Where to Find Thousands of Lifelong Learning Travel Adventures

Are you bored with the same old vacation destinations and touristy sites? Have you ever thought about exploring more meaningful travel through lifelong learning? You can call it slow travel, enriching travel, traveling with purpose, or meaningful travel, but it all comes down to learning and growing in the process.

I thoroughly believe that one of the big keys to a fulfilling life is lifelong learning and traveling with purpose. Long ago I found that most of us on this planet have a deep desire to grow, expand our horizons, and continue to learn. I think all of us humans and those around us benefit when we refuse to be stagnant. Unfortunately, sometimes our daily routine gets in the way of the time that we might invest in personal growth.

The good news is that even if we don’t have enough time in our everyday routines to invest as much as we’d like in learning, we can take advantage of the time we set aside to travel and make it a priority then.

I thought it would be fun to explore just a few of the many possibilities out there for amazing lifelong learning travel experiences. The next time you have a few days or a few months free for adventure, consider investing in your future through lifelong learning.

Traveling with Purpose – Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning travel adventures can be found for nearly every topic you can imagine. Astronomy, photography, science, the arts, music, cooking, farming, gardening, history, and the list goes on. The timeframes for educational travel can range from one-day hands-on workshops to multi-year programs abroad. Here are just a few unique ideas.

Culinary Vacations

The International Kitchen offers culinary tours to 16 countries for solo travelers, couples, families or groups, including destinations like Argentina, Morocco, France, India, and Thailand. Choose a 3-hour to 1-day cooking class where you’ll experience highlights of the local cuisine. Or a 2 to 7-night cooking vacation that will help you immerse yourself in the culture and the many delicacies of the region. You could also enjoy local accommodations, have a chance to visit local markets and bakeries, and enjoy wine tasting.

If you’re headed to Bangalore, India you could try wine tasting and grape stomping for a truly unique adventure. Here’s more about the experience.

Photography Workshops

Are you a budding photographer? There are literally thousands of photography workshops out there. Some are taught in-studio where you can learn about things like lighting and composition. Others journey out to gorgeous locales, national parks, seaside retreats, wilderness areas, and vibrant cities.

Arizona Highways magazine offers unique workshops to experience the beauty of nature while learning skills in photography and the technical side of the craft. Most of the sessions take place in the United States, but occasionally they travel internationally. Two scholarships per year are also awarded to help with costs. Here are a few to check out: Morro Bay California Women’s Photography Retreat, Spring in the Grand Tetons – Wildflowers and Wildlife Photography

On the other end of the temperature spectrum, Iceland Photo Tours offers excursions like this 8-day Northern Lights and Ice Cave Photo Workshop or Greenland Photo Workshops, among others.

Looking for other photography workshops? Visit Photography Workshops Directory and search by region, category or keyword.

Astronomy Vacations

Are you mesmerized by the night sky? Do you love stargazing or staying up to all hours of the night to catch a meteor shower or eclipse? If so, then you’ll want to check out the websites for these two astronomy magazines that offer expert astronomy tours.

Sky and Telescope Magazine has been around since 1941 and is a subsidiary of the American Astronomical Society. The organization plans its own Astronomy Tours and welcomes guests to go to exotic locations around the world each year. Sometimes they sail on a cruise ship or fly to Africa to see a solar eclipse. Other times they might travel to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights. Another trip could offer exclusive tours of giant telescopes in Hawaii.

TravelQuest International partners with both Astronomy Magazine and Discover Magazine to offer Eclipse tours, cruises, and other Astronomy-related travel.

Hands-on Fine Arts Workshops

Is it your dream to take a hands-on class to learn to paint, draw, sculpt, or create other kinds of art, but just can’t’ find time during your busy working schedule? Maybe a week away to immerse yourself in lifelong learning is the perfect solution. Here are a few fine art vacation options.

Art is Travel International offers a variety of tours in Europe like a week-long workshop to learn ceramics or woodworking in a centuries-old shale village in Cerdeira Portugal. Or consider spending a week in the Loire Valley learning Plein Air painting with oils.

The Art Show website brings together listings for a wide range of independent lifelong learning workshops. These classes encompass more than a dozen different mediums in the U.S. and around the world. Workshops can be sorted by country or U.S. state or by your preferred art media or theme. Youth workshops are also listed.

You may even find your favorite artist offering workshops at their private artist retreat. Be sure to check the details of each offering since some include accommodations or meals in the cost and others don’t. In just the U.S. I found classes like a 3-day workshop in the Blue Ridge Mountains with artist William Henry Price and several Travel Sketching and Watercolor Workshops in coastal California.

Hands-on Artisan Woodworking

One of the most interesting lifelong learning workshops that I’ve had the chance to see up close is the Timberframe Workshop at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They use 18th and 19th-century hand tools and techniques to build and raise an entire structure. The hands-on class lasts 5 days and there’s a limit of 22 students. Hancock Shaker Village also offers other artisan and hands-on workshops like weaving, blacksmithing, painting, and more throughout the year.

Semester at Sea

Talk about the ultimate way to travel with purpose. How about a different kind of semester abroad? Semesters at Sea has been offering a unique floating college campus for over 50 years. It’s the only program of its kind where you’ll live, eat, and study with up to 550 undergraduate college students, 100 faculty and staff, as well as their families. There are also 180 multi-national crew members who expand the diversity on board. The program is open to college students in all majors AND lifelong learners over 30 years old.

Each voyage lasts about 100+ days (45 average days in various ports) and students earn 12-15 academic credits from Colorado State University. Each trip stops in 10 or more countries on several continents. Financial aid is also available just as it would be if you were attending a traditional semester at a university.

Semester at Sea Lifelong Learning Program

Are you over 30 and don’t care about college credit? The SaS Lifelong Learning Program provides adults, 30 years or older, the chance to join a Semester at Sea cruise. This adds valuable generational insights to the student community on board, as well as an amazing voyage for the lifelong learner.

Attendees often include retirees, professionals on leave, or simply adventurous travelers who want to study a wide variety of topics with enthusiastic undergraduate students from around the world that are eager to learn. These adults commit to attending the full semester.

Spotlight Voyagers if you’re not able to go for 100 days, you can also join the voyage for a shorter amount of time, generally between 30-45 days. Spotlight Voyagers integrate into the shipboard community and can participate in Global Studies, community activities, and in-port programs.

So Many More Lifelong Learning Adventures

Traveling with purpose through unique experiences enriches our lives individually. They help us build friendships, learn more about other cultures, and understand the world around us better. I love highlighting small business entrepreneurs, so I hope you’ll look out for these too. If you don’t see something that piques your interest yet, these are some of the more well-known organizations offering lifelong learning travel opportunities.

National Geographic Expeditions

From private luxury expeditions to Norway tours by train, National Geographic runs the gamut. Trips are offered on every continent and they’re committed to supporting the local economies with sustainable travel.

Smithsonian Journeys

Smithsonian journeys represent the pursuit of lifelong learning that’s the hallmark of the Smithsonian Institution. Some of the tours offered by this nonprofit organization, including deep dives in Special Interest adventures. Some focus on topics like German cars, history or archaeology. Or choose an immersive three-week “Living In” cultural stay in Aix-en-Provence or Florence. Select one or more themes to personalize your program, including language lessons, the arts, and cuisine.

Road Scholar Learning Adventures

While National Geographic and Smithsonian journeys lean toward the luxury end of the lifelong learning spectrum, Road Scholar offers more affordable traveling with purpose adventures. They even offer scholarships for travelers who may not be able to afford it otherwise. Here’s a list of suggestions on ways to make travel more affordable through their program or others. They also offer women-only group tours and trips for grandparents and grandchildren traveling together. This non-profit offers 5,500 learning adventures in 150 countries and all 50 states, serving more than 100,000 participants per year.

Has this list of possibilities stirred your interest?  There’s so much more where these came from. I hope you’ll sign up to get my informative newsletters so you won’t miss a thing.

Have you embarked on a meaningful travel adventure with any of the organizations listed?  If so, what was your favorite memory?  If not, where do you dream of traveling and what do you dream of learning?  The sky is truly the limit.

Looking for other slow travel experiences around the world? Check these out.