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Glyn Evans has been on 30 trips with the same tour company, but he can still pinpoint a moment that stands out as his favourite.
On a trip to Las Vegas, he was best man for a couple on the same tour who got married on a whim.
However, unlike most weddings, the bride and groom were visually impaired, said Evans, who is based in Lincolnshire, UK.
For 25 years, Evans traveled with a travel company called Traveleyes, which organizes trips for the blind and visually impaired. Tours also include an equal number of travelers who can view. In exchange for discounts — sometimes as high as 40% — travelers like Evans help their companions by describing the details of the trip, from planned activities to helping with food ordering.
“We hired a chapel and I helped the bride choose her wedding dress. It was just a better experience,” Evans said.
From volunteering to travel
Trips to Traveleyes resemble those on any other tourist site. Travelers can go rafting in Costa Rica, go on safari in Eswatini and climb a volcano in Spain. Some trips include activities such as bungee jumping, skydiving, skiing, scuba diving, and pizza making.
For Evans, who has long volunteered with blind people, traveling with them was a natural next step. He met the company’s founder, Omar Latif, during his work in the blind community and called it an obvious decision to join TravelEyes’ first tour as a sighted guest, he said CNBC Travel.
Latif went blind at the age of 18 as a result of a hereditary disease and founded Traveleyes in 2004, he says, when he was 36.
Evans and his partner Caroline now regularly join Traveleyes tours and have been with the company to Canada, Sri Lanka and South Africa, he said.
Lateef and Evan in San Francisco.
Source: Glyn Evans
Sometimes trips are accompanied by sensory experiences that other travelers don’t usually have. Evans said he and his fellow Traveleyes travelers were allowed to feed the lions during the safari, an experience he will never forget.
Travelers with low vision, or “VIPS” as they are called at TravelEyes, can also touch relics from Inca artifacts in Peru to terracotta warriors near Xi’an, China.
But Evans said his favorite part of the Traveleyes trip isn’t the classes or the discounts — it’s the camaraderie.
“The best part is in the evening when we sit and drink and talk. You meet people you would never have the chance to meet in everyday life. It has brought me a lot of happiness,” he said. said.
Different levels of detail
Evans said he and Caroline stay in touch with many travelers. They once hosted a seven-course dinner for 12 of their fellow Traveleyes, who had come from all over the UK. Evans and Caroline picked them up at the train station and they stayed the night, he said.
Evans now has extensive experience in what it takes to guide blind travelers on holiday, whether it’s a nature reserve hike or a day of sightseeing in a big city. He learned that people want different things from their trips.
Skiers with low vision often ski with a guide or helper and wear vests to alert other skiers of their condition.
Mickey Ansin | Photo archive | Getty Images
“Some people want to know every detail about where we are, and other people don’t really care about any details,” he said.
Some prefer to chat about the latest football game, Evans said.
“When we’re going around the church I’ll say to the person, ‘Do you want more information or less information or do you just want to talk about Arsenal?’
Equal relations
Traveleyes founder Latif said he started the company after being rejected by conventional tour operators. They told him he could only join with a caregiver, and even then he wouldn’t be able to participate in activities like biking, skiing or hiking, despite being fit and independent, he said. .
He said the relationship between his company’s travelers — those who can see and those who can’t — is based on equality.
“We are all on equal terms. We all have a great holiday,” he said. “The sighted people don’t have to be the guardians. Yes, they will guide and be the eyes and describe things, and in return they get a discount, but they’re also on holiday. It’s really important that our sighted travelers enjoy it because, at the end of the day, if they are not, we cannot offer holidays to blind travelers.”
Evans helps a visually impaired traveler go paragliding on a trip to Tunisia organized by TravelEyes.
Source: Glyn Evans
Traveleyes guests do not need previous experience working with blind people, Latif said.
“There is video on YouTube, which I did on how to lead tours, and our tour managers also provide tour guide training, he said. – But every VIP likes to be led differently. It’s all about communication. It can be a bit nerve-wracking at first, but after half an hour you forget about the blindness.”
Sighted travelers are expected to describe what they see, but they do not act as guardians, Latif said. “Travelers who book trips can be independent – they’ve packed their bags, they can dress themselves and they can be responsible for themselves.”
Traveling with the blind also allows others to see the world differently, Latif said.
Latif and Evans take a mud bath during a trip to Turkey.
Source: Omar Latif
“We live in a world where people always take pictures and move on. But when you’re in front of something amazing, you have to deal with it by bringing it to life in your VIP, so you actually have more meaningful and vivid memories of your vacation experience,” he said.
The experience can also inspire people in their own lives and future travels, he said.
“Our sighted travelers are also really inspired because they see what VIPs can’t see, but they’re halfway around the world without friends and family, and it makes them see their lives differently.”
