Why I Love to Take Teenagers on Small Group Tours

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Travel broadens people’s views. And a teenage mind is a petri dish for being broadened. As a kid your world view is small, it’s your family, friends, and school. For most teenagers it doesn’t go much beyond that. Sure they get exposed to friends of their parents and their friend’s parents, but it’s all still likely from the same region in the world.

I’m basing this on my own experience as a teenager in the Midwest. I had a pretty small life back then. It was a good life, but my worldview was small; Peoria, sports, school, and family. We traveled, but mainly regionally, and certainly nothing that took a passport. My worldview was mainly based on TV and movies.

That’s why I love to take my nieces traveling – it exponentially broadens their exposure to new things, ideas, and people. I’ve found that one of the best ways to maximize this exposure is to take them on small group tours where they aren’t simply traveling with me, but with a group of interesting people from around the world. For 3 of the 5 Niece Projects I’ve traveled with Intrepid Travel who specialized in this type of small group cultural travel. It’s my perfect solution for my Niece Project trips and here’s why.

4 Reasons Why Small Group Tours are Perfect When Traveling With Teenagers

There Are More People to Interact With

Two or three weeks can be a long time for my nieces to travel with me, and quite frankly we can get sick of each other after that long! Doing a small group tour allows us both to have other people to interact with when we get sick of each other! I say that jokingly, but it’s really nice to have some variety of people to talk to. It provides different perspectives on things.

A small group tour is just what it sounds like…small. It’s normally a maximum of 12 to 15 people and I find that it normally is made up of solo travelers who don’t feel like traveling alone. Our New Zealand group was nearly all solo travelers representing ages 20’s 30’s 40’s and 50’s. Plus, it was a nice cross section of people from around the world.

Lindsey got along great with everyone. One of the women in our group, Abi, decided she wanted to find out what teenagers were listening to these days, so she sat with Lindsey on the bus for a day and they shared headphones! Lindsey loved showing off her music choices, and Abi had a chance to get in touch with the younger generation.

Read the whole story here and learn about Lindsey’s big revelation thanks to small group tours!

For the 3rd year the Niece Project is working with Intrepid Travel! Check out their great family travel opportunities. Family doesn’t always have to mean the conventional family, it is also for aunts and uncles!
I was a guest of Intrepid Travel on this tour However all opinions are my own.