms by the view they have - so a nighttime view of Shinjuku neon or Tokyo Tower (others will have better suggestions) or daytime view of a temple complex or Shibuya crossing gives extra value to the room. These might be busy places that they may not want to actually visit - but a view of it provides some experience.

If they are like mine, they will be spending a bit of time in their room - so maximising what experience it offers increases what they get from their trip. My hotel budget is 15000 yen/night, so I'm having to be quite imaginative in this regard.....

You are awesome!

A special thanks to you and all the contributors to my inquiry. Getting a wheelchair regardless is a great idea! Staying in different hotels, experiencing different breakfasts, looking out at different sceneries, is so creative!

Best wishes to your planning and many other potential planners for their precious elders : - ) A million thanks!

I've accompanied an elderly couple traveling to Japan - once I made the mistake of getting the gentleman (bit of a walking problem, he tires easily) to walk almost half the length of a train station platform in Tokyo to get to the right exit to our destination. And we ended up taking a taxi a short distance after we got out of the station, which worked fine. I always picked table & chair restaurant for them (no sitting on the floor). I noted that they would do a half-day sightseeing in town, then return to their hotel to rest, then go out into the neighborhood, then rest again, then out to dinner, etc.

I would say get your parents to relax and to pace themselves, don't try to see everything, but if they don't have particular expectations, that should be easy :) Also get a hotel that is easily accessible and comfortable to stay in (rather than "just a place to sleep in", is what I mean).

Depends on where you are flying from, but maybe flying into Kansai then leaving from Narita (or the other way around) would also minimize long-distance rail travel too.

I believe for example Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto has a steep path up, but there is a wheelchair/handicapped only shortcut where the taxi driver can drop you off at, at a spot far closer to the temple. So maybe for Kyoto hiring a taxi for a day might be an idea.

Thank you very much for the great suggestions. We'll be flying from either China or Hong Kong.

I was going to add a point about the trains - get green car seats. The cars are closest to the exits and saves walking to the end of the platform if you get booked into one at either end. (Also pays to know the train station layout).