Trip management

Resource

The first itinerary you draw up will mostly be for applications – to gain approval from your institution and to access grant money – so there’s no need for it to be too fine-grained. There will be plenty of time later to make changes, and you will most likely have to make a ton of changes as you go. 

To begin, you’re going to need a rough outline. We use MS Word to create a calendar, but Excel or any program you’re comfortable using will work fine. Start with your arrival and departure dates. The first few days and the last few days should be used for orientation and debriefing/evaluations, respectively, so block those off accordingly. Then add your “routine” days, when there will be courses, volunteering, and so forth. We recommend dividing your class time into morning (preparation) and evening (reflection and assimilation), usually around 1.5 hours each. This will give you a basic skeleton, such as in the worked example [Word, 95k].

Next, think about accommodations. You will always need time to check in with your suitcases and get settled. If you’re thinking of homestay, we recommend booking a youth hostel or large Airbnb for the orientation and debriefing period, unless your homestays are close together or you have a common meeting area where you can be alone as a group. Whenever possible, we also recommend scheduling an icebreaker with the host families and the students before splitting off into homestays. For example, a soccer game and/or a picnic usually work well. This creates a low-pressure transition before the students break off from the group and gives you a chance to address everyone all at once so you can meet the families and establish your next meeting time.

After that, add any unmissable tourist activities, usually during the initial orientation. Key to this will be a walking tour on day one, since students will need to stretch their legs and get their bearings. It’s also a good idea to plan a wrap-up activity with host families before your departure. 

Finally, pencil in a few activities that you likely will be changing later. These fill up your calendar so that you can apply for approval from your college and for grants, but keep in mind that you may need to remove some of these activities later to make room for student suggestions (see Creating a community of inquiry). With this final step, you should have a temporary itinerary to get yourself started.