This is a question we get all the time at Wilderness Adventures. How much time does it take to get the most out of a trip? Is two weeks too short? Is 45 days too long? What is the right amount of time to allow me the ability to unplug and make new friends?
These are all great questions and the answer to each depends on the child. Still, we wanted to provide you with a little guidance as you consider the trip that is best for you.
First, know this: we work with our staff so that they offer each and every student a quality experience, no matter the length of the trip. That means that our students will have enough time to make new friends on a 13-day trip. Also, as our trips have been carefully planned, retooled, and perfected over the past 45 years, they will also have enough time to see the amazing sites of the region.
Our Discovery trips are 13 days in length and are designed to offer an introductory adventure experience to our youngest students. Set in locations across the US, we minimize travel time for parents and campers who want an experience in their ‘neck of the woods.’ For many of our first-time Discovery campers, their experience in the Adirondacks, California, Yellowstone and Colorado will offer the perfect length of time away from home and living in a tent.
If you are in the 7th-12th grade, you may also be drawn to a 2-week timespan. First timers and returning students alike often like the 14-day option because they can add it to their plans as a capstone experience of their summer. With more schools going later into June, and sports starting early in August, sometimes a two-week trip to Alaska, or the Tetons for a bit of Archaeology, or Hawaii makes the summer perfect.
Others are drawn to our longer adventures. Our 21 and 28-day trips are immensely popular at Wilderness Adventures. For legacy campers (students whose parents did trips), these trips are most like the offerings that were a part of the early years of our program. The longer trips also offer a chance to see more sights and often have longer technical portions of the adventure. This year, we are thrilled with the response of our students to the 45-day Great Northwest anniversary trip. For a month and a half, our students will experience action-packed days that are reminiscent of our early days as an organization.
If you aren’t finding the perfect trip length, then it’s time to create your own trip! How do you do this? Simple, you take our itineraries and combine them for a multi-trip summer. You could combine Hawaii Service, Costa Rica Service & Alaska High Trails!!! Students that take this route love Wilderness Adventures and have created thrilling combinations that get the most out of the adventurer inside them!
Regardless of trip length, our young outdoor enthusiasts and world travelers maximize every moment to have a fantastic adventure with us. With carefully coordinated itineraries that have evolved over 45 years, we know we can offer the magic of WA on every trip.
