Take Your Students Abroad
Paideia Classical Tours is a full-service student travel program, designed by teachers for teachers. Our staff of trained classicists have had transformational educational experiences abroad and are dedicated to creating such experiences with others. To facilitate student travel, we have developed our Classical Tours service to cover all aspects of educational travel, allowing our partner teachers to concentrate on their teaching and time abroad with their students. Whether you have traveled with your students abroad before or it will be your first time, Paideia Classical Tours will help make your vision for the trip a reality.
Itineraries, Guiding, & Curriculum
We offer a number of standard itineraries covering major sites in Italy and Greece. Rather than a rush through tourist sites, we believe in the value of allowing students the time to get to know sites and places. We are also happy to recommend unusual and less-visited sites that provide a unique experience for students. Additionally, we love working with teachers to develop customized itineraries to complement their curriculum and interests. We have planned study-abroad experiences in England, France, Spain, and Germany, as well as Italy and Greece.
Our full-support packages in Italy include one of Paideia’s Rome Fellows as logistical and teaching assistant. On tour, the Rome Fellow remains with the group for the entirety of its time in Italy, lodging with the group in its accommodations, overseeing each day’s schedule, and facilitating the group’s movement. The Teaching Assistant can take care of all on-site guiding and teaching, but they are also happy to step back and let the teacher lead the group through any site or text the teacher would like. We view the tour as a collaboration, and teachers should feel free to shape the tour as they like. We also offer light-support tours, a more affordable option for teachers who want help planning their trip, but do not require 24-7 on the ground support.
Over the past decade, Paideia has developed a curriculum database of selections from Greek and Latin literature and other texts in translation, which are tied to archaeological sites in Italy, Greece, and elsewhere in Europe. Depending on the group’s interests, the Institute provides customized reading packets with key words glossed to allow easy reading on site. This combination of language and literary study, which we call loci in locis, helps bring both ancient texts and archaeological sites to life.
Regardless of the level of support, a member of our Rome office staff will be assigned to your group and will be on call 24/7 in case of emergencies, and will visit periodically throughout the program to check in and participate.
Logistical Preparation
The Classical Tours staff arranges all the logistical details of the tour, including flights, lodging, ground transportation, site entries, curricular materials, and meal reservations. We lodge groups in centrally located hotels, allowing easy access to sites. When traveling between cities, groups will have a private coach bus dedicated to their group alone.
We believe that shared meals are an important part of group travel and of experiencing another culture. We have longstanding partnerships with a number of locally-owned restaurants to provide authentic high quality meals to students. Students can order from the full menu at every meal, and will not be limited to a ‘tourist’ or prix fixe menu.
Finally, to make advertising and enrollment easier for teachers, we can provide a dedicated website for the tour where students and their parents may learn more about the trip and enroll and submit payments online.
Request A Proposal
To request a proposal for a Paideia Institute Classical Tour, please click the button below and submit the form. A member of our staff will be in touch shortly thereafter to begin your journey.
Testimonials
"Paideia does it all. They have knowledgeable staff, create unforgettable and unique experiences, and make the trips student-centric. Let’s not forget the food! No other tour company allows the students to experience food as it should be experienced. At this point, I wouldn’t travel with anyone else. Every trip I have taken with them has been unforgettable!"
Anthony Cornish
Detroit Catholic Central High School, MI
"This trip was above and beyond anything we had expected. I was deeply impressed by every aspect of our stay. Paideia's passion, knowledge, and care created an unparalleled experience for our students. Many of the students called the tour a life-changing event. The sites, the readings, the art, the food were the facets of a true gem of a school trip. In my opinion, however, the most important impression for our students was actually meeting the young, talented, and accomplished people of Paideia. The TAs were true role models for these kids. Thank you once again for changing their lives in the most magical way!"
Veronika Aleiner
Hastings High School, New York NY
"The Paideia Institute knows how to do a student trip. I’ve taken many trips with my students. Never have I taken one marked by such grace, good humor, and savvy as I did this past spring with Paideia. Their staff was completely in charge, but unfailingly flexible and genuine. And, this on top of an encyclopedic knowledge of Rome’s language, culture, and history! I learned a great deal, while at the same time I felt respected – in my role as teacher and as Latinist. It was an invigorating trip that left me feeling relaxed. I’ve never enjoyed being in Italy with my students more. Take your students to see Rome with this wonderful company!"
Dawn Mitchell
Baltimore, MD
Paideia has mastered experiential learning. The blend of studying and presence at sites made for a trip that changed all our lives, enriching them. Also, the itinerary was masterful, including delicious meals featuring regional food, intelligent lodging choices, and walking tours that felt like archetypal journeys of wisdom. Our trip to Rome, Florence, Pompeii + Herculaneum was superb!
Kristina Zarlengo
Stanford Online High School, Stanford CA
"Paideia is the only organization I know of that offers tours of the classical world that go beyond simply sight-seeing. At the heart of their program is substantive, rigorous learning. Our trip was crafted specifically around our school’s program and our students’ own interests to make the greatest impact upon them both academically and personally. Students left feeling that they had built a meaningful connection with both the modern and ancient cultures they encountered."
Ted Freeman
The Westtown School, Westtown PA
"Our experience in Rome with the Paideia Institute was an educational and logistical dream! We mean no hyperbole. The Paideia staff who worked closely with us throughout our trip - from the planning in the US to our departure from Italy - demonstrated a pervasive professionalism and a fluent knowledge of Italian language and culture, both modern and ancient. Our Teaching Assistant implemented each day's activities with alacrity and scholarship. He got to know each of our 14 students - a group with varied passions and perspectives - and each of them learned so much from his dynamism, leadership and expertise. The Paideia Institute prioritizes and achieves a high level of student (and teacher) intellectual engagement no matter the spectrum of interests, depth of knowledge of the Classics, or the dynamics of the group itself."
Greg Lynch
Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg PA
"We run a statewide JCL trip to Italy every other year and have used multiple companies on previous trips. Paideia was the first company that "got us" from day one. We greatly enjoyed our trip with our teaching assistant who made all the copies for the site visits and prepped the Latin texts that went along with those sites. This was our first guide who was an expert in the Classical sites and could also put them in their modern context. The housing and meals were among the best we've ever had on our trips. The fact that students could order their main course from the menu was a huge success and resulted in getting to try new foods. The "price is the price" policy was also a breath of fresh air and we greatly appreciated not needing to collect extra money for tips, etc. If you're a group of Classical scholars (or any group with specific Classical interests), Paideia knows how to meet your needs without breaking your budget. You'll love the experience!"
Jeremy Walker
Indiana Junior Classical League Co-Chair
"Paideia is the perfect company for classics teachers and professors who want to travel with students. Just being around Jason and Eric and the TA's is electrifying. They all love the classics and that energy is so palpable that students pick up on it too. My kids never complained about the readings that accompanied each site, and they even spent one lunch trying to communicate in Latin. The days were packed, but there was always free time around lunch for the kids to explore a little on their own, and at the end of the day everyone tumbled gratefully into bed.
The accommodations were clean and central, and the food was way ahead of anything I have experienced with other travel groups, though the price of the trip was actually lower than quotes from other student travel companies. We all appreciated being able to choose off the menu instead of being presented with generic pasta or pizza night after night. I also liked that we either walked or used public transportation whenever possible. That is by far the best way to learn a new city. I will never travel with any other group again, and I am happily planning next year's trip already. Paideia is the best!"