Trip-Planning Timeline

Once a teacher, club leader or band director makes the decision to travel, suddenly he or she is caught up in a whirlwind of activity. Deadlines are fast approaching, and there are a million questions to field from students and parents. Knowing what to tackle first, what decisions to put off and what support to ask for will be helpful in making the process as smooth as possible.

Up to one year before departure: Your main choices at this point will be where to travel, when to travel and with whom to book travel (if you are using an agency/tour operator). However, you cannot make too many decisions about details because airlines will not likely have a lot of information yet, and restaurants have been known to disappear.

One major task you can focus on is recruiting students for your trip. Working out payments over a year is far better, so it is not a bad idea to plan this far in advance. Be forewarned, though, that once the decision is made, the trip is booked and students are registered, you will see a lot of down time. To keep student interest up, have regular trip meetings, perhaps with food from the destination.

3-11 months before departure: Airfare and/or motorcoach arrangements, as well as hotel accommodations and meal reservations, will need to be made. If you are leaving the country, you will need to start focusing on getting passports and visas. You also want to check in with the kids, as their lives may change. For example, a student had signed up for a trip who then had to move across the country. With time, the teacher was able to determine if she preferred to fly from her new home or depart with the group.

Three months before departure: The students will need to finish paying you or the travel agency/tour operator. If you need airport transfers, you will need to get those details worked out. At this point, you also need to check that students have passports and other documentation, and that their names are spelled correctly. It would be terrible to arrive at the airport only to find that they forgot to update a passport or that the ticket was made out to the wrong person. Finally, you may need to have students choose roommates for hotels.

One month before departure: It is question time! Do you have emergency contact info for each traveler? Have you had a meeting to confirm trip details and gather any last info you need? Is everyone paid in full? Do students have the items they need, such as luggage, cell phones (with international SIM cards if you are leaving the country), chargers and adapters for electronics? Do students have spending money in the proper currency? Do any students have special dietary restrictions? Do you have medical and allergy information? Do parents have your emergency contact information? If you can answer all the questions thrown at you, you are in the home stretch!