Each semester we organize an overnight trip to the Stockholm Archipelago and optional weekend trips to the Arctic Circle and to the island of Gotland exploring Sweden’s rich culture, history, and geography beyond the capital city.
We end our orientation week with a boat trip to the island of Sandhamn in the Stockholm Archipelago. The Archipelago is a collection of thousands of beautiful islands surrounding Stockholm’s eastern coast in the Baltic Sea. This overnight trip gives students a chance to relax and get to know one another before classes begin. The cost of this trip is included in tuition.
The Island of Gotland is one of the most beautiful and historically significant islands in the world, sitting about 56 miles east of mainland Sweden in the Baltic Sea. The first Stone Age settlers came to the island 7,000 years ago and many traces of their dwellings can still be seen, along with limestone picture stones, unique to Gotland, covered with mythological scenes and depictions of ships and warriors.
We’ll stay on the island’s northwest coast in the medieval city of Visby, a popular tourist destination and home to a Viking village during the 9th century. Today, the city is a UNESCO world heritage site and arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia. Outside of the city, Gotland’s landscape ranges from desolate heaths to lush meadows, spectacular cliffs and sandy beaches. Activities typically include a tour of Medieval churches and burial grounds, a guided visit to the Fornsalen Viking museum, the opportunity to bike or hike in the surrounding countryside, and a tour of a local microbrewery.
The cost for this trip is $550 and includes round trip transportation, accommodations, all meals, and activities. If you receive financial aid from your home school but your aid doesn’t cover this cost, you can request a fee waiver during registration. You will receive more detailed information upon acceptance to the Program. We hope you will join this Viking adventure on the island of Gotland!
Sweden is the land of the midnight sun in the summer, but winter in the Arctic is breathtaking. The landscape is strikingly beautiful from its sparkling frozen lakes to the snowy mountains where reindeer are herded by the indigenous Sámi people. On clear, cloudless nights, you might also see the majestic Northern Lights streak across the sky. This trip to explore northern Sweden is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
We’ll stay in the beautiful tundra of Swedish Lapland. Activities typically include dog sledding, snowshoeing, skiing (cross-country in the fall and alpine touring in the spring), visiting a traditional Sámi village, and touring the world-famous Ice Hotel. During the fall trip, you’ll have the opportunity to use sauna facilities and spend extra time with the sled dogs. During the spring trip, you’ll have the opportunity for additional alpine ski touring, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, snowboarding, or sledding at your own expense. If we’re lucky, you’ll also have a chance see the beautiful Northern Lights! (Of course, we cannot control or guarantee this meteorological event.)
The cost for this trip is $625 and includes round trip transportation, accommodations, all meals, and activities. If you receive financial aid from your home school but your aid doesn’t cover this cost, you can request a fee waiver during registration. You will receive more detailed information upon acceptance to the Program. We hope you will join this once-in-a-lifetime experience in northern Sweden!
We recognize that students want to travel while studying abroad. Therefore, we provide two full weeks of vacation time to do so. Students find it easy to travel throughout Europe during this time and appreciate the opportunity to choose for themselves where they want to go! There are quick direct flights from Stockholm to many of Europe’s great cities:
Berlin: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Prague: 2 hours
London: 2 hours and 15 minutes
Paris: 2 hours and 30 minutes
Barcelona: 3 hours and 15 minutes
