By Goway Travel

Who is your favourite teacher? Is it the teacher who inspires you to be curious? The teacher who challenges you? Or is it the teacher who excites you by bringing new lessons to your classroom every day? 

Education is a lifelong journey, and lifelong journeys are made for globetrotters. Travel is our favourite teacher because it teaches you everything your favourite teacher can, and more. You can also do it with your family. 

Family trips and multi-generational trips that children and adults can learn from together are one of the best ways to learn about the world. You stand in front of the same sites, ask different questions, and compare answers over dinner. With many of those lessons lining up with subjects already on a school schedule, here are seven subjects that family travel teaches better than schools. 

1. History 

History lessons in a classroom are often just a list of dates. History lessons on the road are much more meaningful. At Giza, your family can stand beside the Great Pyramid, a 4,500-year-old structure raised from roughly 2.3 million stone blocks and the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, while a licensed Egyptologist explains how it was built. In Cambodia, you can cycle through the Angkor Archaeological Park, which spreads across some 400 square kilometres of temples, moats, and reservoirs. In Peru, you can ride the train to Machu Picchu, a fifteenth-century Inca estate set at 2,430 metres in the Andes. Visiting these sites with local guides often means getting answers to your family’s questions from people with direct, personal ties to the history being told. 

2. Physical Education 

Physical education on the road is as much about the terrain as it is the activity. In New Zealand, you can walk the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a roughly 20-kilometre route over volcanic ridgelines, or watch your teenager step off the Kawarau Bridge outside Queenstown, where commercial bungy jumping began in 1988 with a 43-metre drop. In Costa Rica, your family can paddle Class III and IV rapids on the Pacuare River and cross the Monteverde cloud forest on canopy ziplines. Meanwhile, in Zambia’s South Luangwa Valley, where guides pioneered the walking safari in the 1950s, you follow a scout in single file and learn to read tracks, wind direction, and distance, which turns a morning of exercise into a lesson in attention. 

3. Arts 

Travel teaches you that art is something people do, not just something kept inside museums. In  Australia’s Red Centre, Arrernte artists, custodians of one of the world’s oldest continuous art traditions, give your family a step-by-step lesson and explain how they sell the finished pieces through community-owned art centres that return revenue to the artists. But don’t worry, museums still earn their place in the travel curriculum. Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus resides in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, a collection the last Medici heiress willed to Florence in 1737 on the condition that nothing ever leave the city. At Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, 100 galleries are carved out of a derelict 1920s grain silo, helping keep contemporary African art on the continent where it was produced. 

4. Cooking 

Cooking lessons in Hoi An’s central market begin at seven in the morning, when a chef hands your family a shopping list of fresh, local ingredients. By noon you are folding spring rolls and learning why fish sauce, lime, sugar, and chilli balance nearly every Vietnamese dish. Meanwhile, take your family to Marrakech, where you buy saffron and preserved lemons in the souk, layer them with lamb and garlic in a tall clay urn, seal it with paper and string, and carry it to the farnatchi, who tends the furnace beneath the neighbourhood hammam, to prepare Tanjia. Learning about the world’s cultures through its gastronomy is undoubtedly one of the best ways to do so, and a travel curriculum evolves with every step of your journey. 

5. Math 

Have you ever found yourself in a math class wondering “When will I ever use this in the real world?” Well, you don’t have to worry about that with a travel curriculum. Consider creating a budget with your family in Japanese yen, where prices run to three and four digits, and every vending machine in Tokyo rewards every correct answer with delicious snacks. Or, think of the calculations surrounding your trip to Fiji, when your family flight crosses the International Date Line and loses a calendar day flying out and regains it flying home. In Jaipur, India, geometry lessons leap off the page: the Samrat Yantra at the Jantar Mantar observatory, a stone sundial 27 metres tall, has read local solar time to within about two seconds since the 1730s. 

6. Science 

The scientific method begins with asking a question and doing background research, then forming a hypothesis, testing it with experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and finally, drawing conclusions. With a travel curriculum, that looks like a week in the Galapagos. You ask why the tortoises on Santa Cruz carry rounded domed shells while the ones on Española have shells that curve upward at the front. Your guide, a licensed naturalist, explains what they know. Your family arrives at a hypothesis: the saddlebacks come from dry islands where food grows out of reach. You test it by studying each coastline before you land, predicting the shell from the vegetation, then checking the prediction against the tortoise. By the last island, your family holds data and lifelong memories from a week of observation that helped draw the same conclusions as Charles Darwin in the mid-19th century. 

7. Social Studies 

Social studies lessons begin at the edge of a Fijian village, where your family waits to be invited in. Custom asks you to present a bundle of yaqona, the kava root, to the chief in a ceremony called sevusevu. Your family watches permission, protocol, and reciprocity operate in real time rather than through a book. Lessons about community-tourism await in Kenya, where the community conservancies bordering the Maasai Mara convert your nightly fees into land leases for Maasai families, funding schools and keeping wildlife corridors open. Similarly, island families on Lake Titicaca in Peru collect income from their homestays that host your family. Experiences like these teach the importance of responsible travel and supporting local communities so they are supported for generations to come. 

Taking your family outside of the classroom and on the road is one of the most rewarding educational experiences. It teaches you to manage and organize your time, embrace adventure, step outside your comfort zone, and, best of all, understand why the world is the way it is. So, gather your family and never stop learning by choosing a life of travel, together. 

About Goway Travel 

Goway Travel is one of North America’s leading travel companies with over 55 years of experience offering customized travel experiences to over 115 countries on all seven continents. Goway is a family-owned company still owned and operated by Founder & President Bruce Hodge that employs over 700 staff members worldwide. Its global headquarters is in Toronto, and it also has offices in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Manila. Goway sells retail and wholesale travel packages, plans trips for Globetrotters, and helps travel professionals turn clients’ travel dreams into reality. It also offers group, air consolidation, and corporate travel services.  

Reach out and chat to a Goway destination specialist or visit goway.com

The post 7 Subjects Family Travel Teaches Better Than School appeared first on USTOA Blog.

By: Jamie Gallerani, EF Go Ahead Tours 

In India, almost everything is a dance. Here, balance is found as you go from the bustling, rickshaw-lined streets of Delhi to the serene backwaters of Kerala, where palm trees dot emerald shores. Along the way, royal palaces sidle up to nature preserves, daily life reaches a crescendo at vibrant markets, and spirituality shines in Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Sikh community kitchens. With 28 states, 22 official languages, and 1.4 billion people, the country is like a ruby with endless facets: varied and impossible to pin down. Ready to see something new everywhere you look? Here are five experiences that will weave you into the layered fabric of India. 

Zip through Old Delhi’s bustling streets on a rickshaw   

Frenetic vibrancy bursts from every corner of India’s big cities, and one of the best ways to witness it is from the seat of a rickshaw. There’s nothing quite like being whisked into the heart of it all on these motorized, three-wheeled vehicles, which offer an in-the-thick-of-it vantage point that you can’t get any other way. One unforgettable place to ride through? The most storied neighborhood of India’s capital city: Old Delhi. Here, history spills from narrow streets lined with tangled telephone wires, vendors hawk rounds of flatbread called parathas from Moonlight Square—and you’ll discover that how you get around is just as interesting as what you see.  

Watch as fire is offered to the goddess of the Ganges  

From the playful toss of colorful powder at Holi celebrations to candlelit flower bowls floating down holy rivers, spiritual moments spring up everywhere in India. Want to bear witness to one notable practice? Each evening in the cities of Varanasi, Haridwar, and Rishikesh, the bathing steps along the Ganges are the place to watch one of the most sacred Hindu rituals: the Aarti, a ceremony of light devoted to the goddess Ganga. During this illuminated, prayer-filled event, bells and conch shells sound, incense swirls, and mantras are chanted as priests offer fire to the deity using large brass lamps. Purification and gratitude underpin this daily ceremony, which is capped off as devotees release small oil lamps called diyas onto the river.  

Go behind Bollywood’s silver screen in Mumbai 

India’s glittery side shines in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), where Bollywood got its start. The name of the Indian film industry is a Bombay-Hollywood mash-up that’s become synonymous with some of the most colorful moments in cinema, from Kashmiri musicals and comedies to Rajasthani dramas and romances. Most of the storylines play out alongside elaborate song and synchronized dance numbers, and you can get a behind-the-scenes peek while touring Film City or taking a Bollywood dance class in the city that launched this cinematic art form.  

Seek out Bengal tigers on a Ranthambore safari 

The busy streets of India only tell one side of the country’s story. Beyond the mesmerizing rush, natural beauty unfurls in the form of Himalayan peaks, sprawling deserts, South Goa beaches—and the world’s largest population of Bengal tigers. Dreaming of spotting the country’s national animal? Lush nature preserves like Ranthambore National Park are calling. This royal-hunting-ground-turned-tiger-reserve is your place to step into quietude on a guided safari (and, if you’re lucky, to catch a glimpse of one of India’s most notable residents). 

Head south to visit the spice capital of India  

Of all the amazing things India offers, plates of culinary greatness sit right at the top. There are the richer, creamier, ghee-cooked dishes in the north. Think: tandoori meats and savory dal scooped up with naan. Then, there are the lighter, spicier, more aromatic spreads in the south, which are often made with coconut oil and served with rice. It’s here in southern India where Kerala reigns as the country’s spice capital, and where markets are dotted with heaping piles of cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, pepper, turmeric, and more. Visit for yourself to find that each of India’s far-flung corners offers its own regional flavors—and that some of the best spring up along the southern backwaters.  

About the author 

As a Senior Copywriter for EF Go Ahead Tours in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jamie Gallerani has been sharing the magic of seeing the world with others for more than 10 years. Her love of travel took root during a homestay in Mannheim, Germany, and has since taken her to 21 countries and counting. From studying in Florence to sipping corn beer with Peruvian highlanders in the Sacred Valley, she’s found inspiration and connection around the world—and strives to capture the wonder of experiencing new cultures in her work. When she’s not writing about guided group travel, she’s looking for her new favorite memoir, visiting her family on Cape Cod, and reminiscing about how blue the water on the Amalfi Coast is. 

About EF Go Ahead Tours 

EF Go Ahead Tours offers more than 200 guided trips across six continents. Each carefully planned, expertly led tour makes it easy for curious travelers of all ages to get to the heart of a destination. With a maximum group size well below the industry average, each trip has the perfect balance of planned sightseeing and free time to explore. EF Go Ahead Tours is one of three tour operator brands within EF World Journeys, a leader in guided, experiential travel. EF World Journeys is part of EF Education First, a world leader in international education that has helped millions of people since 1965 learn a language, discover the world, or earn an academic degree. 

The post Uncovering the many sides of India: 5 insider experiences to have in this country of contrasts  appeared first on USTOA Blog.

From bullet trains to bunk beds, rail travel is a truly immersive experience  

By: Yves Marceau, VP of product for G Adventures 

When traveling, it’s all too easy to skip from one destination to the next, without really appreciating what we see along the way. “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey,” is a phrase we’ve all heard. At G Adventures, we believe it’s both. That’s why we recently launched our Rail Collection – 60 joyful train journeys across 20 countries that help travelers to travel flexibly and responsibly, while also offering true cultural immersion in a destination.  

There are so many reasons why train travel is increasingly important for a community tourism-focused operator like ours, allowing you to get more out of your adventure. Here are just some of them.  

It encourages you to slow down 

In a literal sense, opting for a train journey instead of a flight is a slower form of travel. Even G Adventures’ Rail Collection trips in Japan, which include journeys on the famous bullet train, are slow compared to air travel. But importantly, traveling by train also encourages you to slow down, too. What you may feel like you are ‘losing’ in time, you are gaining elsewhere – leaving the pace of the journey to someone is freeing, and the hypnotic trundle on a train can do wonders for helping your mind slow, something that can be increasingly hard to do in a fast-paced world.  

It can be a more immersive experience 

Major airports across the world have a tendency to look, feel, smell and sound the same. Train journeys do not. A train trip fully immerses you in the destination and doesn’t let you bypass local life on the ground. Whether it’s what you’re seeing out the window, from miles of countryside to rarely-seen villages, to what you’re smelling on board, or what you’re eating along the way. And while airports go big on global food chains when it comes to eating options, at train stations, particularly smaller ones out of bigger cities, you’re more likely to find smaller independent cafes and food sellers, giving you the chance to try more local dishes – and put traveler dollars directly into the pocket of locals. 

Big picture benefits

Using public rail transportation not only helps infuse money into communities that wouldn’t usually benefit from tourism income, but also helps keep commuter rail travel funded and more affordable for locals. It’s a simple yet great example of how tourism can be a force for good, and benefit communities on a much more local level in the easiest of ways. 

It encourages new connections 

Chances are you’ve taken a seat on a train and spent the journey sitting opposite someone. It’s impossible – certainly with the longer train journeys G Adventures features in its Rail Collection – to not interact with the people around you. Some of our favorite Rail Collection trips feature day-long journeys across India, where your local travel companions start out as strangers, but soon become acquaintances with stories to tell, giving a unique and powerful insight into life on unhurried journeys. And how could you possibly share a bunk cabin on a sleeper train in Vietnam without a spontaneous conversation – or long game of cards – with your new cabin mates? Authentic interactions like these are the memories we take away from trips abroad – and they’re often the stories that we tell, too. 

It’s a true adventure  

Ever seen a toddler or group of kids gleefully smiling at a train passing by? Trains have been synonymous with adventure since we were kids. And as adults, what’s one person’s commuter train is another person’s adventure. It may look like a train ride through the bucolic Italian countryside, it may be a night rocking to sleep on the top bunk of a train journeying across Japan, or it may be a bullet train whizzing at the speed of light (almost) from Shanghai to Berlin. It’s a meaningful way to see the world – a journey to be celebrated, not endured. 

About G Adventures

G Adventures isn’t just a travel company, we’re a movement. Since 1990, when social entrepreneur Bruce Poon Tip set out to change the way people see the world, we’ve been leading the way in community tourism and small-group adventure travel. With more than 850 life-changing trips in 100 countries across all seven continents, we help travelers connect deeply with local people, cultures, landscapes and wildlife,  all while having a blast. 

But it doesn’t stop there. With us, travel  is about passion, purpose, and making a difference. Our ‘G for Good’ social impact commitments ensure every journey supports local communities, with over 130 community tourism projects powered by our non-profit partner, Planeterra, and our industry-first Ripple Score,  which tracks how much of our travelers’ money stays local. And through our Trees for Days initiative, we’ve planted over 3 million trees (and counting), one for every traveler, every day they are on trip with us, helping communities and the planet to thrive together. 

At G Adventures, we believe in changing lives through travel, and not just for the traveler. Our unique company culture fuels a global community that transcends borders, connecting people with purpose and spreading joy, curiosity, and humanity in everything we do. We’re not just about seeing the world, we’re about making it better, together. 

Learn more and join the movement at www.gadventures.com. 

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