Youth Travel Programs are More Than Just a Vacation

For some youth travel programs are just an expensive hobby, but if it’s done right traveling can be so much more than that. There are differences between vacations and traveling. Both have their benefits and both can be fun and exciting, but often travel offers a wider range of experiences and outcomes.

Vacation vs Travel

Vacations usually occur when someone wants to “get away” or when they “need a break.” Everyone deserves a vacation, and everyone knows they are good for your mental and emotional health. The idea behind a vacation is to relax and escape from life for a while. Traveling can be a vacation but it also can be a more complex experience. Traveling usually involves experiencing life, exploring new places, meeting new people, and getting away from one’s comfort zone. It is an experience, not just a trip. Not all traveling has to be exotic and expensive, sometimes a weekend excursion in a new town can be enlightening and exciting. A traveler can learn an infinite number of new things about a different culture, and learn to appreciate it more. Going to new places help facilitate new perspectives and new ways of thinking, which most agree is a positive change.

Student Benefits

It can also be an educational experience as well. It’s the best kind of learning: hands on. There is such a difference between looking at a two-inch picture of a painting in a book and standing in front of the twenty foot original. Studies have shown that children and teenagers who travel do better in school. They get higher GPAs and end up getting higher degrees. Even after they graduate, the study shows that those students who traveled ended up making more money than students who did not travel. Going on extravagant trips to exotic places, isn’t the key to these students’ success; learning about cultures other than their own makes the difference. Being exposed to new things especially helps kids and teens think outside the box, and have a variety of experiences and perspectives about the world.

Become a World Citizen

With technological advances expanding exponentially, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. Today globalization is not an idea, but a reality. Youth travel programs help individuals become better world citizens, a positive trait for everyone in the coming decades. Most importantly, travel helps a person learn about him or herself. Whether it is a small child, teenager or adult, everyone can experience something new. By discovering another language, food, dance or clothing style, a person can contrast these new ways of being to their own ways, which were originally thought to be “normal.”