This holiday was a nightmare for me and my mother. I booked the holiday by phone and informed the operator that my mother was elderly and not very mobile so we would be taking her wheelchair (if that is not informing her of my mother's disability I don't know what is). She even had to check to see if there were any more wheelchair users on the coach as there might not be enough room for more than one. Anyway, after a horrendous (on and off the coach) 27hrs approx we arrived at the Hotel Britannia Excelsior, lovely location right opposite Lake Como and the ferry over to Belagio. Nice room with lake view and terrace (paid extra for that) but the hotel has only 1 small lift. However, there are about 10 steps up to the hotel doors and pavements are virtually non existent. So, how did I get my mum's wheelchair up and down the steps - with great difficulty every time we went out. I had a set procedure, she very slowly walked to the bottom of the steps and I carried the wheelchair down. Going up was another story - she couldn't climb the step, she managed once or twice but after that we gave it up as a bad job. The hotel staff were not helpful either and the one time I managed to get her to the ferry to go to Belagio and round the Lake, the ferrymen were just as unhelpful. We were there for 9 days - 2 travelling and 7 in the resort. In the end, I had to go out on my own - I took a Lake trip and went on one of the 3 included excursions but I had to leave my mother in the hotel.

When we returned I wrote to Shearings and got no joy at all, stating my gripe that I should have been informed at the time of booking that this hotel was not suitable for disabled people. I got a long letter back stating that I had not informed the operator that my mother was disabled (note what I said earlier about the wheelchair). I said they should state in their advert (in the Sunday Mail) that this holiday was not suitable for disabled people but I got nowhere, only to be told that they have lots of people with disabilities going on this holiday and mine was the first complaint. So be warned. I believe you can fly/drive for this holiday now but the hotel will still have the steps and no pavements along that stretch as the road is too narrow for able bodied never mind wheelchairs.

Would love to go back to Lake Como as its scenery is breathtaking but not with Shearings.