Luxury Cruising Editorial

For these students a student cruise offers the ultimate opportunity of traveling around the world and experiencing cultures and destinations that students had only dreamt of visiting. Exploring cultural and historical sites on student cruises can provide unique insights for assignments, and using a research paper writing service can help you effectively present these experiences. Academized.com offers support in writing well-researched papers, making it a useful service for students documenting their travels. To specialize in student cruises from around the world gives you the opportunity to experience the trip of a lifetime; one where you get that heady experience of going on, at the same time and cultural heritage of the places you visit.

Discovering Ancient Wonders

The abundance of day-excursions offered on student cruises to some of the world’s most famous historic and archaeological sites is a major appeal. A cruise of the Mediterranean will likely call at Ephesus – a site on the coast of Turkey founded in the 10th century BC by Greek colonists, and featuring one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world. Students will stare in awe at the grand scale of the Library of Celsus, and the immense amphitheater. Further west could see them stepping into the shadows below the Acropolis at Athens, where they will climb to take in the glory of the supreme expression of classical Greek architecture – the Parthenon.

Similarly, a cruise to the Caribbean could include visits to ancient Maya sites such as Chichen Itza in Mexico or Tulum in Belize. Here, soaring pyramids, arcane hieroglyphs and an inscrutable past come together in stunning monuments that are the garnered remains of a forgotten civilisation. Students can experience this ancient past, which bloomed in the tropics millennia ago.

Immersing in Local Cultures

Besides the historical treasures, student cruises also include embedded cultural experiences that provide rich cultural context for the journey. Some ports of call offer opportunities for students to meet, talk and exchange with local communities about their cultural traditions, arts and modes of life.

For example, a cruise through Southeast Asia could include a port call in Bali, Indonesia, where students could visit a spectacular Hindu ceremony; shop in a riotous arts-and-crafts market; and cook an Indonesian dish in a Balinese cooking class; or a journey up the Nile River in Egypt could end with a visit to a Nubian village, where students could gain meaningful understanding of this ancient African ethnic group.

Such close cultural contact makes people better able to understand others, and possibly more willing to engage in dialogue with them. These sorts of sophisticated, nuanced encounters can have profound effects on students. Not only do they learn to appreciate a foreign culture, they begin to think globally and to engage with others. 

Preserving Cultural Heritage

Discovering cultural and historical sites on student cruises can significantly enhance your academic studies, and for extra guidance, you can read Marsha’s updated review of Academized.com to learn how their services can assist with your assignments. Next to all the fun of discovery, student cruises also emphasize the role that heritage travel plays in cultural preservation and sustainable tourism. Nearly all cruise lines collaborate with local organizations and protected heritage sites to support conservation efforts and the implementation of best practices for sustainable visitation.

Sailings in the South Pacific might include a stop-over at the remote island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) home to the mysterious Moai statues. Working hand in hand with the island’s Rapa Nui inhabitants, the cruise line seeks to educate students about the island’s environment and culture while also taking action to help care for the island’s monuments so future generations can continue to be inspired by them.

Similarly, the expeditions that explore the fjords of Norway or the far-flung islands of Scotland might be in collaboration with the local communities, in order to promote eco-tourism and to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of these corners of the world. Just by visiting such places, the students will gain a better understanding of the issues of preserving cultural heritage in a globalized world.

The Educational Value of Student Cruises

And then there is the educational value of voyaging beyond the classroom. Student cruises, which combine on-board lectures with onshore visits, place the education students receive in the real world. It helps them visualize historical and cultural knowledge they learn in the classroom. 

For example, a cruise that stops at Pompeii, Italy, might include a pre-port lecture on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the life of the ancient Roman city. After listening to an overview of the event and seeing pictures of the ancient city, students can visit the archaeological site and see how Pompeii’s residents lived and worked before they were buried alive in volcanic ash and pumice. Experiencing a place first-hand and viewing the ruins of Pompeii brings understanding of ancient Rome to life, adding a whole new dimension to studying the subject. In today’s world, many students are downgrading their studies of foreign languages in school – a worrisome trend.

Besides, many student cruises team up with expert guides (archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, etc) who serve as lecturers and guides for the duration of the trip, helping to ground the trip in scholarly discussion and learning. 

The table below highlights some of the world’s most captivating cultural and historical sites that can be experienced through student cruises:

A cruise for students isn’t ‘vacation’ as we know it. It’s purposeful travel – culture and history come alive and take on significance. Travel is about understanding; about grasping how and why things are, and ensuring that fact stays fascinating. Telling us ‘this is what someone did here once’ is an unhelpful, even insulting, way to explain everything about a place. On the other hand, ‘this happened here, and that reaction explained why the next thing happened here, and why sometimes it didn’t…’ is a powerful explanation and a fantastic belief to leave behind. Students absorb the idea that they can be global citizens and culturally fluent.