Relaxing Weekend at Emsdorf Lodge
5
5
Date of visit: May 2026
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: accessing toilets and moving around.
I use or have experience of: changing places toilet, disabled toilet, powerchair, toilet with hoist
Overall Rating
Excellent
I was kindly invited to visit Homelands for the weekend to stay in their Emsdorf 3-bedroom accessible lodge. This lodge is part of their newer development, which opened to guests in April 2023. We had a dog-friendly lodge, with plenty of space for 4 of us.
Disabled Access In and Around
Excellent
It is level access into all the lodges at Homelands, and there’s a slight slope to get up, but this is manageable for powered and manual wheelchair users. The door to enter isn’t automatic, and I can’t open it manually myself, but I felt the weight with my wheelchair once someone opened it, and it didn’t feel too heavy. The door is very wide to get through, though, so it’ll be manageable for any width of wheelchair, and actually, all the doors throughout the Emsdorf lodge are wide. As you enter the lodge, you are greeted by a large entrance way where the boiler cupboard is and coat hooks, although I was surprised there were only 4 coat hooks when the lodge sleeps 6 people. We used the coat hooks for my dog’s harnesses, collars and leads because, yes, my dog comes with her own wardrobe too. There were plenty of plug sockets in this area. That is where I charged my wheelchair and other medical equipment, and I didn’t need to use my extension cords to charge them. Actually, I didn’t need my extension cords in any of the rooms to charge things. Within the hall area, there was a utility room that had a washing machine, tumble dryer, ironing board, drying screen and other cleaning supplies. We didn’t do any washing whilst there, so I cannot comment on the functionality of all of that. We mainly used this room to store my dog’s items. When you come into the main area of the lodge, you enter the open kitchen, dining and living room area. I loved this kitchen because it had a low kitchen island area where I was able to help with baking and cooking that we did throughout the weekend. This is the only area I could reach, but I can’t do a lot in the kitchen because of my muscle weakness, so I was just happy to do what I could. There were plenty of storage cupboards below the worktops in the kitchen, so if someone can’t reach the cupboards above the worktops, then whoever they are with should be able to move things below because there is plenty of space. There is a dishwasher in the kitchen that someone in a wheelchair would be able to use, but if you wanted to rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, unfortunately, someone in a wheelchair wouldn’t be able to do this, as there’s not a gap under the sink for a wheelchair to roll under it, and it’s not height-adjustable. Like I said, though, the lowered-down kitchen island definitely makes up for it in my opinion because I really enjoyed helping prepare food for dinners and lunches, plus helping with the baking we were doing. The living room area is spacious due to it all being open planned. There is an electronic recliner chair, a standard armchair, and a 3-seater sofa. I brought my bed into the living room on our last night in the lodge to watch a DVD, and there was plenty of room to do this. I thought the TV was going to be too low to do this, but it was perfect and very relaxing. The dining room table was at a perfect height for my wheelchair, and we were able to enjoy dinners and play games at the dining room table. There were 2 dining room chairs with armrests for people who may need this with poor mobility, and the other 4 dining room chairs didn’t have armrests. There is one accessible bedroom in this lodge, which is equipped with a ceiling tracking hoist and a profiling airflow mattress bed. There is also a standard bed in this bedroom. The first thing I noticed in this bedroom was that there were lots of plug sockets to plug in all my medical equipment. I always travel with multiple extension cords because there are never enough plugs, but this was not an issue at Homelands. There were two plug sockets with 2 plugs on each at either side of each bed, and one of them at each bed had 2 USB ports on it too. This is amazing for disabled people who travel with lots of medical equipment. There is also a hospital table in the bedroom and 2 bedside tables, which were great for laying dressings out for evening and morning routines. The wardrobe also had lots of storage in it for my clothes and to discreetly hide my medical items during the day. The bed was also very comfortable for me, not being used to an airflow mattress. I would say the only couple of downsides were that the mirror was on the other side of the room, but luckily, I could get past the beds to get to the mirror. It was also a little annoying that it was only patio doors in the accessible bedroom, so I couldn’t have a window open at night, and I couldn’t open it during the day either or my dog would run away with the garden not being secure. I thought it was also smart that the TV in the accessible bedroom was on wheels so you could watch it anywhere, not that I used it though. I can’t comment on the accessibility of the upstairs of the lodge because, of course, I can’t get up there, but the guests I was visiting with had no complaints. They said the beds were comfortable, there was plenty of storage in the rooms, luckily, they were able to open the windows in their bedroom, and the shower was easy to use. It is level access to get outside to the garden through the patio doors. There was a little bump to go over the threshold, but it’s manageable and not high. The paved patio area outside is very spacious. We didn’t spend a lot of time outside because it was a little windy, but I did eat a quick late breakfast outside on one of the mornings. The gardens aren’t secure with fences, but the table and chairs outside were quite heavy and sturdy, so I connected my dog’s leash to the leg of the chair to let her wander around. Dogs, unfortunately, aren’t allowed to toilet in the garden, which was a little annoying first thing in the morning because we had to walk her to a designated area. When we went for a walk the first evening, I drove my wheelchair down the driveway, but it was quite steep. On the way back to the lodge, we found a pathway that wasn’t as steep and was very accessible.
Accessible facilities: Step-free entrance, Step-free access to most areas
Parking & Transport
Excellent
I travelled to this place by personal vehicle
There is a disabled parking space right outside the front door of the lodge, which is really helpful and on a paved surface, which is very good for wheelchairs. It’s also very handy for unpacking ALL the luggage that I travel with. Beside the lodge, not a far distance at all from the front door there is another dedicated parking space for the Emsdorf lodge and another visitors’ parking space beside it. These parking spaces are on a little bit of gravel, but I think if you put your ramp down, it would come down onto the paved area. So that’s 3 parking spaces available for the Emsdorf lodge. Outside the entrance to the lodge, there is an electric charging port for electric cars, and I noticed that there was an electric car charging port beside the reception area for Homelands, which offers 22kW Type 2 charging. I’m not from the area, so I cannot comment on the public transport. Although when we went on a walk, I couldn’t remember seeing a bus stop nearby. Most people travel with luggage anyway, and if you have a lot of medical equipment like me, you’ll travel with a lot of bags, so most people will probably travel by car anyway.
Accessible facilities: Dedicated on-site parking, Electric Vehicle Charging
Accessible Toilets
There are 3 toilets in the lodge. One upstairs that has a walk-in shower and bath in it too, a guest toilet room downstairs and an accessible wet room downstairs, which was massive and also had a tracking hoist in it. I, of course, didn’t use the toilet upstairs with the bath and walk-in shower, but my boyfriend and carers said it was very nice. They found the shower facilities really easy to use. There was a grab rail in the shower and a little grab rail in the bath. The guest toilet downstairs was quite spacious, and the toilet is positioned in the middle of the wall to allow someone to be able to transfer on either side. There is only a grab rail at one side of the toilet, though, so it’s good to keep this in mind. You can see in the image below. The main shower room downstairs was the one I used during my visit, and it was a massive accessible wet room with a tracking hoist that covered most of the room. The tracking hoist isn’t connected from the accessible bedroom; they are both separate, but there is plenty of room to transfer within the room. I hired a shower chair whilst I was here, but I think a shower trolley is also available, and it would be easy to push the trolley through from the accessible bedroom. The only comment I have is that the sink was too low for me to reach. I am in a small wheelchair, but I can’t put my hand below my stomach. A height-adjustable sink might have been better. I LOVED the sink though, and it was at a perfect height for me. Within the wet room, there was a very handy trolley for me to store all my toiletries and any medical equipment I needed. Sometimes I feel wet rooms don’t have a lot of storage, but this was not a problem here.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
Excellent
Helen was my main contact at Homelands, and she was the person who kindly invited me for a visit. She came to meet me on the Saturday, and she was very friendly, asking if we had everything we needed. Other staff members contacted me to ask what configuration we wanted the beds on the upstairs level and what equipment I would like to use. They were very friendly over email and were very helpful with everything. Unfortunately, the reception area isn’t open over the weekend, so we didn’t encounter any other staff members.
