American Council for International Studies — Local services in Boston

If you're looking for a top-notch experience for your students, travel with ACIS. I have traveled with ACIS seven times and I am currently enrolling participants for my 8th and 9th trips. I have taken students to Costa Rica, Spain, France, Ecuador, and Mexico. Next I’m going to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Planning a trip with ACIS is easy from start to finish because of the travel experts who help me every step of the way - from deciding on an itinerary and tweaking it to my desires to departure day.

While traveling, the ACIS tour managers are amazing. They are incredibly knowledgeable and professional, and they're also super fun and engaging! They know the history and culture so well that every stop becomes a real lesson. I love how they handle the details and logistics of the trip so that I can focus 100% on my students and their needs. They are true partners in education!

The quality of the accommodations and meals provided by ACIS is consistently excellent, which is so important for keeping a group of travelers happy and energized. ACIS always uses hotels that are centrally located. We stay close to the action and all the major sights, which saves us travel time and allows for more time exploring. The hotels are clean, comfortable, and safe.

Trying the local cuisine is one of my favorite parts of traveling. The food on all of my trips has been wonderful! The students and I love the variety at the breakfast buffets in the hotels and we enjoy authentic local cuisine at great restaurants in the evenings. The food is a fantastic way for students to experience the culture and it’s a highlight of every trip.

ACIS trips are always full and well-planned. The itineraries are truly educational, mixing site visits with unique local experiences. My students see so much and come back with an amazing new perspective.

I love how the price of the tour includes everything so that families can budget. Students only need to bring money for lunch and souvenirs.

For any educator or parent considering an international trip for high schoolers, I give ACIS my highest recommendation. It's an investment in a memorable, safe, and truly...

My students have traveled with ACIS for decades! For many of those years, I have worked closely with Cara Solle to create trips for my AP Art History class. Cara and her team have been nothing short of amazing in our collaborative efforts to design trips for destinations all over the world. Every trip we have taken to Japan has been different. Last year most of the students were big Hayao Miyazaki fans, so we planned the trip around a visit to Studio Ghibli. Getting those tickets took the vast experience of the ACIS team in Asia. It wasn’t easy, but they did it. Our first day in Tokyo set the tone for the week. We started at the Matsuchiyama Shoden (Kangiten) Temple in Asakusa, the Buddhist temple where one offers daikon radishes. The radish spirit appears in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. The temple also gave an opportunity to talk about Buddhism and its connections with Hinduism. More importantly, we talked about the Japanese concept of omoiyari—a term that essentially means thinking about others before one acts. In other words, we thought about connections. I keep returning to ACIS because they understand how travel is essential for learning—and making all kinds of connections. They work incredibly hard to make teachers’ travel plans possible, especially within limited time constraints. It takes experience and skill to craft each trip like a work of art This year our AP Literature teacher and I designed an art and literary trip to London and Paris. In London, our focus will be walking Virginia Woolfe’s Mrs. Dalloway. In Paris, we will visit places such as Argenteuil and the Orangerie as we will experience the work of Claude Monet. We constantly reached out for help and advice in order to make it work. Finally, let me add that the key word in student in student travel is “flexibility.” Things happen on trips. Flights get cancelled or connections are missed. I always feel secure knowing ACIS is available 24/7. I have needed that support a few times. I write this with deep gratitude for all that ACIS has done for...

I have been traveling with ACIS since 2006, leading 13 trips and taking over 200 people to Europe. I can honestly say that each and every trip has been an amazing experience for me and, more significantly, a life changing experience for the majority of the students who traveled with me. Because of the service, organization and attention to detail of my ACIS consultant leading up to the trips, the fantastic work of the tireless tour managers who stay with us throughout our travels and the high quality food, hotels and cultural experiences each trip provides has made each trip unique but each one equally amazing.

Obviously, whether traveling alone or in large groups, situations do arise from time to time - the key to survival is flexibility. The itinerary may need to be reversed or changed slightly to accommodate the arrangements of another group but I know that ACIS will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the experience will still be the high quality trip that my students signed up for. There is no "fine print" as ACIS is always open with whatever requirements need to be met for a trip to run or whatever adjustments may need to be made. And if ever I am not happy with any of the arrangements I also know that I have the power of the "Red Card" indicating that I need something (hotel, restaurant even tour manager) to be changed as quickly as possible. I also know that ACIS is never more than a phone call away no matter where I am with my group.

All of this, in addition to the authentic meals and the 3 and 4 star centrally located hotels that allow for my groups to get the most out of every second of their trips (rather than chicken tenders and hours long bus rides in traffic in and out of the cities) does come at a cost but for the value, quality as well as the peace of mind that it affords the parents at home, it is worth...