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Educational Tours: Working with Student Travel Companies

By revtjb | June 28, 2008

Travelling with students can be a very rewarding experience. As a teacher of 15 years in both Missouri and Indiana, I can personally attest to the fact that students learn best when the see, feel, hear, or experience what is being taught. Since this is not usually possible on a daily basis, it is really important that students be able to travel at least a few times per year so that they can better be able to learn through hands-on experiences.

When I started taking students on Educational Tours, I  found that their excitement for learning and their retention of what was being taught went up by large percentage points. As I stated earlier, since this is not possible to do on a daily basis, it is very important to set up some trips for students at least once per year.

Doing this can be an intimidating experience, that is why most teachers work with a company like Adventure Student Travel for their student tours. If you are going to  work with a student tour company, make sure that they provide the following services that will make your life much easier. They should always provide transportation, lodging, set up meals, provide a tour guide, offer affordable insurance solutions, and customize the itinerary for your group to include the sites & attractions you need most. And, most importantly, since you are hiring a company to create your student trip, they should do ALL of the work.

Nothing is more aggrivating that to pay tons of money to a company and then find out that you have to do many of the arrangements yourself. Nowhere is this more  evident than for Washington DC educational tours, where almost every company is happy to collect thousands of dollars only to make the teacher do much of the work.

If you do choose to use a student travel company, make sure they have  the proper certification. A  true certified comapny will belong to several organizations like SYTA (for Student and Youth Travel), ABA (for bus trips), CLIA (for cruises),  and a host of others. Also, be sure to check out the Better Business Bureau report on any company you are considering.

Finally, if you feel like a company is treating you like just another number, avoid them. You will want to work with a company that has real, down-to-earth people working for them. And, it is helpful if you know that they are really hearing what you are saying. If they do most of the talking, you can guess that your needs are going to be secondary. If they let you talk the most, you may have a winner!

 

 

Tags: Adventure Student Travel | Adventure Student Travel | educational tours | educational tours | student travel | student tours | student tours | Washington DC | Washington DC

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