Pattie's Blog

Teens and Travel

It’s a great big world with endless opportunities to explore it and Girl Scouts gives girls unprecedented access to travel. Cases in point: As I write, Ambassador Girl Scout Addison is at the tail end of her nine-day journey through India; Twenty-three Girl Scouts are packing their bags for tomorrow night’s flight to Reykjavik, Iceland and 18 Girl Scouts are gearing up for a Galapagos Islands adventure in just a few weeks.

Experiencing different places, people and cultures will expand any traveler’s world view but for teens it’s especially eye opening. It can bring to life what they study in school – think history, geography, geology and literature; it teaches them self-care and self-reliance on a whole new level; perspective to look outside what they already know and it affords the opportunity to look at the world through a different lens.

Girl Scouts gives girls access to travel through Girl Scout Destinations - such as Addison’s experience - across the United States as well as overseas. These trips are for individual girls in grade six and older and range from riding horses in the Rocky Mountains to canoeing the north woods of Minnesota and Canada or catching a sunrise over the Taj Mahal.

Girl Scout Council travel is for girls or troops in seventh grade and older. Iceland and Ecuador are just two of the recent trips. We have five more trips already on the calendar through 2027. We plan multiple years in advance which gives Girl Scouts ample time to fund their travel through the Girl Scout Cookie Program and other money-earning opportunities. You can join us in Peru next summer where Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley are just two highlights and London, Paris and Barcelona is on tap in 2024 and includes a visit to * Pax Lodge in Hampstead, London.

I encourage you to explore these and other trips just for Girl Scouts on our website and make plans that include broadening your horizons and building connections, maybe even building your global Girl Scout sisterhood.

*Pax Lodge is one of five World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) World Centers. As a Girl Scout, you’re automatically a member of WAGGGS, which means you can visit the WAGGGS World Centers on one of our trips or with your family. These five World Centers—created just for Girl Scouts—are fun, affordable, and safe places to stay while you broaden your horizons and make new friends. The other centers are located in Mexico, Switzerland, India, and across the African continent.

Pattie Hallberg,
CEO Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts

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