The Road Less Traveled

Live from Hawaii! 🌿

Today our teens are wrapping up three days of service with Maui Cultural Lands where they’ve been working with locals on clearing invasive plants from the area to protect the valley.

And we are off! ✈️

Bags were packed and the first wave of RLT 2026 trips are officially out in the field. The phones are put away and the adventure has officially begun!

Hiking, pickleball, yoga, the annual North Star x RLT 5K, jam sessions and everything in between.

While our first session teens are busy packing, our leaders are still up in the Northwoods practicing how to run the best and safest trips possible. We’ll see you soon! 🌎

The behind-the-scenes work before the summer begins.

36 summers of experience means we take preparation seriously and our 2026 leaders are almost ready for the field! 🌲

Our RLT teens are heading out on the first trips of the summer in just under two weeks! As your packing and gearing up to go, our team has a few last minute tips to pass along:

🚰 Bring an empty water bottle. Keep it empty through TSA, then fill it up past security so you’re fully hydrated before the flight even takes off.

🍽️ Think of a favorite meal you cook at home. You will be helping plan and cook meals for your group, so bring a recipe idea from home that you want to share with everyone.

👟 Set aside one outfit you don’t have to dig for. Put it right on top for late arrivals or early starts.

Staff training has started 🎉

Before our leaders meet teens at baggage claim, we train together for two weeks. They are spending the next few days running wilderness medical drills, testing gear, going over risk management, and figuring out how to build a community out of a group of teenagers who have never met.

The excitement is already building, and we can’t wait to head off to our first trips in just a couple of weeks!

🎙️ “They returned home energized and showing so much more agency and responsibility — exactly what they needed for high school.”

Transitioning into freshman year is a big shift, and sometimes the best way to prep is to get away from a desk. This alum parent shared how their teen’s time on our Hawaii trip made that difference:

“The Road Less Traveled (RLT) experience in Hawaii, was wonderful for my rising freshman. They returned home energized and showing so much more agency and responsibility, exactly what they needed for High School. The RLT team was great from the start with good information for expectations and preparations, great communication during transit, and photos along the way. We highly recommend RLT if your teen is ready to experience something more and grow into their sense of self.”

We keep our groups small to make sure this kind of growth has space to happen. Hawaii is one of our most popular summer routes and we are down to the final spots for 2026.

Luis was born in the Azores and Bethany is a zoologist from the US. Together, they run Burros e Amigos, a sanctuary dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating the island’s donkey population. 🫏

When our teens arrive, they get to work. Daily feeding and grooming, sanctuary maintenance, and the slow, patient process of building trust with rescued animals. Luís and Bethany will tell you that before you can lead an animal, you have to earn its respect. Our teens learn that pretty quickly.

This is one of our favorite partnerships. And it shows up that way every summer in what our teens tell us when they get home.

🇵🇹 Azores: The Secret Island — only a couple spots left for this summer

Families sometimes ask us why RLT costs what it costs. It is a fair question. Here is an honest answer.

After 30 years of running these programs, we have learned that the difference in price usually comes down to the things you cannot see in a brochure.

For us, there are a few things we will never compromise on.

🛟 The safety net you hope you never need

A significant part of our tuition goes into infrastructure that is invisible until something goes wrong. 24/7 office support, rigorous risk management, and contingency planning for every single trip. We spend the whole year preparing for Plan B so our leaders and your teens always supported and have access to the best resources.

🤝 Partners we have known for years

We do not work with the lowest bidders. We work with local partners, guides, and families we have known for years, sometimes decades. We believe in paying people fairly for their expertise and their hospitality.

🌎 Small groups on purpose

It is more expensive to run a trip for 12 teens than 25. We do it anyway because that is the only way real mentorship happens. Our leaders are there to help your teen navigate challenges and build real confidence, not just manage a schedule.

3 more things most families don’t know about our Morocco trip 🇲🇦

Morocco is a beautiful blend of Amazigh, Arabic, and European cultures located just a short distance from Western Europe. There is a lot more to the story than just the desert.

🌊 It is a surf and turf experience

The trip ends in Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, and the vibe could not be more different from the rugged High Atlas Mountains where the trip begins. Surf lessons, beachside markets, sea breeze. A refreshing contrast that catches most teens off guard.

🪚 Teens work on village-led service projects

In the High Atlas Mountains, teens partner with local Amazigh residents on projects the community has specifically requested. Light construction, small-scale farming. Because the projects are designed by the village, teens see exactly how their work connects to the community’s long-term goals.

🤝 They meet Moroccan teens

In Marrakech, our travelers sit down with local Moroccan teens and talk about music, school, and daily life. It is usually the moment where they realize that despite the distance and the different language, they have a lot more in common than they expected.