The people were really nice and overall the experience was great!

Excellent customer service, tour guide, experiences and food.

Helpful face-to-face opportunity to discuss and collaborate

Our experience in Costa Rica was fantastic, thanks to Raquel, Manuel, and Priscilla! They ensured that everyone in our group had an amazing time. The activities they planned were thoughtfully tailored to our Middle Schoolers, and they were flexible in accommodating our specific requests when needed. The food was another highlight of our trip—every meal was delicious, whether it was at the Broran Community, the restaurant, or the hotels. We truly appreciated the care and attention that went into every aspect of our experience. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed learning about different things in each museum we visited. I enjoyed watching the parade. I enjoyed the snow and the different restaurants we went to.

Worldstrides cancelled my daughter’s trip to Italy after I paid $1500 into the trip and waiting on $1850 of fundraising money to credit to her account. After calling to get it reinstated, I lost the discounted price that I was originally charged when joining the trip and was charged an additional $145.00 for late enrollment on the trip for total additional costs of $350.00 to a $4100.00 trip. I was completely shocked at the upcharge due to the trip already being so expensive and the unwillingness of the company being willing to work with me to waive these additional fees after I had already shown commitment. This is a school trip for my daughter and I do not want her to miss this experience, but I will not personally travel with this company again, nor will I recommend it to my school affiliations, being a school administrator. This company is truly out to make as much money as they can off of students and their families.

Our Washington DC trip was fantastic! We had a schedule packed full of interesting museums and monuments. We definitely got the most for our money! I love that WorldStrides has contingency plans in place and when all else fails you can call the 24-hour hotline. They are very helpful and assisted in how to proceed in a minor medical emergency. I also appreciate the night security in the hotel so I can sleep soundly knowing someone is keeping an eye and ear out for the students. When there were minor difficulties and challenges, WorldStrides sought to make them right. I highly recomend!

Antonia was very knowledgeable and made every effort to make our trip a trip of a lifetime. Our students just loved her and how welcome she made them feel. She learned each student's name and made sure to be very personable with them.

We had a wonderful time in Washington DC because our tour guide was very professional and organized. Even when schedules changed due to weather or things that were out of our control, he handled it quickly and very efficiently. He gave us so much information about every stop we made. He made us feel welcomed and we quickly connected like family. We were a small group of high school students and a few parents from CA. 16ppl in total. I think anything larger than 20 is difficult to manage anywhere. We got into places very quickly and some other places like the Supreme Court to hear a case. For such places you have to be respectful and quiet. At the hotel there were some WS groups that were running down the halls at night unsupervised and were rowdy at the breakfast time which was everyday from 7-9am. I can’t imagine being in a group of 40-50 kids like that. You need to show respect and you will be treated with respect. I’m sure it would be more challenging to get into museums and the like. Our experience was amazing! We even met with our congressman. If I had to change anything on the trip it would be the amount covered for the cash lunches. I would recommend increasing it to $20pp instead of $15. In some places it may not have covered the meal. Or perhaps just stop at one location and not a food court. We loved the Peri Peri place! We also had the best bus driver in the world. That driver was a pro and so knowledgeable with getting around. We were so sad to end our trip, we miss them. Thank you Kevin and Tony for making our trip so memorable!

My group's 13-day travel through Italy and Greece was good overall, with around 2 days in each city giving us time to explore and enjoy. However, the food situation left much to be desired. The tour director, Mike Ivanovitch, himself, made clear that convenience and cost were priorities in his selections for dinner, rather than allowing us to experience the food of the cultures we were visiting. At least five of our dinners were held in hotel restaurants serving subpar food. Almost never were the group members made aware of what would be for dinner, and didn't know what we were eating even after it was placed in front of us. In other tours I have been on, tour guides have given a choice from a set menu, or at least told us ahead of time what would be available. Dietary restrictions were always taken into account, but those of us with restrictions still didn't get any type of choice in what we ate. Lunch, however, is a different story. I was well aware that lunches are not covered in the cost of the trip, but I would have hoped to be allowed to choose what I buy for lunch. On several occasions, the entire 39-person group was shuttled into one restaurant, often beyond its capacity. The crowd caused the restaurants to be extremely slow with service, but no option was given to go somewhere else. Many of the restaurants we were forced to buy lunch from (that or don't eat at all) were quite expensive "tourist trap" eateries. Mr. Ivanovitch seemed completely uninterested with the members of the tour, often choosing to sit far apart from the group at restaurants. Multiple times he set a time and place for the group to meet, but was 5-10 minutes late himself. Once, the group of 34 teenage students was left standing alone on a streetcorner in Rome for nearly 15 minutes while Ivanovitch and the adult chaperones were eating lunch, completely unconcerned and making no attempt to contact us. Italy and Greece are great places to visit but the trip wold have been much more enjoyable had our tour guide prioritized our experience over convenience.

With the inauguration having abruptly changing the direction of the event while causing the closure of some locations for security or weather reasons, WorldStrides did a great job thinking on their feet! They handled the weekend with great success. Troubleshooting and finding solutions! Although it was not our original itinerary, they did a great job in making sure everything we wanted to accomplish got met. Great job!

The organization of travel and hotel was very nice. Made the airport and hotel experience easy and smooth. Inauguration was very hectic with things being cancelled, as well as handling the weather cancellations. Mike S. did a very good job staying on his toes and finding new things to fill into the schedule. The communication of the schedule changes was not very clear, which made it hard to prepare the kids and keep them informed on what was coming. The food situation was frustrating. The pre-determined food was not good, and not very plentiful leaving kids hungry when we got back to the hotel. We ate lunch late and then went to early dinner so it was just hard to make sure the kids weren't hungry and fed properly throughout the trip. Our bus driver was absolutely incredible and made the trip wonderful. I was not a fan of how far away our hotel was. It forced us to spend a lot of time in transit on the bus rather than enjoying DC and spending time doing activities as a large group. There were also limited food options near the hotel which made the evenings difficult for kids who were still hungry. Mike S. is incredibly knowledgeable about DC. He shared some great insights about the memorials and museums. The Army museum and Udvar-Hazy were incredible! The first day being dropped off at the national mall with little direction was not ideal. Had we known that in advance we could have prepared to do things as a group and given our students more direction to make sure they were seeing all of the important sites. The freedom was nice, but knowing that in advance would have been beneficial. Finally, while the travel was very organized and made the transitions smooth and easy, the timing of the schedule was very difficult on our kids. We had to meet for our flight at 2:30 am and the schedule of the first night had us out until 9:00 pm. The students were absolutely exhausted by the end of that day which didn't set them up for success. The team bonding bowling should have happened at the end of the trip, once the students had gotten a chance to get to know each other. Mike S. was knowledgable, but his information at the sites was delivered a little frustratingly. There was a lot of standing and listening to him talk, rather than letting the students explore and encounter the information. His questioning was a little elementary for juniors and seniors in high school. On the days when we had a time crunch I would have preferred for the students to experience the monuments and memorials with fewer stories and talking from Mike S. Stories and information are great! But the talking was too long and it was information overload. It also forced the students to stand when it was cold, which didn't help with the cold weather. Overall, it was a good experience. The kids enjoyed themselves. But there are definitely changes I would make to our trips in the future.

Flaws No inauguration Didn’t go into Arlington house or amphitheater Couldn’t go into ford theatre Did not get to go around American History museum Couldn’t go to the archives on correct day and only got 8 minutes there Didn’t get to go to national history museum Mt Vernon tour cancelled Went to Old town Alexandria too early and nothing at all was open Cards to pay for food at mall didn’t work, nobody’s did Did not get to see white house No natural history museum This is a list of flaws that I recorded as we went through the trip. Many of our plans were changed and shifted. Most of the museums or indoors attractions we were supposed to go to did not happen, and even then, one of the most important ones, the archives, was cut short and we only had five minutes inside. Our tour guide, Robert, was amazing though.

It was my first time in DC and I enjoyed the experienced going to different places except the Pentagon and the new Veterans Memorial. The weather was bad and we left a day ahead of our schedule. My family got a separate trip from the group and I’m waiting for the company for a refund. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and she was nice. The comments I had was about the teachers that escorted the students should have been given the straight flight to Houston instead of going through Chicago . Thank you and waiting for a refund.

The experience was truly amazing. Our tour director and guides were just fabulous and the training session was very helpful. I have already started using some of the materials that I received during the training!

There is no reason to look anywhere else. WorldStrides is the top! If you want a quality trip for your students and you want to work with amazing professionals. This is the place!

The organization of all activities was excellent from beginning to end. The changes that were required after the Inauguration was moved inside were swift and very good. Walter was a great guide throughout!

“Our tour guide was pleasant and reasonably well informed. The transportation and lodgings were adequate, though the hotel was very remote requiring excessive unnecessary travel time back and forth to D.C. While mealtimes were announced, the cutoff time was not which resulted in many children being denied access to breakfast. The structure of the tour itself was poor. No access to the interior of the Library of Congress, Supreme Court, or Capitol Building. No tickets reserved for the National Archives. Short time allotment for high value locations, including the Smithsonian museums, while too much time was spent at less interesting locations. The money cards did not cover what they said they would cover and were all declined after they were issued. Even the kids were disappointed spending time at a bowling alley instead of taking advantage of the limited time in our nation’s capital. Also, several hours were spent in a shopping mall over two days, instead of visiting attractions. The highlights of the trip (including a guided tour through the US Capital on Inauguration Day) were deviations we proposed and organized privately without WorldStrides and despite some pushback. I would not recommend this program. I would, instead, organize a parent group to organize a private trip and hire a local guide if the free tours offered at the locations prove unsatisfactory. No offense to our pleasant guide, but it was a very expensive trip and could easily have been done at half the price with half the frustration.”

It was a great trip the Washington DC. Everything went smoothly and I will definitely take another trip with this company.

Our tour guide, John, was incredible. I think our high school students had a very educational and fun time on the well-planned itinerary in D.C., and even when certain activities had to change due to weather and closures, they were replaced with equally valuable experiences. I hope our school utilizes WorldStrides again!