A rare muscle disease doesn’t stop Sanna’s cottage adventures: “When the weather allows, I float on an inflatable boat in the lake”
Accessible travel expert, Sanna Kalmari, spends her vacations at rental cottages. She values an easy-to-navigate yard, spacious rooms, and the ability to get to the pier in a wheelchair.
Sanna Kalmari has vacationed at rental cottages for the last ten years. For several of those years, she has rented the same cottage by Lake Isojärvi in Multia each summer for a week.
“An accessible cottage suits my needs perfectly. I can easily enter with my electric wheelchair because there are no thresholds. The doors, bathroom, and rooms are spacious enough, and the cottage even has a shower wheelchair. It’s also easy to navigate the yard right up to the pier,” Sanna says.
She has a rare congenital SMA muscle disease and has used an electric wheelchair since childhood. A personal assistant accompanies her on trips and vacations.
Traveling in Finland and abroad is a part-time job for Sanna. She authors the blog Palmuasema, which focuses on accessible tourism and serves as a resource for students and professionals in the sector.
“For me, spending cottage weeks with my parents, my brother’s family, and my assistant is total relaxation. It’s wonderful to simply be together, enjoy the sauna, unwind, and eat well. When the weather allows, I float on an inflatable boat in the lake.”
“At the cottage, the most important thing is to relax.”Sanna Kalmari
One or two weeks a year are enough to satisfy Sanna’s cottage-time needs. She has no interest in maintaining or repairing a summer cottage.
“It’s nice to arrive at a well-prepared, familiar rental cottage with a setup I already know. For a week, you can imagine it’s your own.”
According to Sanna, accessible rental cottages are in higher demand than supply. She always books her cottage a year in advance to be sure she gets the one she wants.
She believes there are actually more options than rental listing sites suggest. Some property owners might not realize their cottage is accessible and therefore fail to mention it in the listing.
“Whenever you rent a new cottage, you need to confirm what accessibility actually means for that specific place. Is there enough space to move around in a wheelchair? Can you get into the sauna with it? Is the yard full of roots and rocks, or is it easy to navigate?”
For a few years, Sanna has also rented a cottage in winter. Spending time outdoors and being close to nature become even more pronounced then compared to summer.
“It’s difficult to move around in a wheelchair over snow, and I barely go outside in the city. But at the cottage, it’s wonderful to be surrounded by nature the moment you open the door.”
