Glyn Evans has traveled with the same travel company 30 times and can still pinpoint her favorite moments.
During a trip to Las Vegas, I served as a wedding chaperone for a couple on the same tour.
But unlike most weddings, the bride and groom were visually impaired, said Mr Evans, who is based in Lincolnshire, England.
For 25 years, Evans has traveled with a travel company called Travel Eyes, which organizes trips for the visually impaired. The tour also includes the same number of tourists. In exchange for discounts (as much as 40% off in some cases), travelers like Evans support their companions by explaining the details of their trip, from planned activities to help ordering food.
“We rented a chapel and helped the bride choose her wedding dress. It was a great experience,” Evans said.
From volunteering to traveling
Traveling on Traveleyes is similar to traveling on other travel websites. Travelers can go whitewater rafting in Costa Rica, go on a safari in Eswatini, or hike a volcano in Spain. Some trips include activities such as bungee jumping, skydiving, skiing, snorkeling, and pizza making.
For Evans, who has spent years volunteering with visually impaired people, traveling with them was a natural next step. He told CNBC Travel that he met the company’s founder, Amal Latif, through his work with the blind community, so joining Travel Eyes as a sighted guest on his first tour was a natural fit.
Latif said he became blind at the age of 18 due to a genetic disease and founded Travel Eyes in 2004 at the age of 36.
Evans and his partner, Caroline, are now regulars on Travel Eyes tours and have visited Canada, Sri Lanka and South Africa with the company.
Latif and Evans in San Francisco.
Source: Glyn Evans
Traveling can involve sensory experiences that other travelers typically don’t have. Mr Evans said he and his fellow Travel Eyes travelers were allowed to feed the lions on safari, an experience he said he would never forget.
At Travel Eyes, visually impaired travelers, or “VIPs” as they are known, can touch artifacts ranging from Inca artifacts in Peru to terracotta warriors near Xi’an, China.
But Evans said his favorite part of traveling with Travel Eyes isn’t the activities or discounts, it’s the friendships he develops.
“The best part is when I sit down in the evening and have a drink and chat. I get to meet people I don’t have the chance to meet in everyday life. I feel very happy,” he said. Said.
different levels of detail
Evans said he and Caroline keep in touch with many of the travelers. He once held a seven-course dinner party for 12 of his Travel Eyes friends who had traveled from all over the UK, and Evans and Caroline picked them up from the station and stayed the night.
Evans now has extensive experience in what it takes to guide visually impaired travelers on vacation, whether it’s hiking through nature reserves or sightseeing in big cities. He learned that people want different things from travel.
Visually impaired skiers often ski with a guide or helper and wear vests to alert other skiers to their condition.
Miki Anshin | Archive Photos | Getty Images
“Some people want to know every detail of where we are, and some people don’t care about the details at all,” he says.
Evans said some people like to talk about the latest soccer game.
“When I’m going around churches, I’m going to say to the person, ‘Do you want more information, less information, or do you just want to talk about Arsenal?’
equal relationship
Traveleyes founder Latif said he founded the company after being turned down by traditional travel companies. They told him he could only participate with a caregiver and that he could not participate in activities such as cycling, skiing or hiking, even though he was healthy and independent.
He said the company’s relationship with travelers – sighted and blind – is based on equality.
“We’re all on equal footing. We’re all having a great vacation,” he said. “Sighted people should not be carers. Yes, they guide, they are the eyes and explain things, and they get discounts in return, but they are also on vacation. Sighted Travel It’s very important that people enjoy it, after all, we can’t provide a vacation for blind travelers if they aren’t there.”
Evans helps visually impaired travelers paraglide on a trip to Tunisia organized by TravelEyes.
Source: Glyn Evans
Latif said Travel Eyes guests do not need to have any previous experience working with the visually impaired.
“There are videos on YouTube that I made on how to guide. Our tour managers also train guides,” he said. “But each VIP likes to be guided in a different way. It’s all about communication. It can be a little nerve-wracking at first, but after 30 minutes you forget you’re blind.”
Latif said sighted travelers are expected to describe what they see, but not as caregivers. “Travelers who book a trip can be independent. They can pack their bags, change their clothes, and take responsibility for themselves.”
Latif said traveling with a visually impaired person allows others to see the world differently.
Latif and Evans take a mud bath during a trip to Türkiye.
Source: Amal Latif
“We live in a world where people are always taking pictures and moving on. But when you see something amazing, you have to engage with it by bringing it to life in VIPs. It makes the vacation experience more meaningful and memorable,” he said.
The experience can also give people inspiration for their own lives and future travel, he said.
“Our sighted travelers are also a real inspiration, because VIPs are blind and yet they are on the other side of the world without their friends and family, so they are living their lives. Because you can see it in a different way.”