Welcome! We're so glad you're considering traveling with us!!
We are a group of Stokes County teachers, students, and families that have partnered with a student travel company called Education First Travel (EF). Although we are not officially a Stokes County Schools trip, we limit the trip to Stokes County students and their friends/family.
This site is a place to find information on our trips, but also feel free to contact Ms. Smith at any time (alyssa.smith3@stokes.k12.nc.us).
This is a group for students and families who have enrolled on a tour. It's a place for you to share ideas, videos, photos, questions, and more!
For student safety, chaperones will not post photos with student faces on their own social media. Chaperones will also post photos here each day of the tour for parents to follow along and get updates!
EF Tours has been a leader in student educational travel since 1965. They are highly regarded in the industry and have offices all over the world! Their trips are well-organized, affordable, and made with students in mind. They are perfect for students who are just beginning to explore the world, or those who prefer a curated experience with lots of included activities and sights!
Safety is a very very high priority for the company, and they train all group leaders on how to help students stay safe abroad. They have a 24/7 emergency hotline, offices in every country they travel to, and trained, dedicated staff and Tour Directors that always make sure your student is safe and looked after. Their peace of mind program promises that tours will never travel somewhere there is a safety risk, and tours will be rescheduled, moved, or altered if there is even a chance that students could be unsafe.
Check out the following portions of their website for more information about the company!
I'm Ms. Alyssa Smith, and I teach 11th/12th English at the Early College. I've been teaching since 2011, and traveling for even longer! Travel is one of my passions, and I LOVE sharing it with students!
When I graduated from high school, I was planning to major in English. I loved to read and had always read a lot of British books. I convinced my parents to take me on a 4 day trip to London as my graduation gift, and I caught the travel bug HARD. I also went with my church to a mission trip in Hondouras, and then studied in London for a semester abroad during my college years. At each turn, I was introduced to more of the world and the people who live in it. I loved the new experiences, foods, cultures, languages, cities, sights, and histories. I haven't stopped traveling since! (Check out the map to see all of the places I've been (and some on my bucket list!)
I took my first trip with EF as a recently graduated high school student (it was acutally my sister's high school graduation trip! We went to Italy and France). I traveled again with the company to China in 2010 when I graduated from college. Over my years of teaching I chaperoned EF trips to Spain and to Ireland. I led my first trip as group leader in 2024 to Italy. I've had a lot of experience traveling with EF, and I really like the opportunities it provides for students!