Round-the-World 2021

Possible trip leaders include Ari Kosel, Blake Boles, and/or another experienced leader. Because this trip is so far away, we’re not yet 100% sure of who can lead it; we intend to finalize our roster by the priority application deadline. (If Blake cannot join as a full trip leader, he intends to join at least one leg of the trip as a guest.)

Learn more about our leaders here.

The $7750 Unschool Adventures program fee includes:

• Breakfasts and dinners
• All accommodation and ground transport
• All UA-sponsored group activities
• Laundry (once a week)
• Trip t-shirt

In addition to the $7750 program fee, participant costs include:

• Group airfare purchased through the U.A. travel specialist, estimated at $2900-$3400 (subject to fluctuation until we lock in our group contract in early 2020)
• Domestic airfare (purchased independently) to Los Angeles and from Boston (for the start and end of the trip)
• An international mobile data plan for your phone, so you can stay in touch with the group via Whatsapp
• Personal budget for lunches and snacks (we suggest $5-$10 per day)
• Personal budget for souvenirs, toiletries, and activities that are not sponsored by UA (your discretion)
• International entrance visa fees (anticipated to be a few hundred dollars maximum)

We chose our route through Thailand, India, Israel, Germany, Brazil, and the US for a number of different reasons. First, safety. We only choose destinations that are approved by the US State Department. Second, round-the-world airfare is expensive. By sticking to the busiest airports, we’re keeping our travels costs as low as possible.

Third, we want to offer a full diversity of languages, cultures, income levels, and educational systems. The countries selected do that quite well.

Fourth, we’re focusing on destinations with established alternative education organizations that would be open to meeting with us. When designing this trip, Blake consulted with Jerry Mintz of AERO to form the itinerary.

Finally, we chose places that will have decent—maybe even great!—winter weather. Okay, Germany and Boston will be cold… but the others may be lovely!

It is possible that we may change 1-2 of the destinations if airfare costy, safety conditions, or other significant factors arise between now and when we secure our group airfare contract in early 2020. (That is also when we will finalize the trip dates.)

If you’re asking yourself, Will I be exhausted and jet-lagged all the time?—we share your concern! And we have a plan.

This trip will be a marathon, not a sprint. To manage our energy levels and avoid burn-out, we will:

• take one sacred rest day in each country: no school visits, no obligations: just eating, sleeping, and hanging out (but if you do have lots of energy, you’re free to go out!)
• let you opt out of all-group activities if you’re feeling especially tired
• take it easy on travel days; we won’t “hit the ground running” right after a long flight
• check-in every night about our energy levels and modify our itinerary as necessary to avoid burn-out

Jet-lag will undoubtedly be a challenge when we cross the Pacific and Atlantic (which are 7-10 hour time zone shifts), but aside from those flights, our time zone changes will be more manageable (1-4 hours each).

The bottom-line is: Yes, this will be an intensive amount of travel. Yes, you may develop a newfound love for coffee. No, we won’t drive each other mad with exhaustion. Yes, it will be worth it.

The world is a very connected place now. We will have wifi access in virtually every location, although it may not always be fast. Participants can expect to be able to to send messages and emails everywhere we go, unless we’re visiting a more rural school for the day. Additionally, we ask that everyone brings a phone with an international mobile data plan, so that’s even more coverage—even if you may sometimes not have reception.

We’ll typically stay in youth hostels with bunk rooms (4-6 beds per room) and shared bathrooms. Teen participants may share rooms with participants of other genders or with trip leaders, but they never share rooms with strangers. We only stay in well-reviewed youth hostels.

We will also strive to offer a few homestay experiences on this trip, in which you’ll get to spend a few nights with the families of the new people we meet. Short-term homestays are tricky to setup for large groups—and we always want to keep everyone within a safe distance so that trip leaders remain accessible—so we can’t guarantee homestays, but we’ll try hard to make them happen.

Unschool Adventures gives its participants more freedom, responsibility, and opportunities for self-direction than the typical trip-leading company. We’re also still responsible for their safety, which is why we have a few non-negotiable guidelines for unsupervised time:

• When you go out, we ask you to stay in groups of 3 or larger. No solo wandering, sorry! (We do make an exception for very short trips around the block.)
• We require you to spend the night in UA-sponsored residences, and we sometimes won’t let you go out in small groups after dark if we feel it’s too risky.
• While we don’t have formal bedtimes, we do ask that you act like responsible young adults. If we see that you’re not getting enough sleep to participate in our group activities, we’ll firmly request that you get your act together.
• We have zero-tolerance rules about alcohol and drug consumption or possession.
• Potentially dangerous free-time activities (including seemingly harmless activities like bike-riding and swimming) always require trip leader approval, and we don’t always say yes.

If you’re nervous about the thought of letting your child wander around New Delhi, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, Berlin, or Sao Paulo—we understand! And please know that we have more than a decade of experience in safely facilitating this kind of exploration, in cities such as Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Bangkok, and Kathmandu.

First of all, your child will never be walking around cities totally on their own—see the “Can I go anywhere and do anything during my free time?” FAQ above. We require that all participants stay in groups of 3+ and have at least one phone with them. (We do make an exception for the “one person / one block” rule which allows a participant to quickly run down to a corner grocery store, for example, which is on the same block as our residence.)

Secondly, we’re not doing this blindly. We only allow participants to independently explore areas that are known to be tourist-friendly, and only during the day. The majority of uncomfortable incidents happen at night, in the wrong neighborhoods—so that’s what we avoid. (To know which areas are okay, we rely upon local contacts as well as time-tested guidebooks.)

Finally, we encourage you to consider the risk of letting your teen independently explore any large city, whether in North America or abroad. There are always risks involved with such travel; we believe the biggest ones can be mitigated with clear rules and consistent communication. The personal growth and empowerment that comes from this kind of independent exploration is huge—we’ve seen it over and over again. That growth comes with normal risks.

If you have further concerns, we’ll happily address them: write to blake@unschooladventures.com anytime.

We’ll have warm showers and western-style toilets available everywhere we stay. In countries where tap water isn’t safe to drink (Thailand, India, maybe elsewhere), Unschool Adventures will provide purified drinking water.

Our group travel specialist will take care of visas, although you might need to fill out a few forms. There may be some small fees associated with obtaining visitor’s visas.

Regarding vaccinations, we strongly recommend that you follow CDC guidelines and will require that every participant has all basic vaccinations.

We’ll provide a full packing list upon registration. You won’t need anything special for this trip—just clothes, toiletries, and electronics. If you’re think about bringing larger electronics (such as a laptop) or musical instruments, please check with trip leaders first.

While Unschool Adventures does not issue academic credits, we can help you frame your trip experience in a way that will look good on a homeschooling transcript or make sense to a college admissions official. Our photo and video documentation will also help in this regard.

For those who would like to use this trip as an excuse to dive deeply into academics, we’ll happily suggest a few books and documentaries that you can start reading and watching before the trip. Trip leaders will also support (but not require) any documentation that a participant chooses to do, such as blogging.

We can accommodate vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-free (but not celiac) diets. Please remember that while traveling, it’s not always easy to cater to special diets—the more restrictive your diet, the more flexibility and patience you’ll need to have a successful trip. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you always get enough to eat!

Unschool Adventures will compile a full list of well-rated medical facilities for each destination (which you can browse if you’d like). We’ll be sticking to major metropolitan areas that have Western-grade medical facilities. If a participant requires medical attention, a trip leader will accompany them to the nearest facility and immediately contact their parents/guardians. Safety is Unschool Adventures’ top priority, and our company has maintained a perfect safety record (i.e., no one has every gone to a hospital) ever since our first trip to Argentina in 2008.

A security deposit of $2000 is due after you interview and get accepted to the trip: roughly March 1, 2020. Another $2000 payment is on July 1, and the $3750 final payment is due October 1, 2020.

The program fee is payable by check or money order; you may also pay by credit card with a 3% surcharge.

The international plane tickets purchase happens 2-4 months before departure date, facilitated by our group travel specialist. Plane tickets are payable via credit card.

If you require a payment plan to make this trip feasible, please write to blake@unschooladventures.com. Please note that all payments must be made before departure date, without exception.

While the majority of Unschool Adventures trips do end up running, sometimes a trip fails to meet minimum applicant numbers by the priority application deadline and we must cancel it. (We would hate to disappoint you, but we also don’t want to waste your time if a trip is clearly not going to meet minimum numbers!) Help us help you by applying ASAP and encouraging your friends to apply before the priority deadline.

Go apply! :)

Shortly after the Priority Application Deadline the trip leaders will conduct the first round of Skype interviews with applicants. We do these brief interviews to ensure that you’re a good fit for our trip and also to answer any questions you or your parents may have.

After completing interviews with those who applied before the Priority Application Deadline, we’ll make our first round of enrollment offers. You’ll have two weeks to make up your mind about joining the trip. After that, we’ll start interviewing those who applied after the Priority Application Deadline and offer enrollment on a first-come, first-served basis.