It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since my first trip to Washington DC and New York City. I still remember how we toured until our feet hurt. I can still feel what it was like to see the amazing sights I’d only written about, how I cried at the inspiring historical landmarks, at the beauty of D.C., and the dream come true of seeing New York City for myself.

It truly changed my life to visit these beautiful American cities, in part because everything I’d been told and everything I had imagined about their life-changing ability for student tours, proved true. I look at the pictures and still feel so excited that I’ve been there. I wake up grateful pretty much every day that I didn’t miss my chance. I see New York in photos and on film and I think, or say, so proudly, I have been there. And then, there are the souvenirs, my tangible proof. And I love them all, but I have a special affinity for one that’s kind of strange – my metro pass.

It’s a souvenir for many reasons. First, because it’s not something I could have picked up in a gift shop just anywhere. No I-Love-NY stand in a mall is going to have a tired, used metro pass for sale. Second, it’s something I had to have in order to navigate the City. And outside of my personal love for the little piece of cardboard, the metro pass reminds me of a tip I strongly support for New York City group travel: Public Transportation Rocks.

We send student groups to several cities. And for some we recommend a motor coach. Students can ride together on a bus to the destination and stick with that transportation from one attraction to the next. It also makes a big difference if groups stay at a hotel a little outside the city. The attractions are sometimes a good distance from each other, depending on the type of student tour you choose, and it helps to have transportation between them to keep the group together. Sometimes we even schedule a driver guide. That way students learn a ton about the destination and its landmarks besides those they get to tour inside.

So, yea, a motor coach has its place – it’s destinations, rather. But after about five minutes in New York City, I became convinced motor coach is not the way to go there. In that time, our bus sat trapped between double-parked vehicles on either side and a kind passerby had to wave us through one half-inch forward and one inch back at a time. I smiled – because I was in New York City, after all – and then I put my hand on the pocket of my purse that contained the metro pass I would fortunately be using from there on out. That more suitable NYC transportation proved itself moments later when we walked one block to a subway station, made it onto the train and then to our destination with zero hassle and grateful hearts for the wonderful inventors of the New York City subway.

But it’s not just my one-time experience I bring you. Our expert guides agreed that metro is the right choice for groups, no matter how large or small. As the seven of us and our guide squished onto a crowded subway car one afternoon, I wasn’t so sure about the merit of the metro for very large groups. But our guide disagreed. As long as you organize, have enough chaperons, and communicate clearly about each stop, groups can navigate the subway system just as easily as an individual.

So there you have it, a New York travel tip based on one of my favorite, and most used, New York City souvenirs. If you’re ever headed that way, definitely grab yourself an any-time metro pass, learn the trick of not pulling the wrong side of the entry gate, and take full advantage of this delightfully cost-effective mode of transportation in the amazing city of New York.

I haven’t yet written much about our trip to New York City in June. It was such an exciting trip, stuffed full with the attractions we often include in New York City educational travel. And somehow I’ve wanted to draw out the thrill of sharing it on the blog. Whenever I write about New York City now, I can do it from experience, and that’s such a wonderful feeling.

Before I went, I had to learn as much as I could from other people’s experiences or from locals willing to share their tips online. This led me to some great advice on how to approach a first-time trip there. We had an expert guide for most of our tour, so I wasn’t too concerned about navigating the metro or knowing the names of the attractions I passed and how to get to the next one. And frankly, some of the tips I was a bit powerless to implement since they involved not looking like a tourist. We traveled, after all, with the specific purpose of researching the many NYC attractions use for group travel and we did it in a group with a guide-slash-narrator. Sticking out was an inevitable part of our experience.

Still, they were some great tips, and I thought I’d reproduce them for you here based on my experience with whether or not they held true. These tips could get you through your own first New York City tour without annoying even one authentic New Yorker!

1. Don’t Be Obvious – If you want to annoy a New Yorker, be as obvious as a tourist as you possibly can. Wear a tropical shirt, sling a camera around your neck, gaze and point, look up a lot and drop your jaw…you get the idea. I have to admit, though, I stood in front of a web cam on Times Square and waved to my family, and I swear no one even noticed. It was easier than I thought in New York City, to blend. And all this leads me to the next point.

Don’t Get in the Way. I knew this in theory before, and now I know it for sure. In New York City, people are constantly on the move, and they’re on the move in a crowd. If you stand still in the midst of them, they get annoyed. Even if you don’t mind standing out as a tourist, try not to stand out as inconsiderate. When you see a photo op you just have to grab, step outside the moving stream of people rushing to or from their deadlines and appointments. Remember, though you are on vacation, these people are busy living their everyday.

Do Consider Attractions Off-the-Beaten-Path. This might be a hard one if it’s your first trip and you think it might be your last. In that case, you’re going to want to hit the biggies – Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and the Met (for starters). These were certainly the attractions that made our itinerary. But if you can, consider some quiet corners of Central Park, the High Line Park (made on an abandoned, elevated railway), the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or other out-of-the-way spots where you can truly experience the City and what makes it great.

I accomplished this on my last morning with a stroll to Riverside Park and the location for a favorite (and the final) scene from You’ve Got Mail. It was one of my favorite New York City experiences.

Wear Comfortable Shoes – If you’re like me, you hesitate stepping foot on these streets at all for fear you’ll be immediately judged for your fashion sense or lack thereof. Instead of trying to imitate Carrie Bradshaw, think comfort. No one will notice if you wear jeans, a black or solid t-shirt and walking shoes. They will definitely notice if you’re hobbling around, blistered, in high heels from attraction to attraction. I compromised between heels and tennis shoes by purchasing some pretty and comfortable flats. It worked perfectly.

But Don’t Be Afraid to Rock the Heels for Evening – One night I carried heels in my bag and changed into them after supper and before the Broadway Show. IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM.

Over-the-Shoulder It. Similarly to the shoes thing, online tips strongly advice you don’t try to haul a giant bag around or anything that can’t be strapped around your neck and over your chest. And I tried to follow this advice. I really did try. I looked for a new bag, a lighter-weight one. In the end, though, I settled on my own bag – the one I’d been carrying for a little over a year. And you know what? It’s giant and it couldn’t be strapped around my neck and over my chest. And I totally didn’t care. I think the spirit of this tip is: Take the bag you’re comfortable with.

Chill. One thing I determined before I went and that was to take in every moment of the experience without stressing too much over what I did or didn’t see. I knew that was always the death of happiness in group travel tours. And I can honestly say, it happened. Don’t wear yourself completely out, or you won’t really enjoy being there. Take in what you can, and really take it in. Spend as long as you need to at each amazing attraction. Make sure you eat and stay hydrated. And be there. Sometimes I accomplished this best with a camera and sometimes just by breathing in.

And that’s some New York travel advice that should be a good start to a first time tour of your own.

Food is my favorite part of traveling. I look forward to eating out, not having to cook, and savoring dishes I haven’t thought of before. I live in a small town and can’t wait to eat at any number of places I can’t go to at home.

This is a picture of my favorite restaurant experience on this year’s New York City tour, and the fact that it’s my favorite suggests a couple tips I thought I’d pass on to you for your next group or educational travel.

Don’t Always Choose Commercial

Places like Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood are always popular for student travel tours. We recommend them, and we use them a lot. I’ve been to both myself. Hard Rock is loud and energetic – it does celebrate Rock & Roll after all. Each restaurant is like a pop culture museum that comes with the price of a meal, and the menu is all-American and all your favorites. I found Planet Hollywood more spacious but also packed with memorabilia. This museum celebrates film, and you’re sure to sit beneath costumes or props from classics you love. You can even put your hand in the handprints of your favorite celebrities. These restaurants are places to enjoy all kinds of things you love.

And besides these, you can always stick with the chains you know so well, your favorite fast food or breakfast faves like Dennys. We promise we won’t judge. Although, we might have a better idea. And, more importantly (if you’re planning a trip on your own), the locals probably do. After all, if you’re like me, when you travel you don’t want to eat just any old place you could visit at home.

Think Atmosphere and Hospitality

Playwright Irish Pub III was one of my favorite meals for a couple of reasons outside of the food. Though the food was delicious. At least, I think the atmosphere was more conducive to actually noticing the food. I felt like I was sitting in a family environment, enjoying the best that household had to offer. It helped that we met the owner and spent some time with him on his outdoor rooftop terrace, hearing his story, the differences between our country and his home in Ireland. Though quite obviously a New York City favorite, and offering more than one location in the city, Playwright felt local. It didn’t have a hint of those things that make critics cry “tourist trap.”

I felt similarly about our experience at Stage Door Delicatessen in the financial district. No experience, eating or otherwise, felt more truly New York than our lunch there. Here too we received our food – sandwiches and sides – over-the-counter from the owners themselves. It was such a family atmosphere, yet it was the most streamlined, and group-friendly, family restaurant I’d ever seen. They moved us through that line fast. It’s an excellent choice for group travel tours, partly because of that, and partly because it’s alive with the atmosphere visitors expect from their New York City tour.

So the next time you head to one of the major cities to which we customize  tours, take a chance and ask us if we’ve heard of anything new, anything local, any dining experience that will turn into one of your favorite, most authentic experiences in the city. We promise to do our best, because we know how it feels when restaurant magic hits.

One of the first things I learned after joining a travel company and searching out ideas to blog about, and tips to share on facebook, was this: Slow down.

I’m obsessed with the concept actually, because I think it’s the best way to actually take in our surroundings, our life even. The other day I drove by a photographer not three blocks from my house. And she was snapping an old white building. If I’d seen only the photograph, I’m not sure I could have told you the building sat so near my house. Almost every week I drive by it, but I’d never really seen it. It’s just one of the many moments in life when I realized I wanted to slow down.

Another came in the days preceding and during my first-time trip to New York City. You see, I’ve written about many attractions there, the ones we commonly use for New York City educational tours, and I’d seen the attractions over and over in film as well. I couldn’t wait to be there myself. And I was determined to stop long enough, and breathe slowly enough, that I could truly take them in. Still, if the seize-the-day argument doesn’t convince you to slow down, maybe these tips will do it.

The slower you travel, the more money you save. (This tip courtesy of the Traveler’s Notebook). Just think how much cheaper it would be to walk or ride a bike on your tour than to pay for buses, trains, and cabs. Like most last-minute decisions, the faster we need to get somewhere, the more we end up paying.

Slowing down leads to better familiarity. Another benefit of slower travel is that you have a better chance at understanding the culture in which you are a visitor. Too often we visit a city only to race from one popular sight to the next, completely missing the little wonders hidden between the time slots on our itinerary. Walk on the sidewalk once in a while. Take a ferry or ride the city bus. Take the time to actually meet the locals and better understand how they live day to day and what they consider important and worth your time.

Plus, consider the attractions themselves. Museums, famous skyscrapers, beautiful parks and beaches – how much more can we appreciate them if we slow down? There is usually far more to see than we actually notice. My travel wish is more than a map with countless colored pins declaring where I’ve been. I’d rather have fewer pins but through pictures, stories and understanding, truly be able to say, “I’ve been there.”

Consider this when you’re planning educational student tours and other educational travel, including that which is only personally educational for you: Once you get there, have you built in time to really understand where you’ve been?

At one of our favorite restaurant experiences in New York City this spring, I overheard this from one of our team members who helps arrange New York student tours for all ages:

It’s so disappointing when every restaurant on a group’s itinerary is one of the fast food or family-style chains they could eat at where they’re from. You’ve got to eat local when you travel if you want to get the most out of your experience.

Not even having as much as experience as that team member, I have to heartily agree. None of my restaurant experiences were poor on our trip – what can I say, I really like to eat. However, my favorite experiences, HANDS-DOWN, were those with a little local culture. We were lucky enough to meet owners and managers throughout our trip, and this added to the experience as well – giving any restaurant a more personal touch. This was sometimes made possible for us because we send so many groups around the country, including to various restaurants that want more group travel business. But if you eat local, meeting the owner or manager is much more likely no matter who you are.

I found this blog post today about food in other cultures and the powerful impact food has on defining any given culture. This is another strong argument for eating local. Why do we travel except to discover new things and to gain unique perspective? How we eat is a huge part of that.

I remember traveling to Colombia, South America, in my college years. I was ridiculously nervous about the venture – not yet desperate to see any more of the world than my own small corner of it. And maybe, if I’d had the sense to, I would have dreaded the unfamiliar menu. I didn’t quite have the sense though. Our host families did have that kind of sense though, and an amazing thoughtfulness. Instead of learning about their culture through classic Colombian dishes, we were often fed hot dogs and “Coke” to make us feel at home. Of course, as you can imagine, even the hot dogs and Coke are different in another culture. I also remember a unique bean dish or two, the difference in their ice-cream (so smooth and soft – like whipped cream!), and an unfortunate eight-day repetition of scrambled eggs with cut-up pork inside. (On the eighth day, I was tired of the eggs and my roommate was tired of the pork, so we attempted a transfer. It didn’t go so well.)

Back then, I felt so grateful for a group of people who wanted us to feel at home. But now I’m far more interested in exploring what makes a culture unique. And I know you’ll agree – food is just the way to begin.

I’m fascinated right now with the power of the internet to connect us.

I recently traveled to New York City, a place I’d dreamed of visiting for several years. But even as I dreamed of traveling there, I wanted it to be more than just a tourist stop. I wanted to belong in some way. Fortunately for me, that happened, and I have the internet to thank for it.

My trip to New York City included two first-time, face-to-face meetings with colleagues – and friends – I met over the internet. Both meetings were highlights to my trip. And just as I’d hoped, I now felt I owned a little piece of ground in New York City. It will always be a part of me now.

I’ve recently found a ton of new travel friends through twitter, and I can’t wait to learn about places all over the world through their eyes. And for the next trip I plan, I’m convinced I can find real people who’ve been there or who live there and know a hundred things about it that I need to know. Here’s what I mean:

There’s an entire travel community on Twitter. If you’re an adventurer, if you want to go more places than you’ve been, twitter’s a great place to start. You’ll find all kinds of people who’ve been to those places you want to see. You’ll find people who have twitter feeds devoted to those destinations. And you’ll find people who, like you, simply want to go. Twitter’s a great place to stop feeling alone.

Second, if you have a question, someone out there has the answer. Twitter is the new water cooler. Once you’ve established a place there, you’re known and you’ve found people you trust, this is the place to ask your questions. “Hey friends, where’s the best place to eat in San Francisco?” “Know of any cheap hostels in or around London*?” If you follow enough travel types, you’re bound to get several answers to questions like these. You can even wait for a twitter chat about travel so you know several travel tweeps are listening.

Finally, choose a few great connections and really invest. Ever notice how difficult it is to build strong friendships with several people at once? I.e., you’re not going to be best friends with every person in your dorm, every member of your major, or every person at the party. And if you don’t discover which people you really connect with and then actually build those relationships, you won’t really be friends with anyone. Similarly, with the social marketing boom of the last few years, many of us have managed to have hundreds or thousands more friends than before but far fewer meaningful relationships. More simply doesn’t mean better.

So pick an interest for starters. Focus your twitter feed and your blog on a niche. Comment on blogs that fit the niche. Follow people on twitter within that niche. Etcetera. Next, discover those within the niche who have even more things in common with you – the person who writes and lives in a small town like you do or who lives in the same city or goes to the same school. Find the person who shares your faith, your penchant for drama, your obsession with movies or literature. Then build those relationships. There are lots of ways to do it, private message them, visit their blog frequently and comment often, retweet their interesting thoughts. Cultivate real relationships – as real as possible with two computers and a cyber-universe between you – and then when the time comes that you need a friend in a real life, or a person to meet in an unfamiliar city, you’ll have it.

Travel doesn’t have to be a lonely pursuit. Make friends, then make the most of the friendship. Isn’t connection one of the reasons we travel in the first place?

*Hostels are a great choice for European student travel tours, but we all know most are great and some are awful. Definitely utilize experienced travelers for advice on them.

It’s not often I get to give travel advice about a topic with which I’m so unfamiliar. But yesterday Twitter had a great travel chat about cruises, and I’m bringing you some of the exciting details.

We specialize in student travel around here, especially spring break trips, and cruises are actually a great choice for students, and other group travel tours too! They have a lot to offer – tons to do on board, many ports, one-time unpacking – to name a few. They can be very cost-effective considering all that you’ll see (although you’ll see from what I learned that the money really isn’t spent for this vacation until it’s over). And they’re unique. They give your group a creative way to stay together most of the time but spread out when necessary. They’re something most people want to try at least once. And they increase your places-I’ve-been list by several destinations in one fell swoop. Without further ado, here are the tips I saw pop up more than once from people who’ve already been aboard.

Thoughts on Room and Board

When asked for advice, right away the chat members had thoughts on where to stay on your cruise. Apparently, the outside rooms – those with windows and/or a balcony – cost more. This is no surprise really. But most advice-givers highly recommend the upgrade. No one gave specific reasons for this; it seemed to be a given. I do imagine it preferable for most people to have a view. And if you suffer from claustrophobia at all, an interior room probably wouldn’t help.

There were two notable exceptions to the advice that an outside room is worth the upgrade. The first is if you suffer easily from motion sickness. Some people feel an interior room on a lower to midway level could help this. Another person, anxious to save you bucks where necessary, suggested that if the cruise is worth its salt, you won’t be spending much time in your room anyway. If you’re busy at the buffet and with the activities and the exciting ports, who needs a view?

Bring the Money

Theoretically the charm of a cruise is the all-inclusive aspect. Many places, many days, many activities – one price. But one of the most common pieces of advice I saw, once touted as true for travel of any kind, was this: Take half the clothes and twice the money.

Most alcohol is not included in the price of a cruise, so there’s that to consider. Many cruises offer gambling too, and it’s not like a roll of 20-spots will be placed on your pillow at night. Plus, for many people shopping is a favorite part of the ports you’ll visit. I guess we each know our own limits and our travel style. And a person can probably get by without spending a lot on a cruise. But, from food and drink to gifts and expensive souvenirs, there will be ample opportunity to open your wallet in case you want to keep that in mind when you’re filling it.

It’s All About the Cruise You Choose

I think the best advice I heard had to do with the size of the ship you choose. Many people probably think, the larger the ship – and the more expensive – the better. But that’s not necessarily true. It all depends on your travel goals. The advice given was this: Bigger ships have more to do on board while small ships will visit more ports, and more interesting ones. So if the water slides and midnight buffets are your greater interest, the many things to do on the ship itself, then go big. If, however, you’re looking forward to the shore excursions and you’re hoping to find them as crowd-free and unique as possible, a smaller ship is your bet.

Along these lines, do your research. There are online websites and forums (like twitter chats, for instance) that can help you choose the right cruise company for you. Travel professionals could also be invaluable for this purpose.

Finally, one more tidbit about cruises that I found to be probably very, very true: Pack some Dramamine. You really don’t know if you’re the seasick type until you actually get on the sea.

Photo by blmiers2 on Flickr.

With the start of school, things start buzzing around here again. It’s time to huddle into your committee meetings and type up those letters to the parents, and get your creative juices flowing for the fundraisers. It’s Student Travel time.

Maybe you’re an eighth grade administrator looking for a fresh update to the annual Washington DC educational tours. You might be a high school junior dreaming of next year’s senior class trip. Or maybe you’re in college or something else altogether. If you’re planning group travel of any kind, here are some pointers on how to know which type of trip you’re planning and what to consider.

Educational Tours

1. The name basically says it all. This type of student travel should highlight something the students are learning or have learned.

2. It could also open their eyes to a new subject, event, or theme, which is an amazing kick-start for any lesson.

3. A theme brings focus when you’re headed to cities like Washington D.C. or New York City with so many attractions to choose from. Ideas for educational theme tours include: Black history, Art & Culture, American History, or Literature.

Graduation Trips

1. Start with where you’d all most like to go. Plot out whether your time for fundraising will get you there. Pick the next favorite choice if not, plot again. Repeat until all the pieces fit to make it happen.

2. Pick a Goal: See lots and lots of amazing things and stay busy? Or just be together? Choose a destination fitted to the goal. For instance, NYC for lots to do, the beach for relaxing time together.

3. Have you considered a cruise? Many destinations, one-time unpacking.

Making it Great

With so many considerations – your goals, your budget, security, and the number of people traveling – a travel professional is your next step. Once you’re in contact with a person who can help, keep these things in mind as well:

1. Build space into your itinerary. (For rain delays, crowds, and just plain mishaps plus to allow breathable moments to actually take in what you’re seeing).

2. EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER WITH A GROUP. Don’t ever forget how many people you’re planning for. It affects everything.

3. Give recommendations a chance. You probably have a list of things you want to see, but don’t be afraid to add attractions you hadn’t thought of but that your travel professional (or even better, a local) recommends. The surprises are sometimes the best part of a trip.

We creative people have a problem. Actually – all people have a problem. Sometimes we get so focused on what we’re supposed to contribute to the world that we forget to take in the things that have already been contributed.

I’m a writer, for instance, with huge gaps in the library of books every aspiring writer should have read. I’m a movie lover who gets stuck watching the same recent flicks again and again instead of catching up on some of the wonderful films created and highly-acclaimed before I was even born.

Then, someday we realize we’re behind, and it becomes completely overwhelming to try and catch up. One of those recent films I enjoy is The Holiday, and in it a man gives a girl a list of all those classic films she should have seen by now and hasn’t. So you know what she does? She rents them, one at a time, and works her way through the list.

We do this with travel too. The Miss Universe pageant was on last night, and I had to admit some of the countries I hadn’t even heard of. And besides that, through facebook and twitter, every day I’m greeted with the trip-of-a-lifetime photos from people who’ve been to the destinations of their dreams, and I end up adding yet another location to my own list of Somedays. Sometimes we think that if we’ve seen enough pictures or heard about the moving experience of visiting a place enough, then it’s basically like we’ve been there. Don’t make that mistake. Put the well-traveled destinations on your list as well as the trendy ones. You don’t want to take someone else’s word for it when it comes to experiences like those.

Like anything in life, we have to be deliberate about the places we want to go. I realize it’s hardly a list of movies, but make a list anyway. And then do the only thing you can: Start at the beginning and work your way through. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll feel an amazing sense of accomplishment just visiting the first place on your list – especially if it’s everything you hoped it would be, if it becomes a part of you, and after leaving, you can’t wait to go again.

Our travel company builds opportunity like this every day, especially for students. If you’re lucky enough to be under an administrator who values educational student tours, embrace it. Your list is about to be one destination shorter, and trust me, it will make all the difference in the world.

I know you need new ideas for group travel. After all, to get a whole group interested you need a theme. And I know usually beaches and bikinis is theme enough, for spring break trips at least, but sometimes you want something a little more.

Around here, we build tours around all kinds of themes – black history, art, architecture, theater, and more. But on a recent tour of New York City, I had another idea.

Our tour was surrounded by live events, though we were always just ahead or behind the big moment. We did see several live performances (theater mostly, Broadway, and the Blue Man Group), but we stumbled onto the set of several more once-in-a-blue-moon kind of settings. And each time I thought, how fun would it be to plan an entire trip with your friends around one great event?

This is a picture from Central Park in front of Good Morning America’s Summer Concerts stage. I was there the day before I knew Miley Cyrus would be on stage with crowds and crowds of people on the grass in front of it. It was a strange close-but-so-far-away kind of feeling to stand in a quiet, empty space in Central Park knowing that in less than 24 hours it would be teeming with people, loud music, adoring fans, and applause. Even more, it would be filled with thousands of people living a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Somehow, just picturing it, made me feel that I was living one.

Our next close call was when we toured Radio City Music Hall where the stage was being set for that night’s concert – a comeback tour with New Kids on the Block. I loved watching the stage crew move around beneath us. I hoped we’d catch the sound check. And I thrilled to the fact that the sunbeam-style lights radiated above us in practice for the show even though most tour groups don’t get to see the famous lights illuminated during the day. Again, we were technically going to miss the big event, but being there behind-the-scenes during the preparation, that was the thrilling thing for me.

Still, all totaled, I couldn’t help picturing the excited people who were going to experience the actual performances for these two concerts. I imagined family groups, mother-daughter duos, best friends, school clubs – all coming to this exciting city for one main purpose – this concert or event – and then having hours before and after for sightseeing and strolling on the streets I’d come to love after only a few short hours on them.

This, I think, would make the perfect group travel tour. Find an event – something you can all agree on as worth the money and the crowds and some of your cheering and applause. Enjoy that and then bask in the hours that stretch around it, giving you all the time in the world to discover the location that’s hosted the amazing event. We tend to pack our trips too full with our to-do-and-see lists. So try this instead: One event, hours of anticipation, hours of relaxation afterwards to just talk about the fun.