Our child just returned from the Spring 2026 trip to Washington DC and I wanted to share some…read moreimpressions. Overall, they enjoyed the trip, learned a lot, and saw a lot of interesting historical sites. Although, there were a couple of undesirable aspects to the trip too which I wanted to highlight for parents considering this trip in the future.
Arguably, the trip's pace was just too fast. It's planned in such a way that the kids started and ended the trip with a sleep deficit and had difficulty getting a proper amount of sleep each night. The trip started with an outbound red-eye flight departing LAX, on-time, close to midnight PT and landing in DC at 7:30am ET. I think most would agree that a red-eye flight in a coach seat is not going to be conducive to sleep. Upon landing the kids had a fully packed day with a lot of bus travel and touring, and they did not get to an actual bed until late in the evening on arrival day.
Each day of the trip was exceptionally long and fully packed with activities. This can be good on the one hand, to get the most out of the trip, but there's a downside too. My child shared that they were generally getting up between 6-7am and most days they did not get back to their hotel rooms until 10-11pm at night. With 4 kids sharing a room / bathroom (and showering at night), it took a little time before they could get the lights off to sleep, once they finally did get back to their hotel rooms. They never managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep each night because of this. This wasn't a case of kids staying up too late goofing around.
Their return flight left DC in the evening, with the kids arriving back at the parent pick-up point at 12:15 am PT, which was 3:15am ET (i.e. the middle of the night for them). Part of the tour group was booked on an even later flight and arrived after that. Thankfully, all flights arrived on time, which is rare these days, but travel would have been even harder on the kids had there been any flight delays.
A lesser concern relates to the meals offered on the trip. Our child reported that they didn't eat well on the trip due to limited food options at most organized meals or issues with the food's quality. Certainly, no one was expecting gourmet food on this trip, but it does sound like a lot of processed foods were served and there was a lack of healthy food options. I don't have first-hand knowledge about this, as I am only going by what my child told me.
We attended an informational meeting for the trip two weeks before departure, where one of the teacher / chaperons from AEW giving the presentation kept reiterating just how "fast paced" the trip would be. She said the kids won't do well on the trip if they don't get enough sleep or are eating poorly. In hindsight, those comments seem ironic given that the trip organizers put the kids in a position to not get enough sleep while limiting their food choices to a lot of mediocre, processed food. It was annoying to have her go on-and-on in that meeting about just how fast-paced the trip would be, since this was the first time TravelED provided any indication of the trip's rapid pacing and red-eye flights.
The positives of this trip generally outweighed the negative and I appreciate the organizers giving local kids this opportunity in the first place. Most importantly, the kids were safe and secure throughout the trip. Yet, there is room for improvement on the TravelED DC Trip. I doubt the trip would've been any less enjoyable or educational if a couple of the less popular sites or activities were skipped in favor of a more balanced schedule. Additional and higher quality food options would be an improvement too. Finally, at a minimum the trip organizers could do a better job of setting expectations before the trip is already paid for and too late to cancel with refund. This would include being more upfront about the fast paced nature of the trip, providing a sample itinerary with daily start and end times, and indicating the expectation for red-eye flights.
