I’m visually impaired but thanks to my guides I loved exploring Austria’s Tirol

Swimming through the cool clear lake, I’m aware of the densely forested mountains behind us, with pale rocky peaks to our right. A cable car snakes up the side of one, and the sky is turning grey, hinting at an Alpine storm. A standup paddleboarder with blond hair who is wearing bright Hawaiian shorts glides past, and the distant shore that we’re heading towards is clustered with cheery red parasols.

I can’t really see much of this. I can see the silhouette of the mountains cradling us, the figure of the paddleboarder but not his twist of blond hair, and the cable car would otherwise be a mystery to me. But as I swim alongside a fellow traveller, Sophia, she describes the scene around us in such detail that it fills in the blanks and paints a rich picture for me as a visually impaired person.

I’m on a trip with Traveleyes, a travel company that organises holidays where visually impaired (VI) and fully sighted people travel together. Each day, a VI person is matched with a sighted guide, who supports with physically guiding, while also describing the scenery. Today is a free day on our week-long trip to Austria, and a few of us have headed to Wildsee, a lake by the town of Seefeld. I’d wanted to swim here since we first walked the lake together as a group on the first day. The cool water is blissful as I swim a width, chatting with my new friend the whole way.

Traveleyes was founded by blind entrepreneur and TV presenter Amar Latif in 2004, “the blind guy who wants to show you the world”. Its trips include UK getaways to areas such as the Lake District, African safaris and European city breaks.

As someone who’s always been visually impaired, I was curious to try a Traveleyes trip. I enjoy going away but rely on others to help me navigate unfamiliar cities or make sense of my surroundings. Joining a standard group holiday as a solo traveller has never felt like an option, worried I’d be left behind or that my white cane would mark me as not belonging.

I was admittedly nervous about going abroad with a group of strangers. Would we get along? Would I cope being in a different country with no one I know? I was greeted warmly by our tour manager for the week, Liz. Within an hour of arriving at the airport, I was talking with two guides and another visually impaired traveller over drinks while we waited for our gate. Sipping my cappuccino, I felt myself relax.

Our group of 10 VIs and 11 sighted guides, alongside Liz and our local guide Dorothea, is staying in Austria’s Tirol region with its mountains and meadows, with a couple of excursions across the border to Germany. Everything had been planned out, with a full itinerary of activities from a cable car to the top of Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, to walking the steel walkways high above the turquoise waters rushing below at the Leutasch Spirit Gorge.

Some Traveleyes trips take in multiple hotels, but we have the same base for the week, the elegant Hotel Kristall in Leutasch. When there was free time, some of us would gather in the hotel’s infinity pool, gently swimming in the warm water surrounded by views of the valley. We enjoyed leisurely breakfasts and dinner together at tables reserved for us in the hotel restaurant, the conversation flowing as we ate spinach dumplings and rich local cheeses.

Over the week, I heard the stories of what brought each person here. One fellow VI traveller told me how “I wouldn’t be able to experience the world if it wasn’t for these trips”, having been on several and planning to book more.

There is a clear benefit to being able to travel this way if you’re blind or partially sighted. But what about the sighted guides? Some see it as a safe way of travelling in a group, especially if you’re on your own. “I want to help people and travel,” said a veteran guide over sandwiches in a cafe in Seefeld. Sighted guides pay less for a trip, to account for the guiding they will be doing each day, though it’s stressed that they are guides, not carers, and that it’s a holiday for them, too. Many of the guides and VIs here have been on multiple trips – “It’s like a family,” says Glyn, another longtime guide. I find out that it’s common for trips to be a welcoming mix of old and new faces.

We were matched with a new guide each day, meaning you get to know everyone in the group. Ambling through Innsbruck, I regularly ask my guide for the day, Jackson, to describe our surroundings. Our local guide, Dorothea, leads our group through the Old Town to the famous Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), completed in 1500. The street leading up to it is shouldered in buildings and heavy with crowds, and I can hear brass instruments somewhere above. Squinting, I see the colour of the roof, but Jackson fills in the scene: the eight musicians wearing medieval dress on the balcony, the thousands of brilliant bronze tiles on the roof above them, catching the sun, the ornate carvings and colourful frescoes. It helps me make sense of what I can see and hear.

There’s a practical side, too, as we weave through the crowds, arms linked. He weaves pieces of information into the conversation naturally: “There’s a step here” and “We’re coming up to a crossing”, he says. I am overwhelmed in busy, unfamiliar places such as this, and though I have my white cane out, it’s reassuring to be guided.

It’s an active trip – being in a group for a week takes energy. There’s a level of independence required, especially if travelling solo, and a willingness to get involved. There were moments when I needed a bit of time to myself, sitting on my balcony with a coffee when time allowed. The holidays are priced on the higher side, which understandably would put some off. But knowing that everything is included and the attention to detail helps justify the price tag.

I found myself reflecting more on how I experience the world during the trip. I notice other sensory details: the wafts of pine as we hiked through a forest and the soft pine needles bouncing beneath my trainers, the sweet, syrupy smell of the pink flowers tumbling from baskets nearly everywhere we went. Riding the steam-powered cogwheel train to Achensee (Lake Achen) one morning, the train paused at a village station, and the sound of a choir rehearsing in a nearby church echoed around the valley. A hush descended on the carriage as the haunting chorus reverberated.

The trip has given me a taste of adventure. There is also something in being able to be myself – I didn’t have to try to mask my visual impairment. It’s a given that I’m going to ask for someone to describe the view from the chairlift that lifts us high into the hills or read out a menu in a cafe.

It’s not just the places we visit, it’s the connection between us all: long conversations while out and about, or staying up in the hotel bar laughing and chatting. I leave Austria having experienced things that would have felt difficult otherwise, and with a new sense of belonging – and a desire to explore more of the world.

Trip provided by Traveleyes. Prices start at £745 for a visually impaired person, and £545 for a sighted guide for a trip to Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) in late October