Let’s Go There!
September 22, 2020
SYTA Road Scholar Application Now Open
September 21, 2020SYTA is now taking applications for the Road Scholar program until November 13th. A Road Scholarship is financial aid granted to individuals or groups who are nominated by a teacher or youth group leader and who meet criteria within five categories:
- Achievement – Accomplishment in the student or group’s area of focus.
- Need – Financial. Cultural. Linguistic. Home life hardship.
- Initiative/Involvement – Preparation financially or through enrichment activities.
- Service/Citizenship – Student citizenship within the classroom or community. Family service in the military or as a first-responder.
- Connection – Relevance to student or group’s area of focus.
Staying Hydrated While Traveling
June 26, 2020SYTA has published an article on the importance of staying hydrated while traveling. You can read the article by clicking the link below. Vamonos Tours also recognizes the importance of staying hydrated. We provide each of our travelers with a reusable Nalgene water bottle and remind our students to fill it frequently throughout the day.
Tips For Keeping Students Hydrated On The RoadCovid-19 Safety Standards
June 10, 2020The safety and well-being of our travelers is Vamonos’ top priority. Beginning on June 1st, 2020, we are implementing additional safety measures to protect our travelers during and after this crisis. These protections are not just for our groups but also for our staff. Our preventative measures are geared to protect our travelers and staff from any spread of Covid19.
LivExperiences + Google
May 26, 2020We are now offering virtual tours and trips through our ViVámonos.com website. For a preview of our new ViTrip offerings view the video below. You can find a list of all the ViTrips we offer on our ViTrips page.
Everyone is talking about Puerto Rico!
May 22, 2020
The Benefits of Working with a SYTA Tour Operator
SYTA recently published a blog post on the benefits of working with a SYTA member tour operator. Below is a brief excerpt from the article. Clic the button to read the full post.
One of the greatest advantages to using a tour operator, rather than plan a student group trip on your own, is benefitting from the relationships that operators have with various vendors, such as hotels and attractions. Operators cultivate these relationships over many years through networking, conferences and meetings with associations such as SYTA. As a result, the tour operators build volume over time and that means leverage in securing group rates, VIP access and tickets that an individual would not be able to get on their own.
Airlines Step Up their Cleaning and Safety Standards
May 11, 2020U.S. top airlines such as American, Delta, United, Southwest and Jetblue have taken never before seen cleaning and safety procedures to adapt to our new Covid19 reality. In our research, we found that these airlines are using additional electrostatic spraying to disinfect their planes with an EPA-registered hospital-grade disinfectant on both hard and soft surfaces. For American and Delta, most of their aircrafts have High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters that provide a complete air change approximately 15–30 times per hour. HEPA air filters extract more than 99.999% of even the tiniest viruses, as small as 0.01 micrometers. In the case of Southwest and Jetblue, all of their planes have HEPA filters.
Travel Pros Make Planning a Student Trip Easy
April 17, 2020Here is the second of two articles from NTA’s April Courier Magazine, that featured Vamonos Tours. in this article NTA interviews our president, Jorge Pardo along with another tour operator from Destinations Unlimited about student travel, the current situation, and beyond. An excerpt is below. If you would like to read the full article, click the button.
Although most student travel—field trips, performance tours, athletic team travel, etc.—was canceled this spring due to the coronavirus scare, it’s certain that school groups will hit the road again in the future. They’ll travel to learn, to sing, to play, and to broaden their minds.
Two experienced tour operators, Julie Kozikowski, CTP, president of Destinations Unlimited (Plymouth, Connecticut) and Jorge Pardo, founder/president of Vámonos Tours (San Juan, Puerto Rico), share their views on what the virus means to student travel.
Read Full Article
For more information on the tours and destinations we offer, mouse over Tours in our menu above and then destinations. To get more information on planning a student group tour, click the Request Info button on the top right. We are ready to assist you!
San Juan for Student Groups
NTA recently published an article in their April issue of Courier magazine about Vamonos Tours in Puerto Rico. One of their staff members spent the day on tour with one of our student groups. He got to experience our tour and Spanish only experience firsthand. Here is an excerpt from the article. To read the full article on his day spent with one of our student groups, click the button below.
During a visit to Puerto Rico last year, I got to explore the island with long-time NTA member, Vámonos Tours. While I’d written about the student tour operator multiple times for Courier magazine, it was a real treat to get to see the Vámonos team in action.
The company focuses on localized experiences, and a typical tour highlights the best of San Juan and mixes in stops elsewhere on the island. The day I joined one of their school groups, middle schoolers from Alaska, for some cultural-based activities was spent in Ponce, a city on the southern coast.
Read Full Article
For more information on the tours and destinations we offer, mouse over Tours in our menu above and then destinations. To get more information on planning a student group tour, click the Request Info button on the top right. We are ready to assist you!