Reef To Rainforest Adventure

This journey is for the student looking for a travel experience with an incredible amount of variety. You can expect to spend a lot of time in and around the water since most Australians live by the coast. Although Australia might seem out of the way, this journey is ideal for a student’s first time abroad as well as the seasoned traveler. Whether you’re interested in remote destinations or the bustling adventure of city-life, you’ll be able to find it in Australia.

There’s really no rigid mold from which GoBeyond students are cut. Since our students come from different backgrounds all over the world, the groups end up being naturally diverse. Everyone arrives with different goals, expectations, hopes, and fears, but they quickly find common ground and begin to bond. The GoBeyond environment allows team members to connect quickly and become closer friends than anyone would expect. Many students report leaving feeling as though they had known their fellow students their whole lives.

Our philosophy revolves around small group sizes that are still large enough to foster a sense of community. For the summer program in Australia, we’ve found that a group size of 12 students works best. This journey does not require any previous experience, skills, or language fluency – yet we strongly recommend students earn an “Open Water Diver” certification prior to the program to gain the most from the experience.

GoBeyond is proud to attract and recruit the best in our field for our international volunteer opportunities for high school students. Our summer staff consists of avid world travelers, highly qualified professionals, and fun and experienced facilitators and educators. All members of our team are dynamic, multi-talented, and passionate individuals with a devotion and commitment to the safety and experience of our students.

The average age of our summer staff is 26. Staff skills are journey specific, such as holding a maritime license in the BVIs or having a background in childcare for China. All staff are First Aid and CPR certified, and many hold advanced training certificates such as Wilderness First Responder or EMT. Along with local guides and our community service partners, the ratio of staff to students is approximately 1:5. This enables close interaction and individualized attention during the journey.

Learn More About Our Staff

GoBeyond students are responsible for carrying their luggage from one location to the next. As such, we recommend that you keep things simple and avoid over-packing. Students are given the opportunity to do laundry throughout the trip, so there’s no need to pack several weeks’ worth of clothing.

Our hope is that families will have minimal purchases prior to the trip, so we’ve compiled our packing lists in a way that you’ll find most of what you need in your closet at home. Around mid to late March, we make available our Pre-Trip Packet to enrolled students, which contains a detailed packing list for this year’s summer program in Australia. If you’d like to see last year’s packing list as an example, you can download it here.

Download Sample Packing List

During the trip, students will need an emergency/travel credit or debit card in addition to personal spending cash. The credit or debit card (minimum balance of $400) is intended to cover travel costs to and from the program and any unanticipated costs that might arise such as a clinic or hospital visit. While not required, students have the option of storing their credit or debit card with our staff during the journey if you are concerned about loss or theft.

GoBeyond will pay all major program costs while traveling and working, but there will also be opportunities for students to spend money on personal items. The most common expenses include snacks, souvenirs, and phone/internet time (calling cards, internet centers, etc.). Based on our past experience, some students will spend less and some will spend more than our recommendation ($300). Judge this amount by the spending habits of your student. Please set boundaries for your student’s spending, as GoBeyond cannot be responsible for monitoring student spending. If you are concerned about loss or theft of cash, students can give staff up to $150 of their spending cash to be put into safekeeping for withdrawal later.

When ashore in Sydney, Townsville, and Cairns, we will be staying mainly in hostels and hotels. In the Whitsunday Islands, we’ll be living aboard our sailing yacht full-time. During the scuba diving expedition to the Great Barrier Reef, we’ll live onboard a large motor vessel designed for live-aboard diving.

While no prerequisites are required to participate in this journey, we highly recommend students come with some level of experience with diving. Those students joining us with an “Open Water Dive” certification will have all of the skills necessary to take advantage of this once in a lifetime experience. For those who are new to diving that won’t be able to earn a certification before summer – we recommend earning at least what is called a “referral” by completing book work and pool dives before joining us on the journey. If you have any questions about the scuba diving aspect of this journey, don’t hesitate to give our office a call.

GoBeyond’s tuition covers all meals after arrival in the host country. We strive for healthy, nutritious, and delicious meals, and serve a mixture of local and international fare (including Western). For our Australia journey, we primarily eat at the hotels/lodges and local restaurants.

Note, as GoBeyond is a health-conscious program, our staff do not provide large quantities of “junk” food (i.e. sodas, chips, candy bars, large desserts, etc.). Students can always supplement our meals and snacks by shopping locally for their own items.

During the application process, families can inform us of any dietary allergies or restrictions. We are usually able to accommodate vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, etc., as well as various food allergies. However, if your student has a severe allergy to peanuts or other common substances, please call our office to discuss the options.