Why Grand Rapids Is a Standout for Accessible Travel

Anastasia Pagonis, with light brown hair wearing a white crop top and knee-length jean shorts and using a white cane, and her friend, a woman with dark blonde hair wearing a gray tee shirt and white pants, walk down the brick sidewalk in downtown Grand Rapids — Anastasia Pagonis and her friend in downtown Grand Rapids

Anastasia Pagonis has always hated museums. As a kid with visual impairment, she says, “I would be the one doing cartwheels through the hallways because I had nothing to look at. Museums are just so unbelievably visual.”

That’s why she went into her visit to the Grand Rapids Public Museum “very closed-minded.” But as she got the opportunity to handle objects and take in exhibits through smell, she realized that this time was different. “It was so hands-on,” Pagonis says, “literally the coolest experience.”

As a Paralympic gold medalist, Pagonis has been traveling since she was a teenager, competing in swim events around the world. In addition to being a world-record-holding swimmer, she’s also a content creator and disability advocate who shares what it’s like to live with blindness on social media.

For the Paralympian, accessible travel is all about participating and engaging without feeling like a burden. “I really like to go to places where it’s not all about the view,” she says, “but about the experience and the adventures.”

Grand Rapids, it turns out, was just that. For the trip, Experience Grand Rapids, the area’s destination marketing organization, drew on its partnership with Wheel the World, an accessible travel platform with verified accessibility details for destinations, hotels, attractions, and businesses worldwide.

Using Wheel the World listings, Experience Grand Rapids built a four-day itinerary for Pagonis. During her time in Michigan’s second-largest city, Pagonis got to explore the walkable downtown and well beyond it, experiencing what the area has to offer through touch, smell, and sound.

Arrive at Gerald R. Ford International Airport

A woman in black clothing wheels a yellow suitcase across the street towards a building with large banners of things to see in Grand Rapids under a ceiling of metal lattice at The Gerald R. Ford International Airport — The Gerald R. Ford International Airport

Pagonis’s first impression of Gerald R. Ford International Airport was notable precisely because it wasn’t. “We were in and out of there,” she says. “It was so smooth.” The true measure of accessibility was actually at the security checkpoint on the way out of the airport, where the TSA agent was well-informed about how to assist people with visual impairments.

“A lot of people don’t know what you should do with your cane or how to help you through the metal detectors,” Pagonis says. “The woman who helped me was extremely educated.” For a disabled traveler, an uneventful airport experience is significant because it becomes just one step in the trip instead of a series of obstacles.

Visit the Grand Rapids Public Museum

A woman with dark hair in a red and gray striped shirt and jeans points up to show three other people a large animal skeleton suspended above them at the Grand Rapids Public Museum — The Grand Rapids Public Museum

After a 20-minute ride from the airport into the city, Pagonis settled in before walking to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Tactile and sensory exhibits transformed what she expected to be one of the least interesting stops into a highlight of the trip.

During her visit, she had the chance to learn about the Detroit Tigers in the museum’s Play Ball! exhibit through the smells of grass and popcorn. The exhibit’s collection of autographed baseballs may have been behind glass and out of her reach, but she could feel her way through a replica of a 19th-century pharmacy and handle rocks and fossils.

“Being hands-on with things makes me feel so included,” Pagonis says. “I think that blindness and visual impairments go very overlooked, and I really appreciated that they thought of people like me.”

The museum has built-in accessibility throughout the building, from exhibits designed for wheelchair users to hearing-assist devices, noise-canceling headphones, fidget tools, and a dedicated Quiet Room for visitors with sensory sensitivities. For Pagonis, the accommodations translated into having multiple ways to interact with the exhibits. “I wish there were museums like this where I live,” she says.

Make perfume and try swing dancing in downtown Grand Rapids

A dozen people swing dancing outside in Rosa Parks Circle, with large buildings and a disc-like installation with rainbow lights behind them — Swing dancing in Rosa Parks Circle

From there, Pagonis got out of her comfort zone and had some fun in downtown Grand Rapids. At the Aroma Labs, she created her own perfume by sampling oils and identifying the ones she liked best—a stop she had been especially excited about.

“I’m a girly girl at heart,” she says. All the sniffing became overwhelming, though, and she went temporarily “nose-blind,” joking, “I was like ‘Oh my goodness, I’m double blind over here—nose blind and blind!’” She eventually settled on summery, musky scents and came out of the experience with a sugar scrub and a perfume she still wears.

Next, she walked a few minutes to Rosa Parks Circle for a lesson with the Grand Rapids Original Swing Society. This plaza has a strong connection to swing dance—it was the place where Grand Rapids earned a Guinness World Record in 2012 for the most people swing dancing in unison.

This was an intimidating adventure for Pagonis. “I was overwhelmed before we started,” she says, “because it was definitely very visual and very fast-moving.” But she expressed her needs to the swing dance instructor, specifying she didn’t want one-on-one help, just extra verbal descriptions. “He knew what to do,” she says. “It seemed like he’s almost done it before. He was super descriptive.”

She may not be headed for a dance competition anytime soon, but thanks to an open conversation and a small adjustment, Pagonis could participate alongside all the other dancers. “I’m definitely not good at dancing,” she says. “Rhythm is not for me. But it was a fun experience.”

Cruise the Kalamazoo River and relax at Oval Beach on Lake Michigan

Long green and yellow beach grasses grow out of the sand next to the gentle waves breaking on the shore of Lake Michigan at sunset — Lake Michigan

The next day, Pagonis traveled about 45 minutes southwest of Grand Rapids to Saugatuck for a ride in a retro boat down the Kalamazoo River. Since the boat was low to the water, Pagonis was able to stick her hand in and get a sense of how fast they were moving. “It was so nice to feel the wind and the water,” she says.

Afterward, she headed to Oval Beach on Lake Michigan, where she discovered there were plenty of ways to enjoy the atmosphere beyond the views. It was her first time at the Great Lake, and its size surprised her. “It should not be called a lake,” she says. “This is an ocean. It’s insane, it’s so big.”

She listened to a description of the view and experienced her surroundings through the feel of the water, the breeze, and the sand. “In New York we do not have sand like that,” she says. “It was so soft and powdery.”

Touch exhibits at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

Two women with long dark hair, one holding a small child in one arm, swing a child by the hands between them while walking down a cobblestone path surrounded by flowers and vegetation at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park — Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Back in Grand Rapids, Pagonis found another way to enjoy the great outdoors. With 158 acres of gardens and more than 200 sculptures to explore, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park may seem like more of a visual attraction than anything else, but Pagonis experienced the park through touch and the descriptions of a private guide who accompanied her throughout the property.

One indoor installation, Jaume Plensa’s Utopia, surrounds visitors with four large-scale marble carvings of faces that cover the walls. Though Pagonis could put her hands on the carvings, she says, “You can’t really grasp what it looks like because it’s so big.”

Smaller, tactile replicas meant she could still fully appreciate the art. “It’s the exact same image but it’s the size of your hand,” she explains, “and you can actually feel what the sculpture looks like.”

The effect stayed with her. “I feel like they should have that everywhere,” she says. “These massive museums need to catch up!”

Four people, one in a wheelchair, look up at Nina Akamu’s enormous bronze American Horse sculpture at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park — Nina Akamu’s American Horse sculpture at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

The park’s 24-foot-tall American Horse sculpture by Nina Akamu sits beside a 15-inch bronze touchable version nearby, with an accompanying description in braille. Additional braille materials and sensory supports are available to borrow at the ticketing desk.

In another part of the park, Pagonis’s guide described blown-glass art to her. “I didn’t necessarily understand what that meant,” she says, but after putting her hands on a sample piece of blown glass, “it all kind of clicked for me.”

The indoor gardens were also sensory. Moving among plantings representing different environments, Pagonis enjoyed the changes in temperature, humidity, scent, and sound.

“The desert was dry and hot,” she says of the Arid Garden. “The rainforest had that [damp] smell and was super humid; you could hear the drops of rain… When you stepped into it, you could truly feel where you were.”

Dine and enjoy live entertainment at SILVA

That evening at SILVA, Pagonis sat down to dinner and a show adapted to fit her needs. There was live music, and staff provided tableside performances and personalized magic tricks.

“Instead of juggling with regular balls, they brought light-up ones that people who have some form of vision can see, which was really cool,” she says. The circus-like “dinnertainment” venue offers bistro fare, and Pagonis opted for the burger. “I highly, highly recommend it,” she adds.

What Grand Rapids gets right about accessible travel

Whether she was exploring a museum, making her own perfume, enjoying the breeze on Lake Michigan, or simply walking down the street, what Pagonis appreciated most was that people were attentive to and respectful of her disability without making it the center of every interaction. “Yes, they knew that I have a disability,” she says, “but they didn’t make me feel like I was different or less-than.”

That includes the warm welcome she received from strangers. When walking downtown with her friend in search of a coffee shop, Pagonis asked someone on the sidewalk for directions.

“I’m from New York, so you don’t even have the audacity to ask someone where something is,” she says, but in Grand Rapids, “they actually walked us to the coffee shop.” She adds that the people were one of the highlights, “the Midwest stereotype of people being super nice was so accurate!”

For travelers with disabilities who are seeking a similar trip, Experience Grand Rapids offers planning resources in its accessibility hub, as well as Will, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered accessibility agent developed in partnership with Wheel the World, to help visitors identify experiences suited to their individual needs.

These kinds of planning tools can make a destination easier to navigate, but for Pagonis, one of the most meaningful accessibility features of Grand Rapids was how the people made her feel. She may have arrived with few expectations, but after four days in West Michigan, she left with a strong impression: “Everywhere I went, I felt like I belonged.”

Experience Grand Rapids