Location
Multiple Locations +3
  • Ecuador
  • Peru
  • Bolivia
Length
4 - 26 weeks

Program Details

Timeframe
Academic Year Spring
Housing
Dormitory Host Family Hotel Tent
Language
Spanish
Age Min.
15
Age Max
18

Pricing

Starting Price
34680
Price Details
- Scholarship awards range from 10%-100% of tuition, depending on need
- Roughly 40-60% of students receive scholarship support
- Approximately 75% of all Traveling School students have successfully raised money in their home communities
- Since 2003, we have distributed over $1.2 million in scholarships
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Meals Transportation Visa
What's Not Included
Airfare Travel Insurance
What's Not Included (Extra)

Immunizations, personal spending money

May 08, 2023
Oct 06, 2014
3 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

In the spring, students travel through Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. We begin our adventure at the oldest hacienda in Ecuador where we can practice our Spanish during cooking lessons in the restaurant’s kitchen and at a neighboring Montessori school. Students delve into the jungle with naturalists and explore the plants, animals and waterways of the Amazon Basin. As we hike over Peruvian mountain passes, students witness glaciology and explore Incan history with an Andean medicine man who shares the mysteries of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu. We practice our Spanish in markets, villages and schools as we interact with community members, meet local authors, mountaineering guides and local historians. The semester culminates with ice axes and crampons as students attempt mountaineering in Bolivia’s Cordillera Real.

Students earn a semester of academic credits that transfer back to their home school. The Traveling School is accredited by the Western Association of Schools & Colleges.

Video and Photos

Program Highlights

  • Semester of academic credits from place-based curriculum
  • Engage with local people and places across South America
  • Explore the outdoors through rafting, mountaineering, and hiking
  • Develop leadership skills in a women-centered space
  • Semester runs from early February through mid-May

Related Programs

Program Reviews

5.00 Rating
based on 4 reviews
  • 5 rating 100%
  • 4 rating 0%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Growth 4.25
  • Support 4.75
  • Fun 4.75
  • Housing 4.5
  • Safety 5
Showing 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Default avatar
Caroline
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Unforgettable Experience that Changed my Life

Last semester, as a sophomore, I decided to take a leap of faith to join TTS on its 23 semester. There is no such thing as a 'normal' day with The Traveling School. Due to the constant movement and changing of locations every day is unknown. On a full class day classes began at around 8:00am (typically) and ended at around 2:30/3:00pm. Classes are never in a classroom setting, they are almost always outside, many Spanish classes were spent conversing with locals in markets/city plazas. In the beginning of the semester we participated in running, soccer and conditioning before our day started in order for us to acclimate and prepare for rigorous trekking and hiking excisions.

I would recommend the TTS semester in South America to any outdoorsy girl who has a desire to strengthen her Spanish, has a passion/interest towards environmental issues and wants challenge herself physically. The four months I spent with the program included some of the most memorable days of my life thus far and I would go back in a heartbeat.

What would you improve about this program?
The Traveling School could be improved by possibly enlarging the budget for some of our small group outings. Often times (esp. near the end) groups of two or three girls were permitted to leave the hostel we were staying at to buy lunch with TTS money. In the future it would be nice to have a slightly larger amount of money in order to widen our rage of options, but for the most part that was not an issue.
67 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Carlisle
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Best Decision

I was hesitant to leave my home at first but this trip was the greatest experience of my life thus far. I studied abroad in the spring of 2010 and still keep in touch with the girls on my trip. I experienced so many new cultures and ideas and grew so much as a person. The teachers became my mentors and friends, the girls my sisters and even the administration are people I feel I can talk to and look up to. I loved this experience and learned more there experientially than I could hope to learn elsewhere. Thank you for this experience, I would not trade it for the world!

What would you improve about this program?
I would have liked to stay longer and have a bit more free time to explore. I would have also enjoyed a longer home stay as that is an irreplaceable experience.
77 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
traveler
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Learning and Travel

I had never traveled outside the US before but I had always wanted to. This program gave me an opportunity to travel and gain a memorable high school experience that continues to influence my interests in college. My first trip was traveling through the Andes. I had so much fun and learned so much that I took a second semester to Southern Africa. On these trips I learned how to pack for travel, what sort of accommodations to expect, how to find places to stay, and I learned that traveling outside of the US is possible and doable. While I learned how to travel, I learned about the history, culture, and biology of the areas I visited. The classes were designed around the areas we traveled, which made the experience even more meaningful. During my trip I also had to take an algebra class to fulfill requirements at my home high school. Before the trip I had no interest in math, however, taking it at The Traveling School made even a subject I disliked fun. I will never forget the history classes where we visited the sites of the historic occurrences and learned by reenacting what happened. I will never forget biology classes where I actually got to see Darwin's birds and hike through the exotic environments I was learning about. The setting of The Traveling School provides a place to grow through experience and education. This program didn't just get me excited to learn, I also learned how to travel which has prepared me for college and planning my own trips.

What would you improve about this program?
Days started really early in the morning with gym class. I probably would have liked to sleep in more often but then who wants to sleep when there is so many exciting things to see and do!
78 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Helen
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A truly life changing, wonderful school.

I went to the South America spring semester. Not a day goes by when I don't think about the experiences I had. I decided to study abroad after spending a couple of years feeling "stuck" in high school. Although everything was going well, I felt like I could do so much more with my life. After a TON of research and talking with my parents, I applied and was accepted to the Traveling School. What I found in those 15 weeks in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia was a community of absolutely normal girls from all over the United States that chose to do something untraditional and awesome. What resulted were some of the most incredible, genuine, excited friends I have ever had. So it was the people that made my experience so extraordinary, but we were enabled by the places we traveled to and how we did so. Having never backpacked before, I was somewhat nervous to dive into a 70 Liter backpack that held my closet, school, bedroom, anything and everything I needed. I feel in love with it, and how it empowering it was to carry all my belongings to incredible place to incredible place. I fell in love with the snow-capped Andes and the sands of the Galapagos and the wide countryside. And if I'm getting a little cheesily poetic, apologies, I'm clearly getting a tad nostalgic. Academically, what I found at TTS was not as rigorous as I was used to (and this varies wildly semester to semester), but that was okay because it gave me time to learn other things, about myself, the place around me, and my experience, and I am so grateful for that. Coming back to everyday life after TTS was a difficult transition for me, honestly- I desperately missed the soul-deep friendships I made and the lifestyle of discovery and novelty and learning I had grown accustomed to. But I adapted, and I found myself so much better for those 15 weeks. I am more self-assured, open, adventurous, and focused. TTS was a defining experience.

74 people found this review helpful.
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