Program Reviews

This summer, I went on my first service trip. I went to the airport, terrified. I was scared of meeting people, scared of leaving the country, and not knowing the language. I came back from my trip, excited, passionate, and ready to continue exploring. Throughout my trip I learned so many things that have improved my outlook on the world. From the first day, I started to fall in love with the country, the culture, and the people I was meeting. I quickly became close with everyone in my program through team bonding and leadership games, making all the rest of my fears a lot easier to handle. The amount of service was well balanced with exciting adventures. One of the most memorable nights was camping in the mountain town of Jarabacoa. We took a four-hour ride on a safari truck to get there and then spent the afternoon hiking to a swimming hole. When we got back, we played with the local children while their family cooked us a traditional domination dinner. Before spending a night in tents, we made a fire and sat with the family while they told us ghost stories. This experience was one of many that made me so thankful for this adventure.

This trip was essential for me in discovering the path I want to take in life. Working will incredible animals all over Australia showed me how fascinating they can really be. Not only that, but made me realize that all I wanted to do was find a way to help them. Whether I was working with kangaroos or koalas, I found interest in every aspect. The scenery of this land was also breathtaking and gorgeous. The ability to mix education with fun, and service, is such a unique thing. I got to experience Australians everyday life, while also partaking in opportunities most people never get to experience. The service aspect of this trip is also a very valuable component. We were able to immerse ourselves in a zookeepers life, where they excepted us with graciousness and generosity.

This trip was an overall amazing experience that hit all aspects of Cambodia, we drove lots around the country. Destinations we went to were out of this world such as the country side, beach, and Angkor Wat! Something very important about this program is the amount of service incorporated in this program which made me feel that I made a strong difference in the communities we visited. I would suggest considering this as one of the top program Rustic Pathways has to offers students over the summer. Rustic Pathways made sure that the students on the trip felt safe and comfortable with possible comfort-zones being pushed. Without a doubt the staff on the program knew exactly what they were doing and made sure the trip went as smooth as possible.

Aussie Surf and Service, the program that changed my life forever. Just in sixteen days I grew so much as a person. I fell in love with the places we visited, the culture, the people, every little detail about Australia. I meet amazing people that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Before this experience I thought that my life had one defined pathway, but this opened my eyes to a whole other reality. The reality of maybe not going to University right after high school and take a year to travel and find who I truly am. I experienced things that I have never done before and I'm so glad that I did. This definitely helped explore and discover a more adventurous and free side of me. I have no words to describe how amazing it was and how I will be always be grateful for going.

This past summer, I went on a Rustic Pathways teen tour to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. The program was a Spanish Immersion Program where the goal was to leave speaking much more Spanish than when the program started. Before I left, I was naive about what was going to happen while I was there. I was unaware of the amazing program leaders that would be there to help us enjoy ourselves, the other students that I would form long-lasting friendships with, and most importantly the lessons I would learn about life in general. We learned that there is a large difference between a traveler and a tourist. A traveler goes to a different country and learns the different customs and culture. A traveler tries new food and embraces the fact that they aren't in their home country anymore. A tourist goes on a vacation and acts as if they were in their own country with no changes. Rustic Pathways and their program leaders taught us that it was important to experience different cultures because we are more isolated than we think we are in the United States. We are in a bubble and it is amazing breaking out of that bubble and experiencing what life is like outside.

Within the program itself, we had a daily Spanish class for a couple of hours each morning. In the group, there were 4 travelers and a Costa Rican native Spanish speaker teaching us the language. It helped us practice our conversation to a point where we were comfortable using it to speak to the people around the city. After this, we did some activities such as white water rafting or visiting local coffee farms. During the night, we stayed with a host family and they cooked us a delicious dinner. It was very fun practicing our Spanish skills with them. I would certainly recommend Rustic Pathways to other students because it really changed my thinking about many things and burst the bubble that I was inside of.

When I first signed up for the trip to the Dominican Republic I did not know what to expect, since I didn't have any prior knowledge about the country. This trip with Rustic Pathways was my first time visiting the Dominican Republic, and I have to say it was a very interesting experience. I am from Mexico, and I decided to embark on this Rustic trip with a couple of my friends. It was a lot of fun to go on a trip like this with my friends from home, but another part of a trip like this that is a highlight is getting to know other people, which for me are from a different culture. It was a really fun and enriching experience to get to know a group of new people so well and work alongside them on service. That was another highlight of my trip, the service. As a group, we got to work on tons of different service projects in the country. We did beach cleanups and coral reef observations with an organization called FUNDEMAR. Here we got to see the beauty of the ocean that surrounds the Dominican Republic, and the environment we were trying to help protect. Another part of the service was planning and executing a day camp for some kids at a local school. I am lucky enough to be bilingual and being able to understand the kids was interesting for me because I got to get a better understanding of their lives, and the similarities between the Caribbean and Latin American countries. Although, this doesn't mean that you have to speak Spanish. Quite the contrary actually, the English speaking members of my had an even more interesting time laughing while they tried to understand the kids and have the kids understand them. Overall, this program was a lot of fun, and it allowed me to experience the culture and the environment of a new country.

My program was unique because it was specifically designed for wilderness first aid education and at first this made me think that it was a better suit for students who are interested in medicine. This was something that made me nervous at first because I don't want to study medicine in future :) However, as I went to Thailand and got to know the project and my friends better, I have understood that not only this program makes you love medicine, it also reminds its participants that WFA is an education that everyone needs to get, regardless of whether they are medicine students or not. Therefore, I advise the future participants to not feel insufficient for this program if they are not interested in medicine, because as a student who has her own WFA certificate right now, I feel really proud for challenging myself to do something that I had considered as boring in past. Also, one of the best things about this program was that we turned a disadvantage into an advantage. Normally, less people prefer these kind of projects that are focused on specific areas, such as WFA. Our program consisted of only 9 people, including me, while other community service programs could go up to 40 people. With expectations to meet a lot of people from all around the world, at first I was disappointed. However, later on, I have seen that not only this was a chance to get to know your friends more closely, it also made our connections much more lasting and intimate. Spending a full week with 8 people was a chance for me to get to know everyone of them closely and build stronger friendships. This taught all of us the importance of friendships and once again reminded us to appreciate how this program brought us together, since we are still in contact :)

Two summers ago, I went to Thailand with Rustic Pathways. Shortly after I returned, I decided to go on the Mystery Trip. This program did not provide us beforehand with an itinerary or any clue of what we would be doing, but this was the beauty of the program. Although knowing the plan ahead of time can be calming, not knowing proved to be better! It allowed us to open ourselves up to new opportunities and enabled us to appreciate every day and every experience. Each morning, we would get clues and try to figure out where we would be heading that day. On my previous trip, I spent a lot of time looking forward to certain parts of the program that didn’t happen until later in the trip. While this excitement of the future made me eager for the rest of the program, it also made me forget about other aspects of the trip along the way.
I discovered that India was the mystery destination when I arrived at the airport. I could not believe I was finally getting to travel to India because it is on the list of places I wanted to visit. On this trip, I got to see so many fascinating parts of India, the famous as well as small pockets. Of course, we saw the Taj Mahal, but we also went to unique and lesser-known places that showed an entirely new part of India that I didn’t even know existed. After my trip to India, I genuinely feel like I can say that I experienced as much of India as possible in the short week that we were there.
The Rustic Pathway Staff made me feel safe in an unknown country while still pushing me to leave my comfort zone. The staff encouraged us to try new things, especially food, while understanding if we did not want to.
If India is on the list of places you are looking to travel, I highly recommend traveling with Rustic Pathways. I have been on many trips with and without Rustic Pathways, and I genuinely believe that Rustic Pathways is the way to go. There is nothing like a Rustic Trip, and I promise that you will not regret traveling with them!

This past summer, I spent 2 amazing weeks in Thailand. In the first week, I learned about the gender equality issues in Thailand through talking to professors, NGOs, and homestay in the country. The second week, we were in the Rustic base house where we met with people from Vietnam and Cambodia and learned about the topic they focused on which we later formed groups and created our own projects.
These 2 weeks have been lifechanging in many ways. I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried things I've never tried before. This trip also made me see the problems that we have more clearly and gave me a better idea of how I can help in my own way. It expanded my horizon and gave me the chance to see things from other people's perspectives as well.
I also loved how the group was really international and I was able to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds and formed some lifelong friendships during this trip.

I’m my group as all girls, and I was afraid it would be cliquey but quite the opposite happened. The first night all of us went into one room together and shared laughs and stories. I’ve never in my life felt so close with people I barely even knew! There was never a moment when I felt excluded because everyone was friendly with everyone. I initially wasn’t excited about the all girls part but it actually enhanced my experience! The group dynamics was a huge part of why this was my favorite trip. I did another rustic trip the year before which was still an amazing experience but the group dynamics really made the experience memorable. The group leaders also weren’t just adults to me but friends who I had fun and light conversations with because they treated me like a person and not a job kid to babysit.