Parents Are Choosing Passports Over Classrooms

Traveling during standard school breaks can create challenges that impact budget and experience. From inflated prices to overcrowded attractions, you have most likely found peak-season travel limits your opportunities for meaningful, relaxed, and enriching vacations.

“We tried visiting national parks during spring break, but it felt like everyone else had the same idea. We spent more time waiting in lines than actually exploring, and the crowds made it hard for the kids to really connect with the experience. It was exhausting, expensive, and honestly, not the memorable family trip we hoped for,” said Sarah M., describing a self-planned trip.

This experience is amplified when visiting a different country. Navigating unfamiliar transportation systems, dealing with language barriers, and adjusting to new cultural norms can already be overwhelming; add peak-season crowds and overbooked attractions, and it quickly becomes chaotic.

Try wrangling kids through a packed train station in Tokyo or waiting hours in the hot sun to get into the Vatican Museum, only to feel rushed once inside. The stress of sticking to rigid tour schedules, inflated holiday pricing, and limited availability at popular sites often means less time enjoying the moment and more time managing logistics. For many families, it turns what should be an enriching cultural adventure into a test of patience and leaves memories of fatigue rather than cherished moments.

Cost, Crowds, and Compromised Experiences

Like many families, you have probably felt trapped by the conventional school-break travel calendar, forcing you to visit destinations during peak seasons. Parents frequently express frustration about paying premium prices during school holidays, when airfares and the price of accommodations can increase exponentially.

Traveling exclusively during these designated breaks in summer, winter, or spring, also means contending with overwhelming crowds at major attractions, long lines, and difficulty securing reservations at quality restaurants or special experiences.

"Taking our daughter out of school for a week to travel through Italy was the best decision we made. She learned more about history, art, and culture in those days than she ever could have from a textbook. The museums were quieter, the locals more welcoming, and we could truly immerse ourselves without the stress of peak-season chaos,” said David L.

Taking a trip outside of the traditional school calendar opens up a world of possibilities. You can take advantage of lower prices, fewer crowds, and a more authentic connection to your destination. Most importantly, traveling during off-peak times allows children to engage more deeply with the places they visit, turning every moment into an opportunity for hands-on learning and genuine discovery.

Seasonal Limitations and Destination Compromises

School breaks rarely align with ideal visiting times for many destinations. Summer break often means enduring sweltering temperatures in Mediterranean countries or monsoon seasons in parts of Asia. Winter breaks can limit your family to either crowded ski resorts or equally impacted tropical destinations, overlooking the rich cultural experiences available in temperate regions during spring and fall.

In just two years, between May 2023 and May 2025, family travel requests during this month more than quadrupled, demonstrating a growing enthusiasm toward off-season travel.

An Italy Zicasso travel specialist notes, "When families visit destinations during the location’s optimal seasons rather than during crowded school breaks, the parents and kids experience places as they're meant to be enjoyed. Venice in May versus August means comfortable temperatures, local festivals, and interactions with residents who haven't fled the tourist crowds."

This flexibility allows you to witness seasonal events like wildlife migrations in Africa on a Serengeti Great Migration Safari or harvest festivals in Europe that would be missed when constrained to standard school breaks.

As a parent, you probably hesitate to take your children out of school for travel during the academic year, even for educational purposes, confronted by the most common concerns:

Missing Crucial Lessons and Falling Behind

Many parents worry their children will miss important academic content, particularly in subjects like math, where lessons build sequentially. They fear that missing crucial lessons might impact the progression of learning.

However, the impact can be minimal if the trip isn’t long or if you and your child’s teacher can coordinate lessons to complete during downtime. Teachers often emphasize that proactive communication helps. With a bit of planning, your kids can stay on track by completing assignments while also gaining real-world learning through travel, offering academic continuity alongside immersive, enriching experiences that build broader perspectives.

Children can return with a greater understanding and enthusiasm for subjects like history, geography, and language, making it easier to catch up and even excel.

Impact on Grades and Assignments

Rightfully, there’s anxiety about missing tests or project deadlines, but with proactive planning and communication with teachers, your child can complete assignments while traveling and often gain unique perspectives that enrich their schoolwork.

Many educators value the maturity and insight students bring back from their travels. A Zicasso traveler, who is also a middle school teacher, says she has no problem with students missing school due to travel as long as the parents contact her beforehand so she can prepare work for them to do while they are away, and answer questions about assignments before their absence.

Difficulty Catching Up

While it’s true that younger children often catch up quickly after missing a few days of school, older students stand to gain even more from educational travel. Older children often grapple with more complex subjects like history, literature, science, and languages. These can leap off the page when experienced firsthand. Real-world experiences of the Parthenon in Greece on Zicasso’s Wonders of Athens Tour or the Amazon Rainforest in Peru during a Peru Highlights Vacation transform abstract concepts into vivid, unforgettable experiences, deepening understanding and retention.

Travel also fosters independence and resilience. Students return from international travel more organized, resourceful, and motivated. Many find that the confidence and global perspective gained from travel help them tackle their coursework with renewed energy and insight, making the process of catching up manageable and enriching.

“When my parents took me out of school for vacations, I really enjoyed doing the work that had been prepared for me by teachers, particularly if it related to the experiences I was having. If we were at the coast or in the mountains, it underscored what I was learning in geography and biology, while in the cities, it was history and culture,” says Zicasso content specialist Nerissa Card.

Social Concerns

It’s natural for parents to worry their children will miss out on important social interactions with classmates during time away from school, but travel offers a powerful opportunity to broaden a child’s social world. Meeting peers from different backgrounds, navigating new social customs, and communicating in other languages all help young travelers develop empathy, adaptability, and cross-cultural communication skills.

"When students interact with people from other cultures, this causes a change in perception. It makes them more curious and accepting, and more likely to consider cultural contexts. Travel also increases empathy for others, and students become more aware of how they live and learn in comparison to others,” says WorldStrides. The educational travel company has also found that navigating unfamiliar environments builds "confidence and prepares them for life's obstacles”, while cultural immersion helps "break down language barriers and open new channels of lifelong communication”.

Interactions with diverse cultures are described by EduTravel for Credit as "cultivating empathy and global awareness", which are vital in today’s globalized world, helping students "develop a broader perspective and understand their role as global citizens”.

Whether it’s sharing a meal with a family in Japan, collaborating on a conservation project in Costa Rica during a Costa Rica Family Friendly Vacation, or chatting with local teens in a bustling piazza in Palermo, these experiences can lead to a deeper appreciation for diversity.

These expanded social horizons not only enrich their personal growth, but also prepare them to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.

Traveling outside traditional school breaks gives families the freedom to explore the world on their own terms. With fewer crowds, lower costs, and added flexibility, off-peak travel opens the door to richer, more rewarding experiences that an increasing number of families are embracing.

Avoid Crowded, Touristy Experiences for Deeper Connections

Traveling outside peak holiday periods means you can explore iconic landmarks without the usual throngs of tourists, allowing for a more relaxed and authentic experience.

With fewer crowds, you and your children have the opportunity to linger at important sites, ask questions, and engage in genuine conversations with guides and locals. This deeper connection often leads to memorable encounters and a richer understanding of the destination’s culture and history.

More Value and More Flexibility

Off-peak travel often comes with significant savings on flights, accommodations, and activities, making an educational tour more accessible for your family.

With greater availability and fewer bookings, it’s easier to customize your family itinerary, secure reservations at popular attractions, and enjoy exclusive experiences like after-hours museum tours or hands-on workshops with artisans that might be unavailable during busy seasons.

The flexibility means a combination of spontaneous discoveries and a pace that suits your family’s interests and needs.

Engage in Meaningful, Focused Learning Without Crowds

When sites are quieter, children can concentrate better and absorb more from guided tours, workshops, and hands-on activities.

Guides are often able to provide more personalized attention, tailoring explanations to your child’s interests and questions.

This calm, focused environment fosters deeper learning and allows families to reflect on their experiences together, turning travel moments into lasting lessons.

Gain Educational Value and Authentic Experiences

Perhaps most significant is how off-peak travel enhances educational opportunities. Museum curators, local guides, and artisans have more time and energy to engage meaningfully with families during quieter seasons.

Rather than rushed experiences in overcrowded venues, children can ask questions, participate in workshops, and truly absorb the cultural and historical context of their surroundings. EduTravel For Credit research found educational travel fostered greater interest in academic subjects for 80% of students.

These enriched experiences often translate to deeper connections with school subjects upon return, as children can relate abstract classroom concepts to vivid personal memories, whether it's understanding Renaissance art after quiet hours in Florence's museums on our In-Depth Tour of Florence itinerary or grasping ecosystem concepts after unhurried exploration of Galápagos rainforests on Best of Amazon and Galapagos Islands tours during the green season.

With the growing positive perception around timely educational travel, many families are even rethinking traditional holiday trips, foregoing domestic family get-togethers in November or December in favor of quieter, more rewarding international family trips.

Bringing History and Culture to Life

Travel is a powerful form of education, transforming lessons from a textbook page into vivid experiences. When children visit places like Pompeii on an Antiquities of Italy trip or Angkor Wat on our Best of Cambodia Tour, they don’t just learn about ancient civilizations, they walk in the footsteps of those who lived there, experiencing the scale, artistry, and context of history firsthand.

Standing before the Mona Lisa or wandering through the ruins of Machu Picchu, students gain a tangible connection to the past that awakens their historical empathy, turning the depths of the past into a tangible connection by bringing history into the present in a way reading alone cannot.

Hands-On, Experiential Learning

Educational journeys provide students with the opportunity to move beyond passive learning and engage directly with the world around them. Instead of simply reading about the Colosseum, they can stand among its ancient arches, imagining the roar of the crowd and the sweep of history.

Language skills blossom when practiced with native speakers in real-life conversations and science concepts become clear when explored in the field, whether that’s witnessing the incomparable night sky in Chile or observing volcanic activity in Iceland. These immersive experiences spark curiosity and foster a love of learning that lasts long after the trip ends.

Cultural Empathy and Global Perspective

Travel encourages people, young and old, to step outside their comfort zones and immerse themselves in new cultures, customs, and ways of life. By participating in traditional crafts, joining local festivals, or simply sharing a meal, your children develop empathy, tolerance, and a broader worldview.

These authentic interactions teach children to appreciate diversity and understand their place in a global community, helping them grow into open-minded, compassionate citizens.

“Exposure to the problems and perks of other lifestyles helps students see their world in a different way. Having a broad awareness of how other people live and what other cultures prioritize allows a student to think differently about their own lives.

Getting away from home is also an opportunity for students to realize what they miss most. Experiencing another place and culture is an opportunity to appreciate what they already have and realize the importance of the little things that often go unnoticed,” says WorldStrides, highlighting how appreciation and compassion become a product of travel.

Long-Term Academic and Personal Benefits

Research indicates that over half of children who travel for educational purposes achieve higher grades. The impact of these experiences is immediate and enduring, shaping academic and personal growth for years to come. According to EduTravel for Credit, students who believed educational travel encouraged greater interest in their studies earned roughly 12% higher incomes than those who didn't, post-university.

This sentiment is backed up by WorldStrides, which found, "...travel increases gains in academic content knowledge. Traveling while young... is also an important investment to enhance a student's academic performance in the future." 

A trip with your family helps develop independence, resilience, and problem-solving skills, qualities that serve your children well in and out of the classroom throughout their lives.

Igniting Passion and Career Interests

A growing number of parents feel the world can serve as an effective classroom environment during family trips that highlight cultural history and heritage, bringing the family's interests to the surface. The parents are comfortable with their children missing a week or two of school to immerse themselves in Portugal’s Age of Discovery by visiting Lisbon or observing the transitional effects of socioeconomic policies in Medellín.

“My parents were great about making a family vacation fun and educational,” said Doug Weissman, Zicasso’s Content Manager. “It wasn’t about reading guidebooks and spouting off facts. We did a great job avoiding the crowds and had guides who understood how to keep three young children interested and engaged with the information. It always became a scavenger hunt or a quiz. Find the earring in the painting, look for a specific name on the plaque, what fruit can you taste, etc.”

For many children, educational travel is the spark that ignites a lifelong passion or even shapes a future career. Whether it’s a budding paleontologist inspired by fieldwork in England, a young artist moved by the masterpieces of Spain, or a future artist captivated by the handmade crafts of Morocco, each journey helps your child discover interests and talents that might otherwise remain hidden. The world becomes a classroom and a source of inspiration, opening doors to new possibilities.

The traditional travel calendar, dictated by school breaks, often forces families into a frustrating compromise: paying premium prices while battling overwhelming crowds. By shifting your travel window by just a few weeks, you can discover a transformed experience with more authentic cultural interactions and significantly reduced costs.

Consider Shoulder Seasons and Off-Peak Travel Time

Traveling during the shoulder season, just before or after major school breaks, offers several advantages. Airfare and hotel prices are typically much lower and popular destinations are less crowded, making for a more enjoyable and educational travel experience.

For example, planning a trip that overlaps with a longer school holiday, such as leaving a few days before or after winter or spring break, can minimize the number of missed school days while still benefiting from off-peak travel.

Early or Late in the School Year

The beginning of the school year, when students are often reviewing material from the previous year, and the very end of the school year, when major assessments are typically over, are considered ideal times to travel. During these periods, the academic workload is generally lighter and children are less likely to miss critical new instruction or important exams.

Avoid Major Academic Milestones

It is crucial to avoid pulling children out of school during periods of significant academic activity, such as standardized testing, major projects, or final exams. Always consult with teachers to understand the curriculum schedule and ensure your child will not miss essential learning or assessments.

Leverage Minor Holidays and School-Specific Days Off

Non-major holidays, such as Memorial Day or Presidents' Day, or brief fall breaks can provide opportunities for travel without significant academic disruption. These "bonus days" often allow families to extend a trip with minimal impact on school attendance.

Personalize Based on Your Child’s Needs and Family Circumstances

Each family’s situation is unique. Factors such as a child’s academic strengths, medical needs, sensory sensitivities, or family work schedules should guide your decision.

For instance, traveling outside peak times may be essential for children with sensory sensitivities or health conditions that make crowded environments challenging.

Always consider your child’s ability to catch up on missed work and their comfort with being away from school and friends.

Coordinate with Teachers and School Administration

Give teachers ample notice so they can prepare assignments or materials for your child to take on the trip. Open communication ensures your child stays on track academically and demonstrates respect for the school’s policies and educational goals.

While concerns about missing school are valid, educational travel, especially when focused on history and culture, offers children profound, lasting benefits that far outweigh the temporary challenges of missed classroom time. With careful planning and communication with educators, you can ensure children keep up academically, while gaining the kind of real-world knowledge, empathy, and inspiration that only travel can provide.

For information on traveling with children, see our 7 Tips for Traveling with Kids Ages 5 to 12 and 5 Tips for Traveling with Teens. For more inspiration, explore our customizable Family Vacations & Tours to start planning your trip for any time of year.