Student tours through Europe?

IB student trip-Europe(Austira,France, etc) or Greece?

• Yo guys, i have an urgent question. I'm in gr.11 this year and planning to go abroad,with select teachers and fellow students from my high school, during spring break. I'm having problems deciding whether i should go to the regular Greece trip or the IB Europe tour trip. Yes i am aware that Greece is in southern europe, however by "europe trip" i mean travelling to Austria, France, and Italy. Both trips are supposed to be 13 days and we will have to pay at the maximum $4000 for our hotel rooms, meals, transport, etc. Also both trips are going to be 'tourish' , however the coordinator of the Ib trip told us that the Greece trip was going to be mostly an 70%-80% shopping trip-with the rest of the time spent on visiting some historical sites. The IB Austria,France,Italy is going to be 98% touring and some free time given to us for shopping here and there. The price seems kind of high for a 13 day trip and i'm not sure if just going to Greece to walk around and have fun is worth it; i'm also not sure if paying $4000 to go to concentration camps/old graveyards and churches is worth it either. My parents said i can go to whichever trip i want, since i have never even been out of the city ever since we moved here to Canada. Oh and is it true that if you're Canadian and you go to some parts of Europe people voluntarily buy stuff for you? The coordinator said that. Aha free stuff is good man :) But she also said that there are alot of perverted old men in those European places that lurk around waiting to jump girls, and others just randomly coming up to kiss you? She's putting a guy in with each group of girls just so he can protect them. I looked around the room during that meeting and loads of those guys in the room werent all that kick-butt looking, i mean com'on she was being blatantly sexist whether she meant it or not. Lol guys i'm just rambling now, and sorry for the huge message. Uhh so all i want to know is regular trip to Europe or educational IB trip to Europe (ie.Austria, France, Italy) And one more thing, i don't want anyone posting smart alek responses like "uhh well Greece is like in Europe aha pos" so i'm saying this again. I know Greece is in southern europe...the school board is just stupid for seperating both trips this way.

• Answer:

  Hello! I graduated from IB last year. We didn't have a class trip like this, you're very lucky. Even though, being Greek-American I would be a bit biased and pick the trip to Greece, I think the best way for you to decide would be to pick the trip that most closely fits your school's curriculum. For example, if the IB history program at your school focused a lot on the holocaust, and you're interested in studying these things, I would go on the Europe trip. But if you liked studying ancient history more, go with the trip to Greece. Also, it sounds like the Europe trip you mentioned might be more rushed, since you're going to be going through several countries. That's probably why a greater percentage of the time for that trip will be spent touring, so you need to take that into account. If you'd prefer to tour the Greek islands and experience the culture, rather than see more historical sites, go to Greece!