Get Ready! Get Set! Read!

“Accessible Vacations: An Insider’s Guide to 10 National Parks” by Simon Hayhoe

BY REBECCA PARTEN

Traveling to America’s National Parks is something that my family has talked about off and on over the years. Surprisingly, I haven’t been to any of the National Parks here in Michigan but I have been to the Great Smoky Mountains. Therefore when I saw that a guidebook called Accessible Vacations: An Insider’s Guide to 10 National Parks, by Simon J. Hayhoe, was available on NetGalley (a website where you can get free access to books pre-publication in exchange for an honest review) I became excited. Sadly, I was overall disappointed with the book and ended up giving it three out five stars. The title led me to think the book would be geared primarily toward the‘average tourist’ who happens to have a disability, whereas in reality it was , tourists and teachers/educators. The book is split into three major sections:

• History of accessibility within the entire National Parks Service

• Types of “Access Needs” and technologies that people with disabilities may utilize

• Profiles of 10 different Parks spread across the continental United States

Overall, I had high hopes for this book but was disappointed. I felt like the choice of parks profiled and the information provided was not as helpful

as I’d wanted. If I was planning a trip to one of the parks I’d still have a lot of research that I would need to do.

You can read a longer section by section review on my blog by going to https://rollinwithrebecca. com/2022/02/10/accessible-vacations/

July 2025

All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything https://www.amazon.com/All-Way-TopDisabilities-Everything/dp/1492688975

August 2025

The Chance to Fly series by Ali Stroker https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B0CKXBK2XM?binding=audio_ download&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_taud