DiversiGO is a city tour company offering tours for everyone, particularly for people with disabilities. Last time I was in Budapest, I scheduled a tour with them.

Originally I met the owners, Emese and Martin almost a year ago, when they were setting up the company. A good friend recommended them to me. When we first spoke, I immediately fell in love with the idea. They are starting out with different walking tours in Budapest, but they are also in the process of expanding. They make tours enjoyable based on people’s needs. They have tours for visually impaired people where they explain what one can see and have many opportunities to touch things. They also have tours which are fully wheelchair accessible. But most importantly, they work with you to make sure that they meet your needs on the tour they offer.

I called a friend of mine who is also blind, to test the service. We attended the Budapest Parliament and area tour. We met at 9 in the morning outside of the metro station with our two guides, Anna and Levente. Given our shared mother tongue, we requested the tour in Hungarian, but the same tour would also be available in English and Spanish.

The tour is approximately one and a half hour long, but our guides were definitely generous with their time. From the metro station, we walked towards the Parliament, while our guides explained not only the artistic, cultural and historical importance of the sites, but also put great emphasis on what one could see. At the very beginning there wasn’t too much to touch, but later they showed us a model of the parliament.

Being involved in 3D buildings, it was of particular interest to me. Of course, the model we had to touch is not owned by DiversiGO, it is probably maintained by the Hungarian Parliament or the City of Budapest. The model was wonderful, it was a large table size, a detailed Parliament building, and also the surrounding area. The surrounding area wasn’t all that interesting, because aside from one statue, most things were just indicated by different shaped bronze pieces but one could not tell what those were, statues or trees, etc. However, there were some 20 braille numbers scattered around the table, and a legend on the left side explained what’s what. The idea would be good by default, however, the area was so big that once I found a number, I had to go to the legend, figure out what it was, then go back and continue the exploration. So, all-in-all, the Parliament model was wonderful, the concept was great for the rest, but in reality it wasn’t easy to navigate.

Then we continued to the statue of Attila Jozsef, who is one of the most famous Hungarian poets. The statue depicts Attila Jozsef sitting on a step by the Danube, which is a picture from one of his poems that Hungarian kids learn about, so once you know the background it is really interesting.

Next we walked through the Liberty Square, where the United States Embassy is located. In front of it there is a statue of George Bush, which was a bit tall, but we were able to touch most parts of it.

The trip concluded at the St. Stephen’s Basilica.

I have to say the trip is quite dense, and if you are really interested in everything you pass by, the 1.5 hours is probably a bit short, though the guides did a wonderful job offering a mix of cultural and historical aspects while making the tour truly tactile and descriptive.

We really enjoyed the time, and I would highly recommend DiversiGO to anybody who wants to learn more about Budapest.