Holidays for blind or partially sighted people

For a long time, massive cruise ships have served as the go-to answer for blind and visually impaired travellers, promising convenience but also crowding and, if we’re honest, not a huge amount of excitement.

Which is where our accessible adventure holidays come in. What is an accessible adventure holiday? Simply put: an adventure holiday, but with a few extra trimmings. If you’re blind or partially sighted, that shouldn’t be a barrier to snorkelling in the Galapagos Islands, visiting an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, or exploring cacophonous bird colonies in Antarctica. It just means you need a little extra support, which our trips can provide. That could be hotels with braille signage throughout, that could be chaperones, that could be entire itineraries designed with visual impairment in mind.

Our holidays for blind and partially sighted people can also take you surfing in Costa Rica, or kayaking in Vietnam’s stunning Halong Bay, or driving South Africa’s Garden Route. They let you go anywhere, try anything, that a fully sighted person can.

And if cruising is your thing, we’ve got a superb range of adventurous voyages – small ships are often perfectly set up for travellers with accessibility needs. Essentially, if you’re up for the adventure, we’re up for trying to make it happen for you.

We have a growing number of tours for blind and partially sighted people that are accompanied by volunteer chaperones. These are local guides who have been specially trained beforehand to understand and meet the needs of visually impaired travellers. On group trips, there will typically be one chaperone for every two or three travellers, accompanying you all the way from breakfast to dinner, while on tailor made trips you can have someone alongside you as much or as little as needed for up to eight hours a day.

The chaperones are as much guides as companions, and as well as ensuring you have a stress-free trip, they can also help make the experience much more vivid. They’ll be at your side as you tour lemon farms and perfume workshops in Italy, enjoy cookery and dance classes in Ecuador, or hike the Scottish Highlands.

Many of our other holidays, while they can be adapted to travellers with vision issues, do not provide this assistance. So depending on your destination, if you require support then you may need to travel with a partner or friend. It’s also worth bearing in mind that if you have a service animal, you may need to consider leaving it at home, as travelling with an animal adds another layer of cost and complication.