SPECIALIST TRAVEL
Ten of the best accessible holidays
From cruising the Norwegian fjords to skiing in France, the world of accessible travel is changing fast, thanks to a number of intrepid pioneers
Sean Newsom
Sunday January 12 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Skiing lessons in Val Thorens
THIBAUT LOUBERE
Sean Newsom
Sunday January 12 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Robbie Crow knows exactly how transformative accessible travel can be. The 28-year-old charity worker was born with two rare conditions, microphthalmia and coloboma, and has been registered as blind since birth. But that didn’t stop him boarding a yacht when he was 14, courtesy of Ocean Youth Trust Scotland, and learning how to sail.
“I’d been told from an early age that my life would be constrained — that I’d never drive and never go mountain-biking,” he recalls. “But on that boat I realised sailing is not so much about seeing. It’s about feeling: what the wind is doing, how the ship is moving, the state of the waves. And I realised I could be as good at it — if not better — than a sighted person.”
Now, aged 28, he’s a regular on board the purpose-built tall ships of the Jubilee Sailing Trust, Tenacious [...]