Professional learning
Traveling Abroad with Students? The Benefits of Longer Tours
Scott H. | June 28, 2012
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When it comes to planning student travel, Group Leaders have many things to take into consideration. After choosing a travel company, such as the industry leader EF Educational Tours, the most obvious of these considerations is the destination. Will it be a domestic or international student tour? Which country or countries will be visited? Other factors to consider include price, quality and quantity of activities while on tour, as well as accommodations available. Group Leaders must choose which time of year would be best for their trip, how many students they would like to recruit, and how many chaperones are necessary. All of these factors surely play a role in determining the overall quality and success of a trip. One factor, however, that I feel is just as critical as the destination is the length of the trip itself.
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Whenever I begin browsing thru the EF Tours catalog or website to choose my next tour, I first select a destination. I then immediately look at the tour length, which indicates the number of days and nights of each tour. My personal feeling is that the longer the tour, the better. Let’s look at a few reasons why:
The longest trip I’ve ever taken as a Group Leader was 14 nights and 15 days. It was an amazing tour of Mexico that started in the central valley and continued all the way to Cancun. Even at the end I was bummed to have to head for home. Several tours, however, are more likely to be more in the 9 nights and 10 days range. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, but as I’ve mentioned previously, there are many advantages to a longer trip. So what should you do if you love the destination but the trip simply isn’t long enough? This has happened to me a few times in the past. Here are a few options:
As they often say in sports, “Go big or go home!” That can’t be any truer in my travel experiences.
Scott Hemker is a high school Spanish teacher and basketball coach. He began traveling with EF Tours in 2001 and has led 8 student tours to various Spanish-speaking countries. Scott strongly believes that student travel builds self-confidence and inspires students to develop and work towards long-term goals.
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Scott H.
Scott H. is the Dean of Students and former high school Spanish teacher. He began traveling with EF Tours in 2001 and has led dozens of student tours to various Spanish-speaking countries. Scott strongly believes that student travel builds self-confidence and inspires students to develop and work towards long-term goals.
