Today I went to Transfer Beach in Ladysmith!
It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed walking around the park and having a nice picnic. I met my cousin and her husband there and we enjoyed spending some time together!
Overall, the beach was reasonably accessible for someone in a wheelchair. Not perfect, but not the worst beach I’ve been to! Let me tell you all about it.
How Accessible is Transfer Beach?
First, let’s talk about the accessible parking. There were two parking lots for visitors. The lower lot had only one wheelchair parking spot that we could see (and it was taken).
Instead, we drove over to the upper parking lot (unfortunately, it’s a gravel lot), where we found a wheelchair parking section facing the ocean.
There is room for about two cars in the accessible parking section.
You’ll need to go through the gravel parking lot to get to the picnic tables and the beach. It’s reasonably steep to go down to the picnic area, and you have to go over some grass.
The large picnic tables themselves were not accessible for me as there were no cutouts or space for my wheelchair.
In terms of the beach itself, there was a paved pathway down to the beachfront. From there, they had a short blue wheelchair-accessible beach mat that ended on the sand.
It would have been much better if the mat went right into the water rather than ending in the middle of the sand.
The bathrooms at the beach were ok but not great. The men’s and women’s bathrooms each had a wheelchair stall, and there was a button to open each of those doors.
There was one single bathroom but it was too small for me to go in and close the door. The single bathroom also didn’t have a button to open the door, which was not great.
What Is There to Do At Transfer Beach?
The main things to do at Transfer Beach are to swim, visit the playground and spray park, and have a picnic.
My nieces went into the water and it was warm enough to swim in (but still pretty cold, as it is the Pacific Ocean!).
Unfortunately, someone who uses a wheelchair could not access the ocean as the blue mat did not go far enough. It ended in the middle of the sand and did not go into the water.
The spray park looked accessible, but we didn’t check out the playground as my nieces were too old for it!
We did buy food for lunch from the food truck at the beach. I got a hot dog. The food was pretty basic but the fries were delicious!
Summary
Overall, we had a nice day at Transfer Beach in Ladysmith.
However, if you use a wheelchair and are hoping to go in the water, I would go to a different beach as the blue mat here was too short. Luckily, I did not want to go swimming today!
Also, it’s quite steep to get from the parking lot to the water. It might be better to be in a power chair when you’re getting back up to the parking lot. However, it might be difficult getting down and going on the grass to the picnic tables if you’re in a power chair.
I hope you have a great day there if you decide to go!
