ELEVATED EXPERIENCES ON THE ROAD
Over the course of eight days and seven nights, 32 of us traveled from city to city. We explored numerous historic sites, met terrific guides, ate local dishes, and took loads of pictures. We began Boston with a "wicked smaht tour of Hahvahd." Our lively guide in Lexington and Concord invited members of our group to do a mini-reenactment. Our group loved it. Reading from a script, one of our students quoted John Parker at the Battle of Lexington, "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But, if they want to have a war, let it begin here." Later, we take a Witch Tour in Salem. Our guide is knowledgeable, expressive, and a beautiful story-teller. She shows us how we can look at Salem's history with greater context and empathy. Before we know it, it's Day 2 and we're exploring Fenway Park and the Freedom Trail. The temperature in July has us all quoting Thomas Paine, ""These are the times that try men's souls......" It's hot and humid, but we're having a good laugh and jokingly calling ourselves "summer soldiers" and "sunshine patriots".
Our incredible adventure continued in New York City with a visit to the Tenement Museum, 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and Grand Central Station. We even had some free time to explore various attractions in midtown and the financial district. We had a great time navigating the subway. On one occasion, we happened to see a rat running across the subway tracks. One of the locals told our group they're called "city kitties!" The group was excited to learn the term bodega and then to shop at one! On our last evening in NYC, we split into four groups and attended a Broadway show of our choosing.
We enjoyed some time off our feet as we took the bus down to Philadelphia. Here we spent a day visiting Independence Hall, The National Constitution Museum, The Liberty Bell, Elfreth's Alley, and the waterfront of the Delaware River. We take photos and videos at the Rocky Steps and enjoy a delicious meal at Reading Terminal Market.
Our D.C. portion of the trip was complete with free time at the National Mall, a Capitol Tour, and a dinner cruise on the Potomac. For the last day of the tour, the group visited Arlington National Cemetery and Mount Vernon.
Whenever I have the opportunity to host a trip, I always encourage the group to "talk to strangers". To me, that means finding opportunities to talk to waiters, bus drivers, people standing in line near you, people you meet on the train, and even people in the group you haven't met yet. With so many fascinating sites and new experiences, there is always plenty to talk about. And ultimately, it is these conversations that elevate the entire trip experience. As the famous traveler and author Rick Steve's says, "Travel is rich with learning opportunities, and the ultimate souvenir is a broader perspective."
Krislyn
CONTINUE READING BELOW FOR REVIEWS OF THIS TOUR
TOUR REVIEW
My colleague and I have worked with a variety of tour companies specializing in student travel and have taken student groups to Europe and locations across the United States. We prefer to work with Infinity Tours over the larger student tour companies like EF and Explorica for a variety of reasons.
First, the owners work with us personally to curate the perfect experience for our students and take so much care in balancing our budget needs with our ideal itinerary.
Second, we don't have to share the experience with anyone else; it's a custom tour for our own participants alone, allowing us maximum control over the schedule and itinerary.
Third, Infinity is incredibly competitive price-wise, ESPECIALLY considering that it is a private tour + the level of customization. We just concluded our fifth tour with Infinity, which was a tour of the east coast with an emphasis on American history. They got 31 participants to Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, and Washington DC without incident and packed in so many historic sites + opportunities into 8 days - it was incredible! Our full-time tour hosts, Krislyn and Hailey, were wonderful - navigating us to all the sites and handling transportation, hotels, and participants like the pros they are.We love working with Mike, the owner, as we've worked together to provide these educational travel opportunities for students since 2017. He is passionate about his business, and I especially appreciate how he has so diplomatically handled any feedback - he genuinely wants to grow and improve and has been really great to work with in that respect.
We already have our sixth tour in the works for June 2024 and can't wait for another amazing student tour! I highly recommend Infinity Tours for any student travel you're dreaming up - Mike and Greta will work with you to put together the best experience for your students.
- Andrea Hinojosa
TOUR REVIEW
We had an amazing trip with Infinity Tours + Events. As a teacher my goal is to bring history to life by exploring through travel and my students certainly were able to do that. Students learned so much as we traveled from Boston to New York to Philadelphia to Washington D.C.
Our Tour Directors, Krislyn and Hailey, took great care of our group. Something I particularly appreciated about both Krislyn and Hailey was that they would always take into consideration our suggestions as the teacher chaperones and they let us add excursions not originally on the itinerary if and when it was feasible. That kind of flexibility is not common in most student tours. Also, the ability to be able to customize the tour and create a price point that we were comfortable with was another major benefit to working with Infinity.
I have worked with Infinity on past tours and look forward to working with them again in the future.
