Senior Trip Ideas

Overnighter

The Overnighter is especially good for smaller groups (a dozen Grads or less with a couple of leaders), and packs a lot of bang into a small amount of time.
Meet with your seniors and choose a time and place for the Overnighter. Try to go someplace that has plenty of “Brag Factor” — someplace that the students can brag about before and after the trip. Rent hotel rooms (avoid staying in homes, churches or camps) to increase the “special” nature of this trip. Get the hotel to let you use one of the meeting rooms through the second evening, and rent a room on the second day for students to use to change/shower/etc. in. Choose a location that has plenty of activities available to do during the day and evening. Plan to leave town early, and get back as late as you can!

Overnighter Schedule

Friday

1:00 - Load vans at church
2:00 - Depart
5:00 - Arrive at hotel, get into rooms
6:30 - Dinner
8:00 - Session 1
9:30 - Free Time/Recreation

Saturday

8:30 - Breakfast in the coffee shop
9:30 - Session 2
11:00 - Check out of rooms
Recreation/Sightseeing
12:30 - Meet for Lunch
1:30 - Recreation/Sightseeing
6:30 - Fancy dinner
8:30 - Session 3
10:00 - Special Activity (hot-tubbing*, ice-skating, rollerblading, etc.)
12:00 - Load vans, head for home

(*Going from hotel to hotel, judging each Jacuzzi experience)

Travel Camps

As the name implies, a Travel Camp means that you stay on the move. Travel Camps afford plenty of “brag factor” as well as momentum for your ministry. That’s because students don’t have that many opportunities to do these kinds of things, and because the nature of a Travel Camp requires some preparations beforehand by the participants. (For instance, it would not be wise to attempt a week-long bike ride without getting your rear-end used to the bicycle seat!)
There are as many variations on the travel camp theme as there are youth leaders, but the two most-common ones are:

Base Camp With Day Trips

In this version of the Travel Camp, you sleep in the same place every night, but each day’s activities are different, and may take a couple of hours of driving to get there from the Base Camp. Some Day Trip ideas are: water-skiing, sightseeing downtown, rappelling and rock-climbing, State/County Fair, hiking, sailing, bicycling, amusement/theme park, etc.

On-The-Move Camp

“Getting there” is the idea of this camp experience. Spending a few days canoeing, large-craft sailing, bicycling, houseboating, backpacking, or whatever-ing is a great way to gain some last shared experiences with your seniors. Make sure that you bring along with you an expert in the particular travel mode you choose. There’s nothing but trouble ahead for you if you are biking 200 miles and no one knows how to change a flat inner tube!

Travel Camp Schedule

Day 1

1:00 - Load vans at church
2:00 - Depart
5:00 - Arrive at site, set up camp
6:30 - Dinner and Cleanup
8:00 - Session 1
9:30 - Free Time/Recreation

Daily Schedule

7:30 - Breakfast prep
8:15 - Breakfast and Cleanup
9:00 - Quiet Time
10:00 - Break camp, Travel
12:30 - Lunch
5:00 - Arrive at site, set up camp
6:30 - Dinner and Cleanup
8:00 - Session
9:30 - Free Time/Recreation
11:00 - Lights Out

Final Day

7:00 - Breakfast prep
7:45 - Breakfast and Cleanup
8:15 - Quiet Time
9:00 - Final Session / “Say So” testimonies
10:30 - Break camp / head home