If you’re going to lead your students on an educational trip overseas, make sure the itinerary includes experiences worth leaving the country for! 

Educational travel is the ultimate learning experience. You and your students leave the confines of a classroom to see and do firsthand the things you’ve been talking about for months. Of course this will include visits to famous monuments and guided tours of world-class museums. But make sure that the tour company you choose holds near and dear to their hearts those experiences that make all the difference between a vacation and an educational tour.

When we ask teachers which parts of the itinerary were the most memorable for their students, the answers almost always have to do with those “extras”: the practical, hands-on activities; the school visits and family stays; the everyday experiences that made them feel briefly like natives of their destination; the activities that made them live what was previously just a lesson in a book.

Below, we outline some of those on-tour activities that make a student trip abroad not only worth it, but unforgettable. Click on the name of each destination to see some sample itineraries and read more about the authentic experiences that make traveling with Prométour unique.

10 Educational Experiences Worth Traveling Across an Ocean

1. Practicing your French around the dinner table with your host family while you taste a homemade galette des rois. Maybe you’ll find the santon in your piece! [This Experience takes place in France]

2. Analyzing the strategy of Christian forces overtaking the Moors’ Castelo Dos Mouros from a bird’s eye view during a canopy tour through the Sintra forest. [This Experience takes place in Portugal]

3. Heading off to college with some cooking skills—specifically the ability to create authentic tapas and whip up a spicy paella—and having the stories to go along with them. [This Experience takes place in Spain]

4. Working the third shift by hiking through the rainforest and identifying nocturnal wildlife. [This Experience takes place in Costa Rica]

5. Traveling through time as you leave the subway station and run smack into the Colosseum, grab some gelato and then marvel at the ancient Temple of Divus Julius. Et tu, Brute? [This Experience takes place in Italy]

6. Reciting your favorite Shakespearian verses inside the reconstructed Globe Theatre. [This Experience takes place in Great Britain]

7. Philosophizing over the characteristics of a great leader or the meaning of spiritualism while making your way through the ruins of Delphi, once considered the center of the world. [This Experience takes place in  Greece]

8. Fine-tuning your bargaining skills over alpaca wool blankets and sweaters at a busy market in Pisac. [This Experience takes place in Peru]

9. Biking your way through Munich’s history, from the Residenz to the BMW headquarters. [This Experience takes place in Germany]

10. Getting to know Chinese students your own age when you attend an afternoon of classes at their school.  [This Experience takes place in China]

Yes, these are all possible with educational student travel! The experiences that your students remember are the ones that will inspire them and encourage them to go further, to ask questions and to seek answers. When they feel that they have been given a glimpse of something special, that they know more, they will believe that they can do more.