Written by Julie Jones, Have Wheelchair Will Travel, December 17, 2024
Our three night stay in Exmouth was made all the better with the availability of excellent accessible accommodation at Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort. It’s rare for accessible accommodation to exceed our expectations but that’s exactly what happened when we entered the accessible one bedroom apartment at Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort. The opportunity to connect the accessible one bedroom apartment to a standard room was an added bonus. When the two were combined, we had a two bedroom apartment for our stay, complete with kitchen facilities.
Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort – accommodation review
Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort offers 68 rooms, including a range of hotel rooms and one and two bedroom self-contained apartments. The resort also includes Gold Plate Award winning Mantarays restaurant, a bar, lounge, pool and gym.
Automatic doors and a step-free entry is available to the reception desk making a good first impression.
Our comfortable digs for our stay offered all the facilities we needed including a large lounge, table and chairs, full size fridge, microwave, stove top, dishwasher and oven.
The tile floor and expansive circulation space throughout the one bedroom accessible apartment made for easy wheeling for Braeden during our stay. The sofa is made for relaxing and lounging with a super deep seat. Braeden usually sits with his legs to the side of him on our lounge at home so he was fine but the rest of us found we needed to pile pillows behind us to get comfy but we were thrilled to have a lounge that easily fitted four adults for a movie night.
Book accessible accommodation at Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort here.
We visited Exmouth in early November and although summer was still a month away we were appreciative of the efficient air conditioning in both the accessible one bedroom apartment and the standard room.
Self-catering makes our travel budget stretch further and with an IGA Supermarket in town we were able to stock up on groceries and made good use of the great kitchen set up. Plates, cups and cutlery are stored in large easy to slide drawers and located at a lowered height so access in the kitchen is excellent.
The one bedroom apartment offers a king-size bed with good circulation space on both sides of the bed for transferring for a wheelchair user. A wardrobe offers plenty of storage for clothes and suitcases but the hanging rail is at a regular height. The shelving in the wardrobe is at a good height though for access.
Bedroom facts – entry door 148cm, bed height 57cm and under bed clearance 10cm.
The adjoining accessible bathroom is spacious with a sliding entry door, shower bench, height adjustable shower head and grab rails throughout.
The hotel’s bathroom amenities are out of reach for someone seated on the shower bench so I suggest bringing your own.
On either side of the sink there is ample bench space for toiletries bags (yay! how rare is this in accessible accommodation). Towels are all stored at a lower level and there are towel rails all within reach.
Bathroom facts – bathroom door 82cm, shower bench 47cm, toilet height to pan 45cm and to seat 47cm.
Interconnecting standard accessible room
For our family it was a bonus having an interconnecting standard room at Mantaray’s Ningaloo Beach Resort.
If you are travelling and need space for a larger family you can book the one bedroom accessible apartment connected to the standard room which provides a two bedroom apartment. A large entry foyer joins the two units (check out the video below to see what I mean) But, if you don’t need the extra space and self-catering facilities, or prefer hotel style accommodation, you are able to book the standard accessible room.
This room offers a king-size bed, large lounge and television. All features including the light switches and air conditioning controls are at a lowered height.
The mini fridge and kettle were well used during our stay and again we were happy to find the cups and plates in easy to access drawers.
The standard accessible room at Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort offers a spacious bathroom with shower bench, height adjustable shower head, lever taps and room for a wheelchair under the sink. In this room we again found that the resort’s shampoo, conditioner and shower gel is out of reach for someone seated on the shower bench so BYO amenities.
Grab rails are fitted throughout and towels are located at a lowered height for ease of access. The standard room also has room on the bench for toiletries (a double win for Mantarays).
Both accessible rooms offer a balcony area which is step-free.
Access around the resort is good with an accessible parking space opposite the one bedroom apartment linked by a ramp and level access.
Pathways around the resort connect the various areas including the pool and restaurant making it smooth sailing around the property.
We were too busy exploring the region to find time to take a dip in the pool at Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort but we did note that there is a nice shallow end at 0.2m for anyone that wants to chill in the shallows. There is no pool seat to access the pool and no railings to assist with stepping into the pool.
We had an incredibly comfortable stay at Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort while in Exmouth and found the accessible accommodation suited our needs well. As I said at the start of this review, the accommodation exceeded our expectations. You can read more about the facilities and the resort on its website. This was a great start to our Western Australia Coral Coast drive.
Read more accommodation reviews for Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort here.
A Beach Trekker beach wheelchair is available to borrow to use on the neighbouring Town Beach. It’s not the easiest beach wheelchair to push through the soft sand but during our stay we found that we could drive down closer to the compact sand and enjoyed having the opportunity to walk along the beach as a family. Braeden loved being able to get his toes into the sea.
If you’d like to organise to borrow the Beach Trekker beach wheelchair you need to contact Exmouth Yacht Club on 08 99491549 (leave a message) or better still, send an email ahead of your visit to sec@exmouthyachtclub.org.au to arrange a date and time to use it.
We were hosted for our stay at Manatarays Ningaloo Beach Resort but as always our opinions are our own and we hope the photos speak for themselves when it comes to the access at the resort.
