You Teach the Kids. I Handle the Trip.
Band trips, class trips, competitions, and educational tours planned down to the last permission slip, rooming list, and bus departure time.
You Signed Up to Teach, Not to Become a Tour Operator
Every band director, choir teacher, ROTC instructor, and sixth-grade team lead knows the feeling. The trip is the highlight of the year for your students, and it quietly becomes the biggest headache of yours. Collecting payments from 60 families, building rooming lists that keep the right kids apart, confirming chaperone ratios, chasing medical forms, and getting district approval all land on your desk on top of rehearsals, grading, and parent emails.
Student travel has more moving parts than almost any other kind of group trip. Minors need supervision plans, emergency contacts, and medication logs. Districts require insurance certificates and detailed itineraries before a trip is approved. Motorcoach companies must be properly licensed and insured, and drivers must follow federal hours-of-service limits that can change your whole schedule. Performance groups need rehearsal space, instrument transport, and stage times that actually line up with the bus schedule.
MaryElizabeth takes all of that off your plate. As a former dance educator with 20 years in the classroom and two Eagle Scout children of her own, she understands how schools, booster clubs, and parents work. She builds the itinerary around your educational goals, negotiates group rates on hotels, attractions, and transportation, sets up an individual payment plan for every family, and stays reachable throughout the trip. You get to focus on your students. She handles the travel.
How a Student Trip Comes Together
Set the Educational Goal
A performance festival, a competition, a curriculum-linked history trip, or a reward trip each need a different plan. MaryElizabeth starts with what you want students to learn or achieve and builds the itinerary backward from that goal.
Get Administrative Approval
She prepares the documentation most districts ask for: a detailed day-by-day itinerary, a cost breakdown per student, insurance information, transportation details, and a supervision plan you can present to your principal or school board.
Launch the Parent Meeting
MaryElizabeth can provide parent-facing trip information, a clear payment schedule, and answers to the questions families always ask about safety, cost, rooming, and what is included.
Collect Payments and Forms
Each family pays on its own schedule through individual payment plans. Medical forms, emergency contacts, dietary needs, and roommate requests are gathered and tracked so nothing falls through the cracks.
Lock In Logistics
Group air or vetted motorcoach transportation, hotel room blocks with chaperone placement, group dining, attraction tickets, workshop sessions, and performance or competition schedules are confirmed and documented.
Travel With Support
Chaperones receive a complete trip packet with rooming lists, schedules, confirmation numbers, and emergency contacts. MaryElizabeth stays reachable throughout the trip in case anything changes on the road.
Student and Youth Groups MaryElizabeth Plans For
Educational Trips That Tie Directly to the Curriculum
The best student trips connect what happens in the classroom to what students see in person. A sixth-grade trip to Washington DC can walk students through the National Mall, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Smithsonian museums, and the US Capitol, so the three branches of government stop being a chapter in a textbook. Add a stop at Mount Vernon or Arlington National Cemetery and the founding of the country becomes real. Tours of the Capitol are typically requested in advance, and timed entry is required at some museums, so early planning matters.
For performing groups, Disney Imagination Campus offers workshops at Walt Disney World and Disneyland where students learn from Disney professionals, and qualifying ensembles can apply to perform. Combined with theme park days, group dining, and a hotel block, it becomes a reward trip and an educational experience in one. MaryElizabeth also plans competition travel for Odyssey of the Mind, JROTC drill meets, and music festivals, where the schedule has to work around rehearsal, warm-up, and performance times.
What Is Included in Your Student Trip Plan
Start Planning 9 to 12 Months Before Travel
Student travel season concentrates in spring, which means hotel blocks near Washington DC, Orlando, and festival cities fill early. Many districts also require board approval months before departure, and families need enough time to spread payments out. MaryElizabeth recommends starting the conversation 9 to 12 months before your target travel dates so you get the best rates, the best workshop times, and a payment schedule parents can manage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can families pay individually instead of the school collecting money?
Yes. MaryElizabeth sets up individual payment plans so each family pays directly on a schedule that works for them. Directors and booster clubs get a simple status report instead of a cash box and a spreadsheet.
How do you keep motorcoach travel safe for students?
MaryElizabeth works with properly licensed and insured motorcoach operators and plans itineraries around federal driver hours-of-service limits, so the schedule never pressures a driver to cut corners. Overnight drives and long days are planned with relief drivers or overnight stops when needed.
What chaperone ratio do you recommend?
Many schools use one adult for every 8 to 10 students, but your district policy always comes first. MaryElizabeth builds rooming lists and hotel blocks around your required ratio and places chaperone rooms near student rooms.
Can you plan a Disney Imagination Campus trip for our band or choir?
Yes. She can help you plan around Disney Imagination Campus workshops and performance opportunities, then build the hotel, park tickets, dining, and transportation around your session times.
Do you plan trips for groups outside of Georgia?
Yes. MaryElizabeth is based in Suwanee, Georgia, but plans student trips for schools and youth organizations across the country by phone, video, and email.
Give Your Students the Trip They Will Remember for Years
One planning call with MaryElizabeth and you will have a clear itinerary, a per-student cost, and a payment plan to share with families.
Get Your Free Student Trip Plan