What Should I Think About When Planning a Tour?

Some teachers prefer to keep it simple—pick a tour and go. Others like to customize every detail. Some leaders hold monthly pre-tour meetings, while others gather the group just once before departure. There’s no single way to do educational travel. But whether you're planning your first trip or your fifteenth, here are a few things to think about—from early planning to your on-tour approach.

1. Your Destination and Theme

The heart of any great trip starts with the question: what kind of experience do you want to create for your students?

Do you want to…

  • Explore one or two cities in depth, or cover multiple countries in one itinerary?
  • Have ample down time or keep your travelers on the go?
  • Focus on major cities, or explore smaller towns and less-traveled areas?
  • Align the trip with classroom content, or simply expose students to the broader world?

There’s no wrong answer—just knowing your general goals helps us recommend the right tours (or start building something custom).

Young student gazing out the window of a moving train, reflecting the thoughtful planning that goes into choosing the right destination and theme for an educational tour.

2. Communicating Your Deal Breakers

In an ideal world, everyone would get everything. In reality, we focus on making sure you get what matters most. Some preferences may cost a little more—and they’re often easier (or only possible) to fulfill if you're traveling with a private bus—but if something’s important to you, it’s worth discussing.

Examples include:

  • Specific airlines, dates, or flight connections
  • Cities where a central hotel location really matters
  • Style of meals (local and adventurous vs. familiar and consistent)
  • Tour Director preferences (language, personality, experience)

If something matters to you, it matters to us too. Just say the word—we’re here to get those details right.

Illustration of a handshake in front of a compass and radial design, representing collaboration and clearly communicating preferences when planning a Blue Dot tour.

3. Your Trip Setup

These are important decisions that affect the structure and cost of your trip. Your Tour Consultant will walk you through all of them early in the process.

  • Do you want to travel as your own private group, or combine with another school?
  • How many chaperones will you need?
  • Should tips be built into the price, or handled separately?
  • Will upgraded travel protection be required or optional?
  • Should optional excursions be mandatory for all, or decided individually?

We’ll walk you through the options and how they affect your group’s price and setup.

Multiple hands joining in a group high-five, symbolizing the collaborative planning process involved in setting up a Blue Dot educational tour.

4. Your Timeline

Most teachers start planning 12–24 months before departure—but that’s not a rule. We can accommodate shorter timelines when needed. That said, planning earlier gives you:

  • Better pricing
  • More time to recruit and enroll students
  • Allows us more time to plan flights and logistics
  • More travel rewards

Whatever your timeline, we’ll help you make the most of it—but starting earlier does have its advantages.

Prague’s Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square, symbolizing the importance of early planning and timing when preparing a student tour with Blue Dot.

5. General Planning and Tour Logistics

These are the small decisions that shape how your group communicates and travels together. There’s no universal right answer—just what’s right for you and your group.

  • Should you host a recruitment meeting or spread the word another way?
  • Will you hold regular group meetings before departure, a couple, or manage everything by email?
  • Will you travel to the airport as a group or meet there individually?
  • Will chaperones hold student passports, or is each traveler responsible for their own?

These details might seem small now, but getting aligned early makes the trip smoother for everyone—students, chaperones, and you.

Aerial view of busy Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, symbolizing the importance of organizing logistics and keeping groups aligned during travel.

6. Your On-Tour Plan

As the Group Leader, your decisions help shape the student experience on the ground. These questions are worth thinking through ahead of time—especially if you're working with multiple chaperones.

  • Will each chaperone be assigned a pod of students, or rely on full bus counts?
  • During free time, are students allowed to explore in pairs, or should they stay in groups of 3+?
  • Will your group return to the hotel together each night, or split up by interest or energy level?
  • If a student has to stay behind due to illness or injury, which chaperone will remain with them?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but having a plan for these moments helps everyone stay safe, informed, and confident on the ground.

View from an airplane window at sunset, symbolizing the start of the journey and the importance of planning for student safety and on-tour logistics.

Ready to start the conversation?

You don’t need all the answers yet. We’ll help you think through the options and create a trip that matches your goals—and your group.