Study trips and Retreats: Are They Worth The Money?

Many people use their vacations as an opportunity to learn something new, or to improve their knowledge on any given subject.

People go on immersion courses to learn a foreign language; they go to golf school to improve their game; they go to a country that has meaning for them and study it in depth.

There’s no question that some of these trips can be extremely expensive. Many universities offer their alumni study trips that are 3 or 4 times the cost of a trip if you planned it yourself.  That’s prohibitive for many of us.  Tours like Smithsonian Journeys, which offer museum-based lectures and guided study tours, Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours which leads trips on military history, or the National Trust Study Tours are simply not within the purview of the budget traveler.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take those same trips.  If you want to learn about a foreign country, you can plan the trip yourself for a fraction of the cost, and get just as much education as the university would provide you.  (We explain how in our book.)

San Cristobal, Mexico, a popular language-study destination

If you’re trying to improve a skill, it’s important to know what your main goal is, and whether taking a trip is the best way to achieve it.  Friends of ours saw a golf retreat advertised in New Mexico.  It sounded fabulous — but it was way out of their price range.  So they decided to take a 3 day long weekend and devote it to practicing and playing golf.  They booked a group lesson for the beginning of each day, then spent the day practicing what they’d learned.  They decided they probably got to practice and play more than if they’d gone to golf school.  And as for not having the surrounding beauty of the mountains in New Mexico, they decided to make their own, affordable camping trip to explore those mountains in depth later that year.

Depending on what you want to study however, certain trips can be very affordable. Many people go on Spanish immersion courses to Central and South America.  Don’t book a package through an organization.  Decide what city you’d like to study in, then book a language school in that city.  They’ll be able to organize inexpensive lodgings for you.  The city and country you choose is important.  Oaxaca is a popular place for studying Spanish.  It’s a gorgeous city, and while it’s much cheaper than many American cities, it will cost much more than if you choose to study in Guanajuato in central Mexico, or one of the cheaper countries such as Guatamala.

Some companies offer immersion trips that include staying with a Spanish-speaking family. Not only is this a much better way of learning the language — you’re forced to speak Spanish all the time — but it’s obviously much cheaper too.

But there’s one way that’s even cheaper than this — working as an au pair.  Europeans know all about this already.  Being an au pair varies from place to place, but it’s basically like being a live-in babysitter.  Many, many young men and women travel Europe and learn the various languages by staying with a family and looking after their children.  Sometimes they might do a little light housework too.  Americans fear this might be slave labor — it’s not!

Europeans are very respectful of their au pairs and know that this has to be a win-win situation for the family and the au pair. So there’s a limit on how many hours au pairs are expected to work.  Often the focus is on helping get the children ready for school in the morning and then being available to pick them up from school in the afternoon.  The daytimes and some evenings are your own.  You can go to language school or if you feel you’re already practicing the language enough simply by being with the family, you can go off and sightsee or do anything else you choose.

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