“Being blind won’t stop me from traveling” 

Molly Burke is a content creator who just happens to be blind. She also just happens to be a regular traveler who doesn’t let disability prevent her from exploring the world.  
 
“I get asked all the time why I enjoy traveling if I can’t see. People have this narrow mindset of what tourism is—it’s literally called sightseeing, that’s how we describe tourism—so people are confused why I love to travel so much,” says the 29-year-old Canadian influencer and accessibility advocate, whose YouTube channel has almost 2 million subscribers.  

“Tokyo is my favorite city. It was on my bucket list and I can honestly say it exceeded expectations. It’s the most accessible city I’ve ever been to. I couldn’t read it because it’s Japanese braille, but everything has tactile markings and the sidewalks are wide, straight, clean, and smooth. With Europe, cobblestones, narrow sidewalks, cracks and bumps, twisty winding roads and older buildings are inherently going to be less accessible.” 

“My experience as a blind woman isn’t relatable for most people,” she continues. “Most people will never understand living life as a blind person, but people can understand eating French bread in Paris or shopping from Issey Miyake in Japan. It allows me to be at a dinner table and talk to strangers about things that they can relate to. So even though they don’t relate to my lived experience, we can still share experiences. That’s empowering for me to feel connected to the world—even though there are so many ways in which I am inherently disconnected to the world.”

Molly’s travel tips

Book a hotel with character 

“Because I can’t do as much as other people, I need to recuperate, so I like a boutique hotel. When it’s a generic hotel, every room in every city feels the same, and I’m not having a new experience. My hotel recently in Paris was old and quirky, with textural fabric on the walls, a tiny elevator and long skeleton keys for the rooms, whereas the hotel in Tokyo was neon-lit and super modern with multi-textural patterns and a different vibe, which is now how I remember those places.” 

Be in the moment

“Be open to whatever is meant to come your way. I’m a go-with-the-flow traveler, not somebody who structures my days. As a disabled person, I don’t know how I’m going to feel and sometimes things are draining or overwhelming, or jet lag hits me harder. I don’t want to create this plan and be disappointed when I can’t follow it. I’m focused on meeting people and having interesting conversations, stuff that just happens. If you’re scheduling every moment, you’re not open to experiences that might be the most enriching.” 

Minimize travel stress

“I try my best to avoid red-eye flights because it does not set me up for success when I land. My ideal time to travel is mid-afternoon, and I’m absolutely somebody who gets to the airport 2-3 hours early, even with domestic flights. Why stress yourself out when you’re going on vacation, or even worse, a business trip?” 

Be flexible—and assertive

“In Barcelona, my dog couldn’t work because of a crazy heatwave we weren’t expecting. Always be willing to ask for help. I’ve learned I need to be assertive in telling people how to help me instead of assuming they’ll know. I’ll say, ‘I had X, Y, Z, bad experience, so this is why I’m asking X, Y, Z of you—to make sure that doesn’t happen again.’” 

Do an organized city tour 

“On day one, I take a city bus tour—it’s the most touristy thing to do, but it gives a snapshot overview of the city you’re in. For blind people, they’re so descriptive, and it allows you to think, ‘I really want to go back to that neighborhood we saw on the bus tour.’ You can hone in on what interests you from there.” 

Experience things your own way

“There are ways to do things in a way that feels right and enjoyable for you. I didn’t get to look at Gaudí’s architecture in Barcelona, and there is no way I could have conceptualized it the way I could when I got to actually touch it. It was mind-blowing, so incredibly beautiful. Art galleries can feel hard to enjoy as a blind person, so look for multi-sensory art experiences. A lot of cities now have them—I just went to one in Seattle.”