Not the places I went.  Remember, I took my 20-pound, folding, ultralight
manual wheelchair.  There were places we could not get into without folding
the wheelchair up to get it inside, either because of narrow doorways or
hallways.  We also encountered an awful lot of places where there were no
ramps, only steps.  With a 20-pound chair, you can get someone to lift it
up the 4-5 steps into a building.  Not gonna happen with a 100-pound or more
powered scooter or a 300 pound powerchair (most powerchairs have a lot more
electronics and beefier motors and batteries, as well as different seating).
And trying to get a non-folding wheelchair into a taxi cab is...interesting.

And keep in mind that even in the US, a lot of places don't have curbcuts
at intersections.  That's gotta suck in a powerchair where you can't just
wheelie your way over the curb.  Some powerchairs aren't particularly stable
and you risk toppling over if you try and ride over a curb.  If you don't just
manage to high-center yourself and get stuck like some hapless four-wheeler. ;}
With my custom-built titanium chair, I was able to bounce over curbs if I
really had to (at least if they weren't too high), and because I was travelling
with a group of people we could always have me hobble up a couple steps while
someone lifted the chair up for me.  You'd need a portable ramp and a pit crew
to do that with a powerchair.

The majority of powerchairs I saw in England were folding chairs with power
add-ons, probably because so very few buildings are truly accessable and
the train system is only about halfway there.  There are 5 or 6 different
train companies, and each of their trains have different dimensions and
configurations.  The Virgin turbotrains were really the only ones I could
just roll up onto and into my assigned spot.  The rest all had significant
problems of one sort or another.

I'm not even supposed to be lifting my featherweight chair right now, so
someone else has to load it into the car for me.  When we priced out the
Bruno lift for my car, it'd cost something like $1000 with installation,
which I can't afford right now.  Might have to do it *anyway* at this rate,
but insurance doesn't cover any of this stuff.  Didn't cover the wheelchair
either, since I can still hobble around some.  However, if I end up needing
shoulder surgery, that'll probably push me over the edge to being disabled
"enough" to qualify for coverage for a powerchair.  Then I'd only have to
pay for the new vehicle and modifications to it (groan).  

Luckily, we're only going to have to do very, very minor modifications
to the new house.  One threshold runner inside the house between tile and
wooden floors, a bannister on the front porch, and a ramp.  The rest is
already good, which is why we wanted *this* house.  When we looked at houses,
I made sure to take the wheelchair and see if I could actually get from room
to room.  And (gasp) I can even get into the bathroom in this place.  At least
the one in the master bedroom.  The extra bath has a door that's a little too
narrow, but that can eventually be fixed.  We've established that I _can_ get
the walker in there, so it's still an improvement over our current hovel,
where the only support I can use in the bathroom is my cane (wanna take any
guesses why I've fallen so many times in there?).

If you really want to seriously consider the pros and cons of travelling
with a wheelchair, you might want to start snurfling around at the
Wheelchair Junkies site and discussion boards.  You might like reading there
anyway, now that you have a new ride.  Among other things, the folks there
come up with some pretty clever ideas on how to deal with day to day life
in a wheelchair.  I found the place when I first started doing serious
research on buying a custom-built wheelchair to replace the loaner I'd been
using.  The guy who runs the site works for Pride/Jazzy and is a gimp himself,
so he knows his stuff.  And everybody should check out the Idiot Zone just
for the humor value.  He demonstrates photographically all the things one
specifically should NEVER EVER do in a powerchair.
http://www.wheelchairjunkie.com/

Hi Shelagh!

Oh, girl..I don't think I can take BB5. LOL! Survivor about did me in &
I wasn't gonna watch that one, but then they did the All-Star cast & how
could I not watch that? I'll let ya know though....it'll just depend
upon other stress factor's, I guess. lol!  I may take to fishin' with my
Catalpa worms & forget TV altogether. : )   Maggie