Teen Travel Trends: A Look At Where And Why Teens Travel
Thank you for your interest in "Family Travel Forum Reports: Teen and Student Travel Trends." We have collected a lot of anonymized data on where teens travel and why they go....
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It’s Not Just a Mountain
“There it is guys!” I turned and looked out the window to see it. It was even more breathtaking than I had imagined. I had visited many mountains during my family’s yearly trips to national parks,...
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An Escape From The Concrete Jungle
They say that riding a bike is something that you remember how to do your whole life, and once you learn, you’ll never forget. This felt quite untrue as I pedaled my bike through the lush forests of...
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Returning Home
It had only been a few hours since I’d lugged my overstuffed suitcase off the plane, through customs, and out the double doors of the airport. But now, far from the newly remodeled, sleek corridors of...
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New York City’s Charm
People rushed around me hurriedly in all directions. Everyone seemed to have something vastly important to do. A smartly dressed woman, briefcase in hand and phone pressed to her ear, marched firmly, unbothered...
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First Time Going International…try seven countries.
I come from two undocumented parents from Mexico who are not able to travel internationally because of their migratory status. This status kept my family from exploring the massively diverse cultures of...
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Reconnecting with Isolation; An Appalachian Expedition
Spring break isn’t often thought of as a time of spiritual exploration, and rarely yields a ‘break’ from the hustle and bustle of the commercialized world we live in. Because of this preconceived...
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Connected by Coloring
I felt ashamed for feeling uncomfortable when I was around those in poverty. It took courage to venture out of my familiar bubble of suburban Arvada, Colorado into the low-income areas of Houston, Texas....
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Student of the World
During the summer before my junior year of high school, I traveled to Spain with the world language department at my school. I did well in my Spanish class and could speak enough Spanish to order food,...
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The Tales of a Commuter
I had come to Chicago from Atlanta for a summer internship for high school students at Loyola University. Yet, I had not once ventured out of the four walls of my dorm to experience the bustling city life....
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My Mom and I
This is a picture of my mother and I, standing atop the famed botanical garden in Eze, France. It was the summer after my sophomore year, and my mom and I were travelling through southwest Europe after...
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Welcome to the Rock
“We drove 2,400 miles, 35 painstaking hours in the car to see a jail, much less one that’s abandoned?” I rest my arms on the boat railing and glanced over at my exhausted family. After a long journey...
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Finding Home
After an eighteen-hour flight from Los Angeles, I finally arrived in New Delhi. It had been five years since I last visited and I don’t remember much from my past experiences, but I do remember my unwillingness...
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Making Memories in the Mediterranean
My family and I eagerly dipped our toes into the golden sand of Costa Brava and admired the crystal clear Mediterranean Sea after over an hour of scenic driving through the suburbs in Spain. The crisp...
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Vancouver! On a Budget!
"Little one! Little one! Would you like a fresh baked cookie Little one?" My 4 foot 6, 11-year-old sister (who HATES being called short) whipped her head around in anger only to see a friendly, elderly...
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Land of the Royal Bengal Tiger
“Who are you?” The question that appeared on my last summer English assignment kept lingering on in my head as I flew back to my home country, Bangladesh, for the first time since I came to America....
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Into the Great Wide Ocean
My family seems to have an aversion to flying unless absolutely necessary, so we drive everywhere. Fifteen hours to Texas to visit friends. Ten hours to Kansas to visit grandparents. And most importantly...
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Ice Cream, Donkeys, and Dingle
It was July 7, 2015 and we were four days into our family vacation to Ireland. I was standing on a grassy hilltop, overlooking this gorgeous, shallow, green valley. Small clovers and blades of grass twitched...
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Something Bigger
We handed the key to Ms. Lyza, and she was elated with gratitude. Her broad smile is one that will stick with me for my entire life. During April vacation last year, I went on a school service trip to...
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Lady Liberty: Larger than Life
Forty-five kids, two chaperones, one bus; all headed to the world renowned monument known as the Statue of Liberty. This already sounds like a recipe for disaster, considering the usual, troublesome antics...
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Puerto Rico: A Rich and Vibrant Hub
In 2017, Hurricane Irma and Maria churned and strengthened along their catastrophic paths across the Carribean, showing no mercy as they tore apart communities, homes, and families-- including those in...
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The Most Amazing And Slightly Terrifying Travel Experiance I’ve Yet Encountered
I've been to many places but it's this one that resonates in my mind when asked about the trips I've experienced: Two years ago, six members of my family including myself piled into our 2006 Denali for...
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The Traveler vs The Tourist
“Do you know the difference between a tourist and a traveler?” That was the first question my tour guide, Don Marlon, inquired of our group on the first day (Don means “sir” or “Mr” in Costa...
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The Gas Station Glance
My watch made another insufferable beep. I counted in my head: three. Three hours of sedentary riding on an itchy seat that had turned travel into a game of scratching and ever-shifting posture. I longed...
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My Second Home: Japan
It didn’t take long to realize the Japanese values-- kindness, gratitude, harmony. The significance of unity and relationships was evident in everything I witnessed. There was a constant undertone of...
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The Magic of Botswana
Botswana, Africa: a place so far away yet now so close to my heart. This country’s name alone conjures up an image of exotic intrigue. From the moment of arrival, the beautiful smiles of people welcomed...
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Art and Travel
As an aspiring artist, one of my favorite things to draw are environments. There's something freeing about being able to create settings from your imagination, or adding an unfamiliar twist to an ordinary...
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A vacation that introduced a different lens.
To encounter something as life changing as traveling is rare; many people dream of traveling but cannot go to these wondrous places due to their frenetic lives. It only took one trip to an underdeveloped...
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Turkish Muse
It is mid-June and I am sunburnt from head-to-toe by the scorching desert sun, but as I roam the crowded streets of Istanbul, the Turkish breeze revives me. As the Blue Mosque commences the call to prayer,...
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Precipice of the Unknown
Crack! The sound of thunder brought me to my senses, standing at the peak of the second highest mountain in the northeast. Cadillac Mountain was shrouded by heavy white clouds, illuminated only by the...
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The Joys of Bar-Hopping in Valladolid, Spain
When I reflect on my adventures in Spain, and on subsequent conversations with friends who have also been fortunate enough to make the trip, I find that the first words in recounting our respective experiences...
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Lost
I couldn’t see the ground in front of me, much less my two hands grasping at the path ahead. The sky was dark, filled with thin clouds blotching the moons helpful rays. As I hiked up the cliff, I stopped...
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Fueled by Fire: Remembering the Spark that Started it All
At the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains, a dull cluster of houses, mud-yellow fields, and indoor shopping centers make up my mother’s new home away from home. A year ago, she reluctantly abandoned...
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Grandmother and Granddaughter Bond over Roman Infrastructure (Literally!)
"50 YEARS OF ADVENTURES" advertised the world map in my grandparents' family room. It was covered with colorful pins stuck in exotic places that some may never have even heard of. My grandparents were...
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Long Nights and Loggerheads
Allow me to set the scene for you. You’re riding in the back of a small vehicle, a cross between a four-wheeler and a pickup truck. Buckets and toolkits rattle beside you. The empty beach stretches in...
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Frugal New York City Vacation
Cheap, thrifty, economical and prudent are all accurate descriptions of my mom's spending habits. However, she prefers the word frugal. She clips coupons and shops the “manager’s special” section...
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Fantasy’s Reality
“Here.” A neatly wrapped, red package fell into my hands. “What’s this?” I inquired. We had just arrived in New Zealand a couple hours before. This vacation was my “early Birthday gift.”...
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Costa Rica: Baby Sea Turtle Rescue Mission
A shrill call from our alarm interrupted the rainforest cicada’s song and I fumbled in the dark to turn it off. We were assigned the midnight shift. Mary and Kallie slid out of their bunks, so the other...
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Peace in Churning Waters
It hadn’t rained a single day - not in London, Paris, Florence, or Rome - but of course, on our last morning before flying home, on the day we would be spending in the sea, the Italian sky was filled...
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Mortality In Paradise
During the summer of 2014, my family took a trip to Costa Rica. We explored San Jose, then traveled to Tortuguero where we visited the national park and took a canoe tour down the river. Not long into...
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Hidden Gems of the Sequoia National Forest
It was the last day of school and French class had been reduced to listing words to describe summer vacation. People started dishing out words like “fun” and “beach”, before it came to my turn...
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One Step Forward
A tightly-sealed door never failed to guard my hesitant heart from outside adventures. But on that otherwise gloomy day, a tiny spark escaped. The carefully engineered clicks rang throughout my ears, the...
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The Great Adventure of Around the Block
One never knows when they step outside what adventures they might run into. Exciting adventures like someone watering their lawn or a person walking their dog with headphones glued to their ears. I stepped...
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The Limitless Beauty of Punta Cana – Expanding My Horizons From Sky to Sea
To celebrate our highly anticipated 2018 high school graduation, my best friend Eden and I embarked on a trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. After hours of paperwork, four declined passport photos,...
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The Camp Colorado Experience
The San Gabriel Mountains - the Condor Mountains - slid away, and my sister Justina and I flew over a dust-red land home to the rugged canyons symbolic of the West; on our way to Camp Colorado II, a weeklong...
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E’s Favorite Place
My mother has always had a slightly unhealthy obsession with estate sales, and because of this I have learned that there are many cheaply priced gems to be found within the midst of old towels and used...
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The City / The Girl That Never Sleeps
“Connor, it’s rising! It’s rising, I can see it!” The sun, a lioness waking from her nap, stretched and woke at approximately 5:30am in the Upper West side of Manhattan, late June. I had not...
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6 European Cities, 3 Weeks, 2 Travelers
“I’m labeling the bus from Antwerp to Luxembourg! I can’t look at the hostel reservations right now!” I frantically said to my mom. We were in the kitchen, papers strewn across the table, reviewing...
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Green Gardens, Stone Walls, and Falconry Amidst the Rain
Our tour guide Nigel ushered us out of the van with a wide grin on his face and led the way towards the castle. It was overcast, the grey of the sky mirroring the grey stone of Dunrobin’s walls. My mom...
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