Cycling trips aren’t off limits to the visually impaired, says keen traveller Jennifer Mazerolle following her small-group adventure with Intrepid.
The first 24 hours in a foreign city can be overwhelming for any traveller. There are new sights, smells, food, public transport systems and etiquette to negotiate for starters. But for Jennifer Mazerolle from Nova Scotia, Canada, arriving in Vienna to start Intrepid’s eight-day Cycle the Danube trip was especially overwhelming – because Jennifer is legally blind.
‘Vienna is an old city so there are lots of small streets and non-standard curb heights, as well as trams passing, bicycle lanes and cars,’ she recalls. ‘My first day there I said jokingly to my husband and friend: “Oh my god, this is how I’m going to die – I’m going to get run over by something!”’.
‘But my trip leader Gabor was amazing. I expressed my concerns to him about riding from the hotel to the trail head with all the city’s traffic each day. Gabor asked if I would feel more comfortable not riding through the city but instead taking the support van to the beginning of the trail and riding from there with the group. I thought this was a great idea. He planned my drop offs each day with Ivan, our van driver. I was so impressed with their willingness to listen and work with me to make a plan. I knew right away that I was going to have an incredible time – and I did.’
Not just possible, but enjoyable
Jennifer has Stargardt disease: a genetic condition which causes progressive central vision loss. She was diagnosed when she was nine years old. ‘I am considered legally blind. However, legal blindness does not mean you have no remaining useable vision. I can still see lights, shapes, colours and people. I just miss a lot of the details. For example, if a person walks through a door across the room, I can probably tell it’s a person, but not who it is or whether they’re smiling or not.’
Although she has travelled all over the world, Jennifer admits that people can be surprised when she tells them she is legally blind or shows up for a group trip with her white cane – especially a bike tour. ‘It’s kind of funny,’ she says. ‘You can see them thinking “How is this going to work?”’.
But, in fact, this trip was the result of many months of conversations with the Intrepid team behind the scenes to make sure the adventure would be ‘not just possible, but enjoyable’ for Jennifer and her two travel companions: her husband, Gilles, and her friend, Fairleigh.
This particular trip, which starts in Vienna and ends in Budapest, was actually Fairleigh’s choice, and she sent it to Jennifer and Gilles in 2025. As well as exploring the cities – from the Austria capital’s landmarks and restaurants to Hungary’s famous ruin bars – Jennifer says: ‘we’d wanted to do a bike tour because we love cycling and anything outdoors and being in nature. I called Intrepid and explained that I was interested in joining, and that I am visually impaired, but I ride a bike at home. They were very open to it and fantastic at working with me to figure it out.’
Jennifer and Gilles had already developed a system to allow her to cycle safely at home in Canada. ‘We have an intercom system with an earpiece and a microphone which we connect to our bike helmets which allows us to talk to each other while we’re riding,’ she explains.
‘So Gilles will ride ahead of me, and he’ll tell me “Hey there’s a bump up ahead” or “There’s someone walking the trail on the left so stay behind me”.’ It takes a lot of stress out of cycling for me, because it can be a lot of work to make sure I’m seeing everything, so having that extra backup and information is really helpful.’
For her Intrepid trip, Jennifer rode an e-bike and was fully briefed by her leader before each day’s ride on all the different surfaces, distances and potential hazards. ‘Gabor and Ivan checked in with me all the time to make sure I felt comfortable. And because I had Gilles and Fairleigh with me, they could tell me about things I might not have seen, and then we’d go up closer and check them out and take a bit more time. There’s a risk when I’m joining a group that I could feel rushed along but it never felt like that with Intrepid.’
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Window of opportunity
Jennifer, who works as a mentor for children and youth who are blind or visually impaired, says it’s important to her to visit countries where people with disabilities might not be out doing the things she’s doing. ‘I hope I can leave a little piece of information behind me and help people learn,’ she says. ‘I would love it if, because of me, people didn’t assume that people with disabilities can’t be out and experiencing the world.’
Over the years, she has travelled to the US, Thailand, Costa Rica and China – the latter on her own, only meeting up with Fairleigh when she arrived in the country. But she says there have been many funny ‘blind girl’ moments over the years. While on a trip to Puerto Rico in February with two friends, who are also legally blind, she accidentally attempted to walk into a coffee shop through the window because she thought it was the door.
The window and door openings of the coffee shop were exactly the same size and shape. Once we realised it was the window, we all had a good laugh about it and what the staff must have been thinking when they saw three girls with white canes trying to get into the shop through the window’.
There have also been plenty of challenging times. ‘I was hiking in Thailand, and we had to do a river crossing where we had to side step across a log, only holding on to a tiny branch,’ she recalls. ‘I couldn’t have Fairleigh beside me giving me verbal instructions on things I might not see because there was only one person allowed on the log at a time. But stepping out of your comfort zone is part of travel and part of life.
Fairleigh described the crossing and how to do it for me and I successfully crossed on my own. You often realise you’re capable of far more than you originally thought.’
Sweet escape
Jennifer says her best moment on the Cycle the Danube trip came in the first few days. ‘We were cycling from Vienna to Bratislava and the scenery was just beautiful,’ she says. ‘A lot of the trail was out in the open, in beautiful fields and woodland areas, the weather was perfect. It just felt so good to be out in nature and being physically active – the two things that I know are best for my mental health. I just remember thinking “I’m so relaxed and I’m having such a good time. I’m so lucky to be doing this with such a great bunch of people.”’
Her group of 11 hailed from Canada, the UK and Australia, and they are still in touch via WhatsApp. ‘Everyone just had such a wonderful attitude,’ she says. ‘There was no judgment or pressure. We were all there to have fun. Gabor really made it clear to everyone that if you’re tired or you want to slow down or take a break, it’s no problem.’
Away from the trail, Jennifer says that one of her favourite stops was the Vollpension Cafe in Vienna. ‘It’s this sweet little coffee shop where all the people working there are senior citizens,’ she says. ‘It’s a great project because it gets older people involved in the community and provides them with an extra income. I love that Intrepid organises visits to truly local places like that, because a lot of travellers might not know about them.’
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Taking the chance
Jennifer is already planning her next trip. In February, she is taking a cruise with her husband and sons, and she is also looking into booking another Intrepid adventure. ‘I want it to be something active – maybe cycling again or kayaking,’ she says.
Her advice to anyone who wants to take a group trip but is worried about whether it’s right for them, for whatever reason, is to look closely at the itinerary and then contact the company directly. ‘Think about what you can do to put things in place to make it doable for you and what you’re already doing in your everyday life. This will really help the company and leaders understand your needs better,’ she says. ‘You can have the conversations if you reach out to people before booking in good time.’
Jennifer credits her parents for encouraging her love of travel and a can-do attitude. ‘They always said “What do you want to do? Downhill skiing? Riding a bike? Ok, let’s go! Yes, you have a visual impairment but let’s find a way to make this possible.”’
Although many will find her story inspirational, Jennifer says she doesn’t love that word. ‘It’s funny, when I went on a trip with my two legally blind friends, all day long people were coming up to us and telling us how inspiring we were,’ she says. ‘We were kind of laughing about it, like “Here we go again, inspiring people by doing normal daily tasks, just doing them with a visual impairment.” We don’t see ourselves as inspiring. In fact, the people coming up to us were much older people in their 80s and 90s, so we actually found them inspiring as we all hope to be travelling at their age. I don’t think I’m inspirational, I think I’m just someone who is good at getting out there and trying new things and living life’.
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