GEEO trips for Educators - personal exp. w/ this group?
 

Anyone ever been on a GEEO trip? If so, would you recommend the group?
Thanks for the info!

No one seems to be helping you

I know of educators who have taken them have not done one

Complaints related to high cost and low quality lodging

Can be ok if you need credits or can get a grant.

For me much cheaper better ways to do it usually

Self-guiding almost always works better for me...

Volunteering/Educator scams abound online do careful research

GEEO is a "not for profit" shell corp that

subs their stuff out to gapadventures.com

search complaints on GAP there are many on the boards...

The infamous "kitty" poor quality lodging and being

crammed in on small buses with lots of folks you do not

know and not much time at touristic spots seem to be

the main ones... personally good experience with

www.tucantravel.com #1 in the UK for this.

Might check them out... unless you need teacher credits etc

Hello gr8_fun,
I guess none of GEEO's 344 past participants actively follow the Fodor's forum. While I shouldn't be the one to recommend or not recommend GEEO, I would like to set the record straight. Qwovadis must have looked at www.geeo.org and made some false conclusions without doing any research. Calling GEEO a "'not for profit' shell corp" is insulting to everyone at GEEO. I started GEEO in 2007 with goal of helping as many teachers travel as possible. Travel for me was a catalyst that got me interested in for the lack of better words, making the world a better place. I feel it is an essential educational experience that educators should have in their lives.

From 2008-2010 GAP Adventures was just one of the several tour companies we worked with (Worldwide Quest, Kumuka, Intrepid). In 2011 we decided to work with GAP Adventures exclusively because they offered a better deal and product to our customers and they were willing to back GEEO up financially. This has allowed us in the past year to help 46% more teachers travel. GAP Adventures run budget adventure trips. That might not be everyone's cup of tea, but we explain in detail on our web site what our participants should expect. The luxury has been stripped out to create an adventurous experience that is affordable to teachers. The trips are then customized with the occasional school visit. We then offer grad and prof dev credits as well as give each participant curriculum to bring into their classroom.

On GEEO's website you can find links to reviews of our programs on various web sites:
http://www.geeo.org/references-and-media/
I would also be more than happy to put you in direct contact with teachers who live near you who have traveled with GEEO.
Cheers,
Jesse
Executive Director, GEEO

Thank you Jesse for the response. I have checked out the GEEO web site and FB postings. The way the prices are listed, it makes it hard to figure out exactly what the total amount would be for a single person - too many unknowns.

From the pictures, it looks like it might be best for 20 somethings, so not sure it would be the right fit for me.

QWO - What is your exp. w/ Toucan?

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. On our website there is a tab for each of the programs labeled "costs." We have listed all of the expected costs you should budget for. If you add them all up you should know which program you can afford. The participants in our groups always have a wide range of ages. Typically there a few people in their 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's. Please go to this link to learn more about who travels with us: http://www.geeo.org/who-travels/ On that page is a picture of one of our India groups, which you can see has the typical wide range of ages. If you have more questions, please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] as I don't check this forum on a regular basis.