Glyn Evans has been on 30 trips with the same travel company, but he can still pinpoint a moment that stands out as his favourite.
During a trip to Las Vegas, he served as best man to 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 lives in Lincolnshire, UK
For 25 years, Evans has been traveling with Traveleyes, a tour company that organizes trips for the blind and partially sighted. The tours also include an equal number of passengers who can see. In exchange for discounts — sometimes up to 40% — travelers like Evans help fellow travelers by describing trip details, from planned activities to helping them order food.
– We hired a chapel, and I helped the bride choose her wedding dress. “It was just the best experience,” Evans said.
From volunteering to travel
Travel further traveling eyes similar to those on any other travel website. Travelers can go white water rafting in Costa Rica, safari in Eswatini and hike to a volcano in Spain. Some trips include activities like bungee jumping, skydiving, skiing, snorkeling 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, Amar Latif, through his work in the blind community and called it an obvious decision to join TravelEyes’ first tour as a sighted guest, he told CNBC Travel.
Latif went blind at the age of 18 as a result of a hereditary disease and founded Traveleyes in 2004, he said, when he was 36.
Evans and his partner, Caroline, now regularly join Traveleyes tours and have been to Canada, Sri Lanka and South Africa with the company, he said.
Latif and Evan, in San Francisco.
Source: Glyn Evans
Sometimes travel comes with sensory experiences that other travelers don’t normally have. Evans said he and his fellow Traveleyes travelers were allowed to feed the lions on safari, an experience he said he will never forget.
Visually impaired travelers, or “VIPS” as TravelEyes calls them, can also touch relics from Inca artifacts in Peru to the Terracotta Warriors near Xi’an, China.
But Evans said his favorite part of traveling with Traveleyes isn’t the activities or the discount — it’s the friendships he’s made.
“The best part is in the evening, when we sit drinking and chatting. You meet people you would never have the chance to meet in everyday life. It gave me a lot of happiness,” he said. he said.
Different levels of detail
Evans said he and Caroline are in contact with many fellow travelers. They once hosted a seven-course dinner for 12 of their Traveleyes friends who had traveled from all over the UK. Evans and Caroline picked them up from the train station and stayed the night, he said.
Evans now has a lot of experience in what it takes to guide a stowaway on a holiday, whether it’s a hike through nature reserves or a day out in the big city. He learned that people want different things from their travels.
Skiers with low vision often ski with a guide or helper and wear vests to warn other skiers of their condition.
Mikki Ansin | Archive photos | Getty Images
“Some people want to know every detail about where we are, and other people just don’t care about any details,” he said.
Some prefer to talk about the last football game, Evans said.
“If we’re going around the church, I’ll say to the person: ‘Do you want more or less information – or do you just want to talk about Arsenal?'”
An equal relationship
Traveleyes founder Latif said he started the company after being rejected by conventional tour operators. He was told he could only join with a carer, and even then he wouldn’t be able to take part in activities like cycling, skiing or hiking, despite being fit and independent, he said.
He said the relationship between his company’s passengers – those who can see and those who can’t – is based on equality.
“We’re all on an equal footing. We’re all having a great vacation,” he said. “Sighted people must not be carers. Yes, they will guide and be the eyes and describe things, and in return they get a discount, but they are also on vacation. It is very important that our sighted travelers enjoy themselves, because ultimately, if they are not there , then we cannot offer rest to stowaways.”
Evans helps a visually impaired traveler fly a paraglider on a trip to Tunisia organized by TravelEyes.
Source: Glyn Evans
Traveleyes guests do not need prior experience with blind people, Latif said.
“There is video I’ve done on YouTube how to guide, and our tour guides also do guide training,” he said. “But every VIP likes to be guided in a different way. It’s all about communication. It can be a little nerve-wracking at first, but within half an hour you forget about the blindness.”
Passengers who see are expected to describe what they see, but they do not function as caregivers, Latif said. “Travellers who book trips can be independent – they’ve packed their bags, they can dress themselves and they can be responsible for themselves.”
Traveling with blind people also allows others to see the world in a different way, Latif said.
Latif and Evans take a mud bath during a trip to Turkey.
Source: Amar Latif
“We live in a world where people always take pictures and move on. But when you find yourself in front of something amazing, you have to engage with it, bringing it to life on your VIP, so you actually end up with more meaningful and vivid memories of your vacation experiences.” , he said.
The experience can also inspire people in their lives and future travels, he said.
“Our sighted travelers also get really inspired because they see that VIPs can’t see, but they’re on the other side of the world without their friends and family, and it makes them see their life in a different way.”
