Q: What is a typical day like on the trip?

A: A typical touring day begins with breakfast. This is normally a buffet provided at the hotel where the group is staying.  Everyone then boards the motorcoach and begins touring according to the day’s itinerary.  You will not return to the hotel until that evening so you must take important items such as your Travel Adventures nametag and items for a change in the weather (e.g. coat, umbrella, and poncho)
 
When the motorcoach arrives at a venue/museum, the students remain on the coach while the chaperones’ get directions and/or admission tickets. Students then exit the bus and gather according with their chaperone.

It is very common to go through a security stop when entering the building. We advise only taking necessities like your cell phone, camera, and spending money with you to speed up admission into the facility.

Your chaperone will tell you how long you have to visit the exhibits and where the group will reassemble to exit the building and board the motorcoach. Take a lot of pictures or a video for our Adventures in Creativity Contests!!

Lunch and dinner are scheduled according to the itinerary. You will be told ahead of time whether the meal is pre-paid, requires a meal card, or is a cash allowance. Prior to entering the restaurant or food court you will be given the necessary payment and a time schedule.

Many itineraries have an evening activity following dinner and the group returns to the hotel at approximately 10:00 p.m. or later.


Q: What should I pack for my trip?

A: Please bring clothes for each day of your trip. Pack any items that you need prior to hotel check-in a carry-on bag.

Be prepared for weather extremes, such as rain or wind with cooler than expected temperatures. Check www.accuWeather.com to set up a weather advisory sent directly to your e-mail, and to find out average temperature highs and lows at your destination.

Plan to dress comfortably during the days. It makes sense to bring informal outfits—jeans, shorts, slacks and comfortable walking shoes. All clothing must be neat, clean and modest – The School Dress Code is in effect.

If your group is going to the theater or planning a fine dining experience, include one dressy outfit.

PERSONAL ITEMS •Soap •Deodorant •Shampoo •Comb/Brush •Toothbrush/Toothpaste Medication (if needed)

OTHER CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES •Trip Tee Shirt (if applicable) •Rain Gear •Sweater and/or Jacket •Dress Clothes (hangers) •Pajamas •Swim Suit •Laundry bag (plastic liner)

MUSIC GROUPS •Instrument •Extra Equipment (reeds, oil) •Music Stands (portable) •Folder & Music •Costume Accessories (ties, shoes, stole/robe, etc.)

OTHER (optional) •Spending Money •Camera/memory Card •Cell Phone •Ipod •Pillow/Blanket •Notebook/Pencil •Watch •Book

Once your luggage is stowed under the motorcoach, you will not have access to items until hotel check-in. On the final day of the trip, you will not be able to access your luggage until you arrive at home. Pack your valuables (camera, money, medicine, a change of clothes, etc.) in your carry-on bag.

VALUABLES ON THE TRIP:
Trip participants assume full responsibility for any valuables brought along on the trip. Unless there is a room safe, DO NOT leave valuables in your hotel room while touring. Even though the motorcoach will generally be locked when the group or the driver is not on board, it is recommended you leave any valuables not needed on the trip at home.

SPENDING MONEY:
Don’t forget spending money to purchase souvenirs, snacks, miscellaneous items, and meals not covered on your itinerary.

IDENTIFICATION – CANADIAN & INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL ONLY:
A Passport is necessary for international and Canadian travel.
    Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative: www.getyouhome.gov/
    Canadian Customs – www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca


Q: How much spending money should I take along?

A: Review your trip itinerary to see if there are any “meals on your own.” If so, you must take along some money for these occasions. It is also recommended that you take some money for souvenirs. Although there is no specific amount, $75-$100 should be sufficient for most multi-day trips.


Q: Does Travel Adventures have any Trip Contests?

A: Check out our Adventures in Creativity Contests. We sponsor an annual Photo Contest, Video Contest, and Trip Journal Contest, with over $1,000 in cash prizes available to creative students and adults.


Q: Can Travel Adventures assist me fundraising to pay for my trip?

A:  Your trip sponsor may have already planned a school-wide fundraiser to help reduce the cost of the trip for all of the participants. The school parent organization or booster group may also be involved in fundraising for the trip.

Trip Journal / Essay Contest

Did you have a fantastic trip? Write an essay about the trip and the impact it has had on you or how the travel experience might impact your future.

Video Contest

Are you a talented videographer? Create a video documenting the experience on your school trip. It can be an advertisement describing the benefits of student travel, a testimonial for Travel Adventures, or an educationally relevant event that occurred on the trip. Be creative!

Photography Contest

Win cash by entering the annual Travel Adventures Photo Contest. We’re always looking for good photographs taken during a Travel Adventures trip.

You have stumbled upon our "Student Resource Center", a collection of websites which contain thousands of links for students of all ages.  We hope you find some of them useful.

We need your help too! Please send us an email and tell us about some of the great websites that you can't live without.  We'll add them to our list and share them with thousands of students across the country.

Awesome Library
A student-friendly search engine maintained by librarians. This award-winning search engine has more than 35,000 resources available, the top five percent in education.
www.awesomelibrary.org

CIA World Factbook
From the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). You'll find brief facts about all of the countries of the world.
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook

Download.com
The ultimate file repository that links to literally tens of thousands of downloadable free or shareware programs. This includes utilities for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux, Internet tools, desktop dictionaries and language translators, Pocket PC and Palm applications, and of course, computer games.
download.cnet.com

Education Oasis: Super Sites for Students
Education Oasis is an independent site. It was created in the summer of 2003 by K. J. Wagner, M.A., a teacher. Our contributors are a diverse group of teachers, parents, and grandparents who believe education is power.
www.educationoasis.com/resources/student_sites.htm

Encarta
The free MSN Encarta site features more than 4,500 articles pooled from Microsoft Encarta, the award-winning electronic reference library, and comes with dictionaries, maps, fast facts, interactive quizzes, handy homework tools, and more.
encarta.msn.com

Fact Monster
This site features an almanac, atlas, dictionary and encyclopedia made especially for kids, as well as handy search engine and layout designed for easy fact-finding. Check out fun features such as Biographies of the Presidents, the Geography Hall of Fame, and the Tallest Buildings Slideshow.
www.factmonster.com

FreeTranslation.com
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Perfect for language studies, this handy Web site automatically converts text from one language into another, such as English to Simplified Chinese or French to English. You can even cut and paste a Web URL to convert the entire site.
www.freetranslation.com

A Guided Tour of the Visible Human
The Visible Human Project has generated over 18000 digitized sections of the human body. This introduction and tour uses images and animals from the project to teach key concepts in human anatomy.
www.madsci.org

How Stuff Works
Ever wanted to know why earthquakes happen? How CD burners work? What the sun is made of? These questions, and a large amount of others related to computers/electronics, automobiles, science, entertainment, and people, are all answered at this award-winning Web site.
www.howstuffworks.com

How to do Research
There's a step-by-step run through of the process of writing a research report. This is a great tool for parents, students and teachers of grades K-8.
www.kyvl.org/html/kids/homebase.html

The Internet Public Library
A public service organization and a learning/teaching environment founded at the University of Michigan School of Information and hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology.
www.ipl.org/div/kidspace

Kids Click
Think of Kids Click as the children's and teen's sections of your public library. Librarians have put together research sources that are kid-friendly. The search results include the reading level so your child can select ones he/she can more easily read.
www.kidsclick.org

Kids Info
"KID INFO saves valuable time by providing students, teachers, and parents QUALITY links to thematic websites relevant to the Pre K-12 curriculum in ONE website directory. Kid Info also provides a collection of QUALITY fun, interesting, and informative non-educational website links!"
www.kidinfo.com/SchoolSubjects

The Library of Congress Experience
We offer you an amazing opportunity to immerse yourself in the largest collection of knowledge the world over, more than 138 million artifacts! Interactive technology brings history to life with touch, allowing you to travel back in time by virtually “handling” the rarest of treasures.
www.loc.gov/experience/teachers

Math.com
This site provides help in a number of mathematics-related subjects, including basic grade-school math, calculus, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and statistics. Practice exercises are automatically graded, plus this free site also features a glossary, calculators, homework tips, math games, and lesson plans for teachers.
www.math.com

MLA Citation Generator
OK, let's admit it. The bibliography is the ugly underbelly of research writing. It's grunt work. But there's a simple online tool for making this task easier. Just go to Palomar Community College's MLA Citation Generator.
www.palomar.edu/dsps/actc/mla

National Archive Vaults
The Foundation for the National Archives works in partnership with the National Archives to “open the stacks” of the Archives and enable millions of visitors to interact personally with the original records of our democracy through the National Archives Experience.
www.digitalvaults.org

Noodle Quest
Sometimes, one of the hardest parts of a research paper is helping your student find a topic, narrow it down and find appropriate resources. NoodleQuest from NoodleTools was designed to help.
www.noodletools.com/noodlequest

Novelguide.com
The Web's answer to those black- and yellow-striped Cliff Notes is Novelguide.com, a reliable and free source for literary analysis of classic and contemporary books such as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. The site offers character profiles, metaphor and theme analysis, and author biographies.
www.novelguide.com

One Look
You plug in the word. OneLook displays quick definitions, as well as the results of dozens of online dictionaries. A nice feature is the reverse dictionary. You type a short definition, such as "barrel maker". The reverse dictionary search returns possible words to fit the definition, ranked in order of the closest match.
www.onelook.com

Redzee
Family-safe search with a twist. RedZee is based on the premise that a picture is worth a thousand words -- or at least an image of a website. That red and white zebra will show you a fanned array of websites when you hit the search button.
www.redzee.com

RefDesk
Since 1995, Refdesk.com, which stands for "reference desk," has served as a one-click springboard to many of the Web's top dictionaries, encyclopedias, calculators, atlases, news headlines, and search engines. The site also includes a handy "homework helper" section that provides help in all subjects to students in every grade.
www.refdesk.com

Science Made Simple
Kids of all ages can get detailed answers to many of science's questions, read current news articles related to science, get ideas on school projects, and take advantage of unit conversion tables. Users can also find out if their school's textbooks pass the test.
www.sciencemadesimple.com

Shakespeare-online
On the aptly named Shakespeare Online site, visitors can read every play or poem from the world's most celebrated writer and, more importantly, make some sense of his works with free analysis, Old English language translations, and famous quotes.
www.shakespeare-online.com

Think Quest
Students work in teams to build innovative and educational websites to share. ThinkQuest is a protected, online learning platform that enables teachers to integrate learning projects into their classroom curriculum and students to develop 21st century skills.
www.thinkquest.org

Word Central
We make frequent use of the thesaurus, dictionary and rhyming dictionary. This Merriam-Webster site is designed specifically for the K-12 crowd. The dictionary has a speaker icon that lets you hear the word pronounced correctly.
www.wordcentral.com