So what's an Expedition?

WAT  Expedition is a school trip with more. More adventure, more giving back, more ownership from students and more planning and support for teachers.

A 3-4 week journey through a developing country, our Expeditions inspire all kinds of things. A new perspective. Gratitude. Mindfulness. They also allow high school students to give back to a community abroad, through a rewarding project they help plan before they go.

 

Who can go?

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Expeditions are open to high school students around the world . Typically, we will work with your school to organise a tailored trip, so listen out for details from your teachers! If there isn't a trip running at your school, or you are looking for ways complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award, you can sign up as an individual to our Explorers program! Download our most

 

 

up-to-date Explorers Guide here.

 

Are you a school teacher or Principal? Head on over to our educators page.

EDUCATORS
 

Fast Facts

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WHO GOES ON EXPEDITION?

Around the world high school students.

 

TRIP DEPARTURE DATES

 

All year round dependent on climate and destination.

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HOW LONG DO EXPEDITIONS GO FOR?

The average trip length is 3 to 4 weeks.

OTHER HANDY INFO

• You set the itinerary! The places you visit, the project you complete and trek you take on.

• Sign-up to take-off can be from 6 to 18 months due to planning and prep.

• You travel with a team of students from your school, a teacher and an Antips Leader. You can also sign up to our Explorers program as an individual.

• Trips run to all four corners of the world from Peru to Vietnam. Read about our awesome destinations here.

What's on the itinerary?

 

While you will design your own trip there are always three core elements you can look forward to:

A community service project

A thoroughly researched and hands-on project will form a central part of your expedition. Guess who gets to decide what you’ll be doing? You do. During this component, you’ll work directly with a local community, helping to build or renovate school buildings, improve the infrastructure around the community (like building a well or a bridge) or get your hands dirty laying the foundation for a greenhouse or vegetable garden.

The trek

Experience the natural beauty of your destination with an inspiring trek through local terrain. Whether it be the mountain tops of Nepal or the jungles of Borneo, you’re bound to discover the most breathtaking places on Earth. If you’re worried about your fitness, don’t be. Everything will be up to your team. From the length of the trek to the pace you walk it, you choose.

Exploration and travel

Unlike the typical school tour or family holiday, you and your team will have the chance to actually plan your itinerary and make the trip your own. Travelling backpacker style, you explore the sights of your choosing, experience the local culture and have the adventure of your lives.

Go do it! Whatever it takes, you have to go. It’s a life changing experience that you will never forget.

Samantha Wilson, Student at Iona College (India Expedition)

Your personal guide

One of the best ways to travel is with a guide. You’ll get one with us, but we call them leaders. Why not guides? Because they’re so much more. Unlike other travel companies we don’t hire overseas people to pick you up at the arrival gate and show you around. Our leaders are Australian and New Zealand locals who work closely with you beforehand (at planning sessions and on the training course) and fly the whole way there and back with you.

We’re picky on who we choose to represent us. Being a leader is not a quick cash job, it’s integral to your preparation and trip. Our leaders have been around the world, studied a degree or four and completed enough wilderness training to make Bear Grylls proud. You’ll be led by marine biologists, entrepreneurs, firefighters, school principals, emergency rescue pilots, professional soccer players and academics. Some are even Insta famous. We can confidently say our leaders are the best in Australia and New Zealand, hands down.

We prepare you like no one else

Your journey begins well before bags are packed. With more prep and planning than other school trips, we’ll spend anywhere from 6 to 18 months researching, planning and organising every detail of the trip with you. We guide you through preparation activities, help decide what community to help, project to accomplish and where to trek. All this planning (10 individual meetings to be exact, but who’s counting?) builds up to a two-day training course and a travel simulation day—both which will give you a taste of what’s to come when you finally head overseas. What does a two day training course look like? Epic. But don’t take our word for it, check it out below.

You add a layer to yourself as a person, learning more than you would in a year of school. Other cultures enrich and enlighten you to the true extent of diversity in our world. Worth every cent.

Jack Saunders, Student at Wellington College (Peru Expedition)

We’re different and because of that, you can be too

Parents may ask why you’re choosing an Expedition over a standard school trip, often followed by “it’s cheaper” or “What are you going to get out of it?”

Tell them this.

Humility. Understanding.

We started Antipodeans because we believe travel makes you a better citizen of the world. Why? As Mark Twain once wrote, “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Can you imagine how different the world would be if everyone travelled? We can.

Perspective. Fearlessness. Independence.

Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix) was once asked how he was able to push past the fear of risking everything to build his ground-breaking startup. He reflected on his time abroad with the Peace Corps, saying “once you’ve hitchhiked across Africa with ten bucks in your pocket, starting a business doesn’t seem too intimidating.” We couldn’t have said it better.

Confidence. Purpose. Perseverance.

Travel gives you time to step out of life and look at it in new ways, to experience how people do things differently—often with less—and to learn from new cultures and customs. What you take away from those moments stays with you forever. Steve Jobs once said of his time in India, “I didn’t have a dorm room so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, returned coke bottles to buy food and walked across town every Sunday to get one good weekly meal at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”

Get inspired. Read about some of the amazing countries we go to: Borneo, Cambodia, India, Peru, Vietnam and Thailand.

GET INSPIRED
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