Experience your world
- What We Do!
- What's Included
- Passport/Visa Information
- Travel Insurance
- Guide/Language Books
- Tips & Tricks
- Educational Resources
- 2012 Summer Encounter Expedition
- Photo Gallery 1
- Photo Gallery 2
- Photo Gallery 3
Educational and Soft Adventure Tours
Break free from the classroom and find real-life lessons in the world around you. Encounter Expedition's educational tours offer the value, knowledge, reliability and support that set our Expeditions apart. We stay in clean, safe, attractive hotels that provide modern amenities and easy access to major attractions via public transportation, or by foot! We incorporate a variety of details into each itinerary that highlight the historic landmarks and traditional customs of each region. Extras, such as theater tickets, river cruises and themed dinners-give our travelers greater insight into local culture. Get an insider's guide to each destination through the expertise of our Tour Directors and local guides who share their knowledge and experience to ensure you get an authentic look at each place we visit.
We strive to provide a balance of educational visits and cultural experiences to raise curiousity. We include soft adventure and recreational activities because learning should be fun.
All of our tours include round trip destination transportation from our home port, transportation while on tours, hotel accommodations, Tour Directors, scheduled meals, guided sightseeing and visits to special attractions. Students, alumni and the general public, that are at least 18 years of age, are welcome to participate in our Expeditions, limited only by their desire to learn and ability to meet the physical demands of some soft adventure excursions.
Those travelers that so desire may earn undergraduate and graduate residential credits through provider institutions. These optional courses meet the same high academic standards of traditional course offerings. A variety of instructional strategies are utilized to encourage learning by tapping into a variety of learning styles.
PASSPORTS and VISAS
VISAS
In most study abroad cases, a visa is only required to stay in a foreign country for an extended period of time. These forms can take a long time to be processed, so be sure to send in your visa application early. You may even have to travel to your nearest consulate office to get your visa, which in some instances is in another city. To get information regarding visas, it is best to contact the nearest embassy or consulate office of the country you plan on visiting. Don’t forget, you may also need to get a number of immunizations for your visa as well. Information on different countries and their entry requirements can be found on the government's travel website.
VISA SERVICES
View foreign entry requirements
PASSPORTS
If you're getting a passport for the first time, complete the following steps at least two months before your trip.
- Fill out a passport application form (DS-11). These can be found on the US government's website and at post offices, courthouses, or municipal offices where passports are accepted. Do not sign the form until your Passport Acceptance Agent tells you to.
- Get two 2"x2" color photographs of your full face against a plain white or off-white background.
- Be prepared to spend $97—this price includes all fees and surcharges. An extra $60 will be charged for all expedited passport orders.
US Government Application Forms
Passport Photo Guidelines
Passport Facilities
US Govt Advice about Studying Abroad
When you’re traveling, no matter where in the world you may be, it is better to be safe than sorry. Travel insurance companies provide vacation plan and travel insurance that protects you and your family in the case of cancellations for any reason and offers peace-of-mind benefits.
There is generally coverage for travel delay, emergency medical evacuation, loss of baggage and personal affects, baggage delay and accidental death. It also provides hospital-of-choice coverage and emergency assistance. There may be pre-existing condition waiver. There are plans with zero deductible, and rates are generally affordable.
We know, we know, talking about travel insurance and fine print and all that is the cheapest sleeping pill on the market. But if you're going to travel, you need to play it safe and get yourself some insurance. We all get a little careless but we really don't want you to end up in debt for decades because you got a little sloppy climbing a pyramid, or ziplining over the jungle.
Travel insurance is available from travel agencies, student travel organizations and general insurance companies. You should be able to find cheap travel insurance. Get squinty and really scour that fine print before you sign.
With any luck, you'll get through your travels suffering from nothing worse than blisters or chronic embarrassment. But you never know. Buy a policy with medical cover up to USD$1,000,000 and shop around for a policy with a low excess (i.e. the amount you'll have to shell out before the insurance company picks up the tab). Make sure that it covers repatriation (evacuation home rather than the nearest regional medical facility) and that repatriation means being flown home and not to the country where you bought the travel insurance. Speaking of geography, check that you and your travel insurance company agree on exactly which countries are included in the continents you'll be covered for. For instance, what do they consider to be a part of North America? Mexico, Guatemala, Panama?
Check whether your policy obliges you to pay on the spot and redeem the money later, or whether the company will pay the providers direct. If you have to claim later, hang on to all documentation. If you have a pre-existing medical condition, make sure you're covered. It's usually no problem if your condition is diagnosed and stable, but all policies vary.
With any travel insurance policy, it's very important not to visit a country that your government authority has advised against travelling to - if you do, it could invalidate your travel insurance. Some insurance policies will still pay out if your visit is within seven days of your destination being named - others won't.
Feeling sporty? Not so fast! Have a look at the list of sports and activities you're covered for. Often you'll be allowed one or two bungee jumps within a policy but will have to pay twice as much if you want to do something more risky, like gliding. Snowboarding and scuba diving are often not included at all.
Finally, is your policy flexible? You may well be having such a fantastic time you want to stay longer. Make sure you can extend your policy while you're away rather than having to take out a fresh policy for your extended time.
Some handy hints:
- Scan your policy and store it electronically, or take a couple of photocopies and leave one set with someone at home and take one set with you (keep it separate from the originals).
- Give your travel insurance company's 24-hour emergency hotline a try before you go just to make sure it's working and you have the number right - you don't want to get a pizza delivery number instead.
- Keep receipts at home for anything you could lose while you're away.
- Look carefully at what your policy covers - you may find that you're not insured for all of those adventures you've got planned.
Travel and Adventure Insurance
For some of us, the best part of travel is the planning. For others, the mountain of stuff to be done before you take off is more befuddling than fun. Whichever way you feel, this is the place to get essential planning tips - everything from staying healthy and crafty packing. It's the perfect preparation for the perfect trip.
Dollar$ and Sense
Your pre-departure costs will include flights, visas, immunisations, a medical kit, travel insurance and equipment. Estimating what you'll need while you're away depends on many factors. Are you intending to flit around or hunker down for a while? One rule of thumb is that every day on the road can cost twice as much as a day in one place.
Parts of the world where your bucks can be stretched others not so much. Write down where you're going and how long you're going to spend there and use Lonely Planet's Destinations section to work out your average daily spend. Don't forget to budget for emergencies and the occasional splurge - you don't want to spend your whole time wearing sackcloth and eating lentils.
Carrying Money While Travelling
The best approach is to take a good mixture of credit and debit cards, travellers cheques (if your destination is short on ATMs) and old-fashioned bank notes.
Do remember to keep your exchange receipts in case they're needed as proof of legal exchanges either within a country or when leaving. Also, if you're travelling with friends, divide your money up: if one of you is robbed, the other can step in with the cash.
Pennywise Tips
- Need money badly and none of the ATMs are accepting your credit card? Go to the local casino. They'll make sure you can get to your money.
- Bear in mind that most travellers are robbed on the day they get money out. This is no coincidence, so be wary of being tailed when you've just made a transaction.
- Familiarize yourself with the appearance of your destination's bank notes as soon as you get into the country. It'll make it harder for someone to rip you off.
- If you're taking a taxi without a meter, write down the agreed fare on a piece of paper and get the driver to acknowledge it. That way, if there's a dispute about the cost of the journey, you can simply point to the paper.
Travel Health
You're finally kicking back on that sunny beach. You've got the world at your feet - and an unfamiliar rumble in your guts. Getting sick is no fun at the best of times, but when you're travelling and away from the comfort and familiarity of home, it sucks big time.
Travel health is a vast and important topic, ricocheting from basic medical concerns to malaria, cholera, typhoid and all those other diseases that sound so mythical and antiquated but are very much alive and kicking. It would be impossible to cover everything you need to know in one natty page, but here are some basic rules to stick to.
Before You Go
Go to your nearest travel clinic six to eight weeks before you leave and find out which vaccinations you need. Don't leave this to the last minute - sometimes a course of vaccinations is required over a period of weeks or you might need to wait a week or two after a shot before it kicks in and you are fully protected. Get a check up at the dentist too - toothache on the road is sheer hell.
Take a record of your immunizations when you go travelling, especially your yellow fever certificate. It's also a good idea to carry a record of your blood group, home doctor, nearest embassy and copies of any prescriptions (including ones for glasses) you use regularly.
Pack It!
You could fill a small packing crate with medical supplies if you wanted, but these essentials should be right in your pack along with the clean undies and the iPod charger:
- Scissors, Band-Aids, tweezers, gauze swabs, tape, bandages, safety pins, non-adhesive dressings
- Antiseptic wipes, chewing gum, multi-vitamins, sunscreen and lip balm with sunblock
- Anti-diarrhoeals, paracetamol and oral hydration sachets
- DEET-based insect repellent and water purifying tablets
- Sterile kit including needles, syringes, suture kit and cannula for giving a drip
On The Road
Here are a few tips to keep you feeling a million bucks while you're on the road:
- Allow yourself time to adjust physically and mentally to a new place and recover from jet lag.
- Avoid sunburn. The sun is fierce the world over so use a hat and sunblock.
- Carry a small bottle of hand sanitiser and some wet-wipes for when access to soap and water is difficult.
- Keep hydrated. If hygiene's an issue, stick to major brands of bottled water and make sure the seal's not broken. If this is not practical or available, have more than one mean of purifying water in case one method fails (eg iodine and a pump-action purifier). * Ditch the ice cubes too.
- Know the health risks specific to your destination. That includes risks associated with food preparation and eating out.
- Say no to malaria! To avoid getting bitten, cover up, get a decent protective net - preferably one soaked in DEET - and use insect repellent. Anti-malarials don't stop you getting malaria - they just suppress it.
- If you do get sick, ask your hotel to recommend a local clinic. Make sure you're properly insured and declare this before you see a doctor.
- Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
- CDC Travel
- MASTA
Travel Packing
So, now you're standing in front of that empty suitcase. What to pack? Sure, you don't want to strip yourself of every home pleasure - but neither do you want to groan beneath the weight of luggage crammed with stuff you could easily pick up on the road. So, with an umbrella in one hand and a passport in the other, try to strike a balance between essential and albatross.
What to pack
Less is more. And it's not hard - every traveler is carrying too much. If you're going somewhere tropical, a few tops, shorts, underwear and socks will do. An ultra-small raincoat and hat will top off the outfit. Shoes are bulky, so drop that extra pair. Halve your stuff. Halve it again. Add books, washbag and medical kit. Zip up the bag and don't look back.
After all, you can normally buy things you need when you get to your destination, from the classic items - cosmetics and clothes to basic medical gear. In short: if in doubt, leave it out.
Be aware, especially on a longer trip, that some countries are very fussy about what they will and won't allow in. Many places don't like letting any food in and you can expect a rigorous search at customs. In some countries your bag will be searched for expensive electronics or designer goods, for which you may be required to pay a duty if they were purchased in a tax-free zone. Check these regulations out in advance and leave prohibited items behind.
It's best not to get too bogged down in the packing process. Unless you're planning on diving, climbing or camping, let it take care of itself. Packing is most beautiful when you don't think about it and most miserable when it enslaves you. Trust us on this one and travel light.
For those about to pack, we salute you.
- Activities & Gear Thorn Tree branch - got a question about a bag, footwear or gizmo? Let the real experts help you out.
- Travelite - more tips to help you shed that excess baggage.
- Worth their weight in gold
- Half a squash ball - less a sporting item, more a universal plug. You may not find stoppers for your sink or bath. This one will always work.
- Plastic mug - will never break, and isn't just for drinking from. Bails out boats, is a receptacle for that large frightening insect and best of all makes you feel like the ultimate traveler.
- Sarong - a classic. From wrap to picnic blanket to sleep sheet, they're quick-drying, light and available everywhere.
- Toilet paper - no explanation necessary.
- Duct tape - for quick repairs to bags, clothes, tyres. Never wears out.
- Packing squares - sort of like zippered envelopes for your clothes. Keeps clean and dirty clothes separate and makes things easy to find.
Best Packing Tips
There's a little bit of a fussy packer in all of us. We all have a vast packing checklist of items we'd never travel without. Some lists poetically demonstrate the highs and lows of packing. The highs - you'll never want for anything on the road. The lows - to adopt some of these notions of what to pack would cause even the world's hardiest porters to go on strike.
- Loofah - 'It weighs nothing and will scrape away backpacker dirt.'
- Telephone extension cord - 'more for business travel - sometimes it's great to have a nice long phone cord in the hotel room.'
- Songbook - presumably for those Jack Johnson moments. May or may not include 'Kumbaya'.
- Particle mask - 'for walking in the jungle!'
- Old stamps - 'a cheap bagful from a collector's shop - light, cheap educational gift for kids!'
Useful Ideas
- We're sorry to be your mom, but take a jacket. Then you'll be covered whatever the conditions.
- There's nothing like the journal you take with you on the road, but train thieves, stray goats and sheer skank can turn your memories into so much grubby trash. How about an online journal?
- How do you roll, luggage-wise? Do you rough it with a duffel bag or swan it with a speedy wheeled number?
- Travel accessories maketh the traveler. Need a security wallet? A converter?
The more students know about their travel destinations before they go, the more meaningful their experiences will be. With the help of educational leaders like Lonely Planet, we’ve compiled a few educational resources to complement our study tours. Additionally, we provide travel/study work books for our destinations that our researched and prepared by educators.
Lonely Planet
National Geographic
Global Tribe
1140 Maize Rd.
Colby, KS 67701
785-269-1217
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