Independent Travel

In all our programs, students have free, unstructured time where they can choose their own activities. These activities can include local activities in their home city, domestic travel in their host country or international travel to other countries.

We are often asked by students and parents if a certain student's travel plans are "safe". This unfortunately is an unanswerable question - there are no activities in the world that are 100% safe - and we cannot give assurances that any activity, from a taxi ride to the airport to travel to a developing country, is "safe".  Furthermore, safety during independent travel depends also to a large degree on the individual student. What might be safer for an experienced and mature traveler, might be less safe for an inexperienced and immature one 

Given this, the judging the suitability and safety of any independent activity or travel rests solely with the student and we encourage students to use as many resources as possible to make their decisions from the guidance of the US State Department, local and international news reports and the judgments of those familiar with local conditions.

We and our local program directors may share our personal knowledge or understanding of a given situation but this information is not meant to be exhaustive or conclusive and cannot replace the student's own research and decision about the suitability of a given activity.  We explicitly disclaim any responsibility for a student's independent travel and activity decisions.  

Though any specific staff member may recommend against activities that he or she believes are particularly risky, this is just a personal opinion and the absence of a recommendation against an activity does not constitute an explicit or implicit endorsement on our part of that activity.