The Problem With Student Travel Companies in Florence

I will never forget waking up that first morning.  It was my Fall Break during my semester abroad and I was travelling with my roommate Jenny.  We were in a hotel outside of Barcelona and had arrived very late the night before.  For both of us, it was really the first time we had traveled on our own and we didn't know anything except that we had flights and some accommodations booked for the next ten nights: it was going to be a long trip and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a little bit worried.

The next day, after dealing with the sudden appearance of pink eye (unpleasant, but, in the end, fine), we found a cute restaurant, on recommendation from someone at our hostel, and both ordered food, without really knowing what we were ordering.  Between us, we spoke an embarrassingly small amount of Spanish and, to admit something really embarrassing, I did not even know Catalan was a language until we landed in Barcelona...  I cringe a little bit writing that, but I remind myself that this is why we travel, to learn things that we didn't know before.

So, Jenny takes a bite of her mystery sandwich and discovered quickly that her sandwich contained walnuts.

"Erin, I have something to tell you," she said.

"Okay...."

"I'm allergic to walnuts."

My heart dropped a little, "maybe you should stop eating then...."

"I can't, it's sooooo good."

As it turned out, her allergy was not severe and we survived to eat many fantastic meals and went back to that place three times and every time ordered a mystery meal and every time we left full and satisfied. (The restaurant was called La Bascula--vegetarian, which is not common in Spain & lots of organic/natural things!)

Jenny and I, 3 years ago in Ireland--savoring some time in the English-speaking world!

Being in Barcelona is like being on top of the world!!!

The point of this long, self-involved story is that we were clueless!!!  Completely clueless!!  But we made it through those ten days and we learned so much about ourselves, each other and, above all, the world!  We both learned a little bit about reading maps, argued and got stressed out when we got lost, stumbled through two languages (how surprised was I when I found out upon my return to Florence that I had been asking for "a bedtime story" instead of "the check" at every meal we ate in Spain!  Or when I booked bus tickets out of the wrong Valencia, Spain!).  When our skills as navigators and linguists failed us (which was often), we compensated with curiosity and sincere smiles--and had some help from locals along the way!  I often tell people that I learned more in those ten days than I everything I learned combined in my life until that point and, in retrospect, I wouldn't trade all the awkwardness or stressful moments for any other experience.

Which is exactly why it makes me so sad when I see students increasingly choosing to travel through companies rather than planning their own trips.  There are at least a half dozen companies in Florence that specialize in planning trips for students, but they all provide more or less the same experience:  for what you pay them, they will bundle your accommodations, provide you with a guide, maybe include some food and (joy of joys!) put you on a bus with fifty other American students (or more!) and shuttle you all around Europe.

And students tell me:

"It's so easy!"

"It's so comfortable!"

"They did everything for us!"

"They made sure we didn't stay in a bad hotel!"

The problem I have with these companies is not that they don't fulfill their promises--based on what I've heard, they do a great job of shuttling students around Europe, making them comfortable and taking them from site to site in Europe's most beautiful, historic cities.

In fact, the problem I have with these companies is that they do exactly what they say they do--they make everything so effortless and in doing so insulate students, in a bus full of Americans, from learning about the world around them and from truly experiencing the culture of the place they are in.  They take away the uncertainty and the frustration of travelling but in doing so, I would argue, they also take away the sense of curiosity and adventure.

I've spoken with people who traveled through Europe in the age before the internet and they have told me about what it was like, arriving in a city, suitcase in hand and literally searching through a phone book to find a place to sleep at night.  The truth is, travelling on your own is not that hard anymore.  There are dozens of travel sites and booking sites on the internet that provide dozens of reviews and information on attractions and accommodations. There is a huge selection of guidebooks for any of the major European destinations available in bookstores, both at home and abroad, and even on your device of choice (Anyone who has ever traveled with me knows that I LOVE guidebooks, and on the last few trips I have taken, I took my guide books with me via the Kindle app on my ipod!  All the fun of a guide book without having to lug around a huge book!  Miraculous!!!).

Yes, booking things on your own can require a bit of actual thought on your part and maybe some advance planning, depending on how adventurous you are (although with Wifi beginning to appear everywhere, including on flights and trains, perhaps even less now than ever!), but it gives you the freedom to do what you want, to change your plans (or travel without any real plans!), and to experience some of those moments of frustration and stress and clueless-ness that humble us and help us grow, as travelers and as humans, as well as leading us to moments when discover something extraordinary or meet remarkable people, both locals and fellow travelers.

I know that not everyone will agree with me on this, and this post may be controversial.  But I would like to start a conversation more than anything.  Of course, I have to recognize the fact that not everyone is looking to get the same things out of their travel experiences as I am.

I often use a quote by St. Augustine, "the world is book and those who do not travel read only the first page."  The kind of travel that I am advocating for is not measured so much by the number of pages read as by the experience of reading.  Did we really understand what we were reading?  Or did we just skim to find the main idea?  Did we savor the moments of poetry and of challenge in the text?  Did we actually learn something?  Can we think critically about it all or is it just a blur of photos on our Facebook pages?

There are some risks in planning a trip for yourself, not so much risks as in putting yourself in physical peril (especially in Europe, come on!), but risks that you will have moments when you will be pushed out of your comfort zone.  Not only is this a possibility, but something that I promise and hope for.  Because when you find yourself outside of your comfort zone, you are at risk of learning and of growing and seeing things differently.  It's a bit of a leap of faith, but one that I wish more students would take.