I don’t know about where you live, but in the midwest lately, it’s felt like autumn in July. And autumn brings with it the start of a new school year, which for seniors can mean many things, including the planning of that all-important final celebration known as the senior class trip.

If you’re checking out our blog, you may be looking into ideas already. Perhaps you’re on the committee or just thinking more about how to leave school with a bang than the fact that you’ve got one more year in it. Either way, we’re stuffed full of ideas for senior class trips around here, and today I want to open your ideas to the possibility of taking your crew on the water. 

Of course, one of the greatest things about a cruise is that it’s not just on the water. The ports are one of the best parts. You’ve probably had a guided tour through a museum – well, consider your cruise a guided tour through the ocean. 

We can help you book student cruises  to Belize, the Bahamas or Jamaica, Cancun and the beautiful island of Cozumel, and of course many, many more. If you’ve got a good-sized group, a cruise can be extremely cost-effective considering all that you’ll receive from it. 

So take a look at student cruises for your graduation trip. It will definitely be the most memorable part of your year.

Most of us like to imagine life in a different city, a different country, and sometimes in a different time altogether. There is something fascinating about the days just before the industrial revolution, before cars were the standard mode of transportation, when some people still refused that new-fangled contraption known as the telephone.

In some parts of the country, you can practically step back in time and experience that so-called simpler life for yourself. Time does stand still in places like Colonial Williamsburg or the Amish communities of the Pennsylvania hills, because the people who live or work there have preserved it for just that purpose. Preservation is a natural instinct for humans. You may do it with love letters, stamp collections, or your old stuffed animals. These people have done it with time. They’ve captured a charming, hard-working era, preserved it, and kept it thriving so that we can step inside its streets and witness life in another time.

You can find these historical communities especially in the east where colonists first settled in the country. Colonial Williamsburg is one of the best known. Thousands of visitors every year are fascinated by this 18th century town where colonists seem to be going about their daily lives – building fences, baking bread. You’ll love the authentic homes and businesses, the costumes, and the vibrant activity from this historic era.

If you want to travel a little further back in time, you’ll love Plimoth Plantation in Massachusets not far from Plymouth Rock itself. This setting brings to life not only a colonial English community from the 1600s but the Wampanoag People who were native to the area when the English arrived. You’ll see what each group experienced in those trying early days of our nation.

If you have very much interest in other eras, you probably know that some communities choose to live the lifestyle of a “simpler time” even today. The Amish community is perhaps the most well-known. Their homes and communities are spread throughout the country, but many of them dot the hillsides of the Pennsylvania countryside and offer daily glimpses into their fascinating lives. 

Our student theme tours offer trips to all of these fantastic eras through the villages and tourist attractions that have preserved them. If you’ve always wanted to experience a different time, this is a thrilling way to do it.

When it comes to themes for student travel, volunteering tops the list these days. We’re all looking for a life-changing experience in which we not only gain appreciation for the earth and our place in it, we also give back in a way that changes us forever. 

Although today’s media notoriously fails to focus on the greatest needs around the world, we do live in the age of connection. With the technology of the internet and the immediacy with which news can travel, we are more aware than ever that we share the planet with endangered animals, underprivileged families, and nations devastated by war, poverty, and genocide.

We know many of you have focused on different areas of need for years now. For you, creating a student tour to a location where you can provide some sort of aid is far more enticing than roller coasters, wax museums, or the beach. We want to help you make these visions a reality.

Perhaps your heart belongs to endangered animals. Our opportunities to volunteer abroad include working with several different species, endangered and otherwise. Or perhaps you want to build homes for those who don’t have them or volunteer in an orphanage. Our volunteer student tours offer trips to the rainforest of Ecuador, a tropical island in Thailand, Costa Rica, Honduras, South Africa and more with a variety of opportunities working with the needs closest to your heart. 

For your next student tour, consider volunteering. The benefits belong to you as well as to those you help. And there are simply too many needs to ignore.