FAQs
We’ve done our best to answer all common questions, but if you don’t find the information you’re seeking below, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Programs
Of course. Essentially, we tailor programs using Signature Immersions as a starting place for groups of 10+ participants. You may include children alone or children and adults together in that count. This page will teach you all you need to know about these options.
For Signature and Family Immersions, each hub closes 3.5 weeks prior to the start date. Three weeks prior to the start date, we hold a Meet-and-Greet Zoom call, during which all families meet and introduce themselves. (We find this helps children feel more comfortable on the first day.) At this call, we request finalization of all add-on selections: Family Field Trips, Parent-Only Activites, Weekend Excursions, and Language Tutoring. After this call, families may not add on these additional activities.
Absolutely! Participants are deeply steeped in various aspects of the host country, learning history, geography, social studies, ecology, language, and all kinds of art forms. While much of this learning happens through experience, participants also learn from experts who provide engaging lessons, talks, and hands-on opportunities. While some sessions promote play and fun through experiences not connected to culture like visiting a local park, we strive to keep 90% of activities connected to culture and place. We do not provide traditional education in reading, writing, and mathematics, nor can we support a family’s specific homeschooling objectives. Learn more on our About page.
Absolutely! We schedule Immersions to make it easy for families to link two together, so you may consider joining two in one country or two in different countries.
We’re honored to join a small but growing global community of worldschooling hubs, but we don’t consider ourselves just that. Whereas worldschooling hubs tend to prioritize play and connection, and they serve families looking for peer time for themselves and their children. We serve long-term traveling families – worldschoolers – but we also find other types of people join us: adventurous homeschoolers, gap year families, and children in traditional school who travel on breaks and holidays.
Deliberate Detour focuses on what we value most: cultural immersion, hands-on learing, and local knowledge. Our hubs draw together the elements that feed our souls: walks past gorgeous murals or ancient ruins, hands-on exploration of traditional craft, culinary discoveries through cooking, stories from history, market visits and fruit tasting, and so much more, all organized and led by local people
Our participating families travel the world because they love the richness of cultures all over the planet, find other ways of life fascinating, strive to absorb the beauty of these places, and dream of showing their children these gifts. They understand that immersive travel changes lives by opening minds, dismantling stereotypes, and creating respect… all critical for a more peaceful planet. Read more about our hubs here.
We spend many months researching, curating, and negotiating all program elements to provide the highest-quality learning experiences possible. As we prepare our schedule, we consider high-traffic times, hotter parts of the day, instructor availability, and busy seasons to maximize comfort and ease. We build activities while respecting local customs like siestas. We listen to the needs of local staff and their family obligations.
All that is to say, our detailed schedule is a complex labor of love that evolves until close to hub launch. Enrolled families receive the entire schedule– with dates and times– 3 to 4 weeks prior to the start of their hub. They may receive a less specific schedule describing experiences earlier. Also, we share as much as possible on this site’s country pages (Peru and Mexico) and within newsletters to spark excitement. Please join our newsletter at the bottom of this page. If you’re curious about a particular experience or activity, feel free to contact us.
Join our newsletter in the footer for up-to-date enrollment information for each hub. Periodically, we publish the ages of other participants. All of our participants are aged 7 – 16 on the first day of their hub. We accept 6-year-olds on a case-by-case basis.
To participate in the month-long hubs, children must be 7 to 16-years-old on the day the hub begins. We may accepts 6-year-olds on a case-by-case basis after a conversation with that child’s parent. Children of all ages are invited to participate in Family Field Trips. Any child under the age of 16 who joins Friday Field Trips must attend with a paying adult. Details about these opportunities are shown on each country page: Peru Mexico.
At this point, our programs support only children ages 7 to 16. We do not have tips or resources on securing babysitting for younger children, but families can use their hub WhatsApp group to find child care together, if they wish. Younger and older siblings and family members are welcome to join Family Field Trips for additional fees. Prices for these opportunities are shown on each country page: Peru, Mexico.
We obligate each child to do their best to engage with the material, content, and opportunities put before them. Many caring adults have spent time curating and organizing top-quality, enriching experiences designed to open minds, deepen cultural understanding, and build connections between the children and between your child and the host country. We will respectfully but firmly guide all children to listen and participate in each activity put before them. Out of respect for different abilities, we will never force a child to remain engaged and sitting for an unbearable length of time. Each hub has options for children who cannot sit for very long, additional spaces within the hub like a reading nook, a gross motor play area, or an art table.
Our hubs include a maximum of 14 children and two adults. While at the hub, sometimes one adult conducts activities while the other works in an office; however, when outside of the hub space, two adults remain with the group, for a ratio of 1 to 7.
Deliberate Detour’s founder, Stephanie Tolk, has traveled, lived, volunteered, and worked in nearly 50 countries on five continents. She’s spent a significant amount of time in each hub country. Stephanie and her team select host cities based on a specific set of criteria including the availability of a diverse set of learning and play experiences, cultural and historic richness, proximity to an international airport, crime and physical safety statistics, the allure for traveling families, and more.
Programs take place in English, and all hub staff meet our language criteria: a high-intermediate ranking with TOEFL and an upper intermediate ranking with British Council. All hub program participants can enroll in 3 hours per week of local language tutoring (Spanish in Peru, and Mexico) outside of hub hours.
Hub staff intentionally sprinkle in phrases in the local language so that all children pick up basic sentences. For example, they may ask, “Estamos listos?” (Are we ready?) when leaving the hubs space for outings or “Ven a comer” when calling participants to eat lunch each day.
Our Signature Immersions are designed for our child participants. We do a lot of work to create exceptional learning experiences for them, and we also work hard to build community between participants through thoughtful Morning and Closing Circles and paired activities. These programs are designed to give parents a break to explore on their own, work online, rest and relax, or have adventures with other hub parents. For these reasons, parents are not included in many hub activities.
We do schedule in a 30-minute drop-off window each morning during which parents can help their child settle in and prepare for the day. For parents of younger or shy children, we are flexible with this drop-off window.
Consider joining a Family Immersion or creating a Custom Immersion for adults plus children; they’re both an excellent way to learn, grow, and explore alongside the little ones.
We best serve:
- The Dabblers: Families considering long-term travel may test the waters, executing a shorter adventure before arranging something longer-term. Often these families seek a community to tap into and time with more experienced worldschoolers who can offer advice.
- The Short-timers. These families have a set amount of time to travel: three months, six months, or one year. They plan their itinerary to fit in everything they want to see before heading back to home life and often schedule in a worldschooling hub to anchor their time away.
- The Newcomers: Newer worldschoolers who envision a long (or permanent) amount of time away from home benefit from connecting with more experienced worldschoolers who may answer questions about education, pace of travel, and more.
- The Experienced: More experienced worldschooling families sometimes notice that their children need to slow down or that they long for more enduring peer relationships. Deliberate Detour Hubs may meet these desires.
- The Sapped: A family at any stage may feel sapped or drained! Families who need someone else to do the planning for a change… parents who need time apart from your children, we got you.
While your family may fall into one of these groups, our participants thrive when all of us– staff, parents, and children– share the same expectations. We’ve articulated our ideas on a good fit on the website here.
We prefer that children do not bring electronics regardless of their age. Those that do bring phones may be permitted to take photos, but if children are disengaging from activities while on their screens, the Manager will ask parents to keep the device at home.
Parents will receive at least one WhatsApp update per day during the day and can reach their children through staff at any time in case of emergency. Enrolled families will receive more detailed expectations about communication and emergency preparedness before their program begins.
This depends on what you choose. Participants can be in our care anywhere from 20 to 27 hours per week. Children may be dropped off between 9:30 and 10:00 am Mondays through Thursdays and must be picked up at 3:00 – 3:30 pm. Parents may add on 3 additional hours of language tutoring weekly.
Please visit the country page you’re interested in to learn more about a typical day. And also please understand that, while we strive to offer this schedule weekly, plans may shift due to national holidays, strikes, etc.
Worldschooling families employ all sorts of educational modalities for their children. They might keep pace with their child’s peers at home by purchasing curricula or bringing along workbooks aligned with their child’s grade level. Some piece together learning with lessons from Outschool or Khan Academy, building upon those with readings or writing prompts. Other families lean on self-directed learning approaches, where a child’s interests and motivations dictate learning. Still others enroll their children in schools internationally, whether at a rigorous International Baccalaureate institution, an alternative school, or anything in between.
Deliberate Detour Worldschooling Hubs provide experiential learning opportunities and do not rely on any specific pedagogy or methodology. While we may reflect on an outing or field trip experience with a conversation back at the hub space, we do not strive to cement learning through essay writing or article reading. Parents should not expect that the child keep pace with peers at home, advance in reading, writing, or math, or move to another grade level as a result of participation in our hub. We provide real-world experiences that intersect with geology, geography, history, social sciences, and possibly religious studies, augmenting other homeschooling choices families have made.
We have a whole page on this site that describes worldschooling and offers resources for further reading, which you can access here.
Logistics
Yes! The term “worldschooling hub” doesn’t have a precise definition. In our minds, a gathering of traveling families outside of their home countries, organized with intention, is a worldschooling hub.
Many programs called worldschooling hubs are organized by expats or immigrants to the host country. Deliberate Detour is different.
Our programs are organized and facilitated by local people so that we can truly provide immersive experiences, experiences that connect visitors as deeply, intentionally, and authentically to the host culture as we can. Because cultural immersion is a cornerstone of each and every program we run, we’ve chosen to call our experiences Immersions rather than Worldschooling Hubs.
We provide safe drinking water and a midday lunch for all participants. Upon arrival, we may offer families coffee, tea, fruit or another light snack as a way to welcome the group each morning. Lunch is always 100% vegetarian. While we cannot make gluten or dairy-free meals specifically, there will always be options for children on those diets.
As often as possible, we introduce children to local culture through food, choosing items traditionally cooked in that region. We ask that families with children without allergies or restrictions do not send outside food to the hub. For participants with multiple or serious allergies, parents are welcome to pack food and should notify staff with this intention.
We request detailed information about allergies and food preferences on all family members – as adults often join us for Family Field Trips, Weekend Excursions, and Parent-Only Activities – through a Health & Wellness Form provided after enrollment.
We do our best to provide almost all that participants need so as not to add more weight to your luggage. We provide all art materials, paper and pens, drinking glasses, utensils, and more. We only ask that children bring:
- a water bottle, labeled with the child’s name, to leave at the hub. It can be a plastic bottle purchased in the country that we refill.
- a daypack for walks in the neighborhood
- a sunhat
- sunscreen
If the group has a special activity, such as swimming, parents will be notified in advance via their private WhatsApp group to pack accordingly.
For Signature Immersions, Deliberate Detour does not assist with finding accommodation. Each family has specific standards and needs when it comes to accommodation, and each family will be best at finding rooms they deem acceptable. We prefer to spend our time developing and facilitating high-quality programming for your children. All enrolled families will receive a detailed, annotated map of the hub city pinpointing our hub space, along with an extensive list of recommended Airbnbs and hotels that previous families have enjoyed.
For Family Immersions, we do curate comfortable accommodation for enrolled families.
Yes! We offer Consultancy Packages to help families arrange side trips or experiences before, during, or after their worldschooling hub. Families have asked for support planning a trip to the Oaxacan coast, how to keep their kids playing their sports in Cusco, if we can arrange a trip to Rainbow Mountain, what the deal is with lucha libre etc. The questions are up to you!
To preserve and honor the time of our in-country team, we charge $110 per hour for these services. You may request as much time as you’d like (or start with one hour and book more) by clicking here.
You will receive a Family Handbook before your hub launches which provides information on this question and other logistical and practical matters. For Latin American hubs, most international families can withdraw local currency from ATMs within the hub city.
Because of the changing requirements and rules related to your own passport type, we cannot consult on your specific visa needs. Our families come from all over the world. Please Google the information you need for your own situation. If you have trouble finding information regarding visas and travel documents, search for your country’s Department of State, Foreign Office, or similar. Remember to research this EARLY in the process, as sometimes, procuring a visa can take many weeks or months.
Deliberate Detour does not provide transportation to and from the airport. Enrolled families receive a detailed Family Handbook with suggestions for how to make this trip.
The choice to purchase medical insurance is entirely your own. Deliberate Detour does not require that you have it. In some countries, medical treatment is inexpensive, and families prefer to pay out-of-pocket for local care. However, medical insurance may cover larger, unexpected expenses like returning to your home country for medical emergencies. We recommend researching World Nomads and Trawick when exploring this option, though many other companies exist. Please understand that any medical treatment received due to illness or injury experienced at the hub or within the community will not be covered or paid for by Deliberate Detour.
Wifi will be available at all hubs as a tool for hub staff. Child participants are not permitted to bring devices and do not access hub wifi. Parents can request the password to use wifi at drop off and pick up; however, the strength and dependability of wifi services vary from country to country. The hub spaces are not open for parents to stay for work or research. The Family Handbook distributed upon enrollment lists co-working spaces or wifi-enabled cafes in which parents can settle.
Drinking water quality and food safety standards differ from country to country. Within the hub space and on outings, we always provide safe drinking water, by purchasing 20-gallon refillable bottles or individual bottles, or by using a filtration system that produces potable water. Our cooks employ safe food-handling practices. While Deliberate Detour cannot ensure potable water for your family outside of hub time, the Family Handbook provided to enrolled families offers more information about how to stay safe and healthy in the hub city.
Deliberate Detour chooses hub sites with clinics nearby that are considered high-quality for that city, country, or region. The Family Handbook, provided to enrolled families, has more information for each hub city. The standards, however, may not be what you are accustomed to or require based on your personal situation. Please research standards of care and specialists in the city to ensure your family is comfortable with the decision to locate there for a month or more.
This is a complicated question and one we want to address head-on by saying, “It depends.” It depends on what you want to be safe. One family may be concerned with clean food and drinking water, while others might be worried about natural disasters, political unrest, or swimming safety. We also calibrate what we consider dangerous by the dangers we perceive in our own countries, so an Israeli or an American, for example, might perceive safety in another country differently than an Icelander.
To assuage any concerns you have, we recommend you research with your Department of State, Foreign Office, or the equivalent in your country that tend to compile travel advisories. Only you can determine what’s right for your family, and we hope that those who join our Worldschooling Hubs do so with minimal anxiety.
The prices for typical items differ in each country. The Family Handbook, which you receive upon enrollment, will detail some typical costs like a taxi ride within the city, a mid-range meal, etc. Because bargaining is common in most of our hub cities, we also provide an appropriate cost for day-to-day items that you might aspire to when negotiating with local drivers or vendors.
Policies + Fees
Deliberate Detour hubs follow a trajectory over the course of the program, beginning with intention-setting and teambuilding and ending with a final celebration, our Farewell Expo. We encourage participants to attend every day.
However, if you cannot commit to that length of time, you may arrive and depart when you wish for full price. We do not discount for partial participation. You may only attend for one length of time, meaning you can come and go only once during the hub due to the disruption to the remainder of the group. If you enroll with the intention to arrive late or leave early, please contact us to inform us.
We insert this question in the spirit of transparency, as we’ve been there. We’ve been traveling parents searching for ways to connect with like-minded adults and for our children to create relationships with peers. Our dollars (pounds, soles, euros) have had to last us months if not years, and the costs of our worldschooling hub experiences have mattered.
If you’ve looked around, you’ve noticed that worldschooling hub fees are all over the map. Hub leaders consider many of the same costs but do so in various countries, where the standard of living, rates of inflation, minimum wages, food costs, and more can differ dramatically. You’ll notice Deliberate Detour sets different fees based on our worldschooling countries.
Savvy parents understand that Deliberate Detour pays for supplies, rent, furnishings, food, transportation, guides, entrances, staff wages, and more. What might not be obvious are some of these costs: Hub Developer staff in each country to design and produce exceptional programming; an advisory team including a finance specialist, a marketing expert, and an accountant; web development fees including payment processing charges, form plug-ins, and more; attorney fees to operate as a Limited Liability Corporation in the state of Oregon, USA; insurance; and language teachers, to name a few of our expenses.
We strive to be affordable to many families, not astronomical. We strive to support our business so it has what it needs to function efficiently and effectively. We strive to support our team of Hub staff, drivers, guides, and cooks in Cusco and Oaxaca– and future possible hub sites– with solid, respectable wages. And we strive, when we operate stably in the black, to offer scholarships.
Below is our 2027 cancelation policy, which forms part of the Terms & Conditions parents agree to upon enrollment
CANCELLATION + REFUND POLICY
The enrollment of your child in a Immersion program requires Deliberate Detour to expend funds for Immersion facilities, programs, tours, independent contractors, and other expenses. As a result, we must adhere to a strict cancellation and refund policy. These policies apply to the full fee which includes the Core Program Fee for the Enrolled Child to participate plus all add-ons for the Enrolled Child and all family members.
Section I: During the enrollment period:
- Cancel within 14 days of completing your initial enrollment fee for a full refund of all deposits made, minus PayPal’s 3.9% Merchant fee.
- Cancel 4 months before the first day of the Immersion: 75% returned minus Immersion & Machu Picchu deposits and PayPal’s 3.9% Merchant fee.
- Cancel 2 months before the first day of the Immersion: 25% returned minus Immersion & Machu Picchu deposits and PayPal’s 3.9% Merchant fee.
- Cancel 30 days before the first day of the Immersion: all payments and deposits forfeited to Deliberate Detour.
No special consideration or alterations to the above policies will be made based on
- Illness of participant or family member that impedes the family from traveling to the Immersion location.
- Change of plans, fear, uncertainty, or disinterest in the Immersion program for any reason.
- Failure of one or more family members to procure valid visas and/or passports for the Immersion country.
- Failure to read and understand our program inclusions, exclusions, costs, itinerary or other program components.
- Financial hardship.
Section II: Conditions under which Deliberate Detour gives a full refund BEFORE the Immersion begins, negating the policy in Section I:
- The Immersion country closes its borders prior to the Immersion start date, making arrival impossible.
- Deliberate Detour determines that the Immersion program and your family are not a strong match if we cannot support your child’s physical, emotional, or psychological needs.
- Incidence of national strikes, natural disasters, political unrest, global pandemic, or any other extraordinary circumstance in which Deliberate Detour determines that running programs is unsafe.
- Deliberate Detour cancels the program for any reason prior to commencement of the program.
- Unsuccessful booking of promised program elements such as Machu Picchu tickets or similar.
Section III: Conditions under which Deliberate Detour gives NO refund AFTER the Immersion begins:
- Early departure of an Enrolled Child for any reason, including illness, emergency return home, separation anxiety, dissatisfaction with the program, dislike of the Immersion country, relationship challenges with other children, bullying, ostracization, etc
- Deliberate Detour determines, based on disclosed or newly changed health/safety information, that the program cannot safely meet the participant’s needs.
- Deliberate Detour’s dismissal of the Enrolled Child due to mental, emotional, psychological, or behavioral challenges that negatively affect other participants.
- Physical challenges faced by participants or family members that makes moving about the city and Immersion space impossible.
- Fear of or actual incidence of national strikes, natural disasters, political unrest, or any other extraordinary circumstance under which Deliberate Detour determines that Immersion programs remain safe.
- Cancellation of the Immersion program after the first meeting of enrolled children due to war, acts of terrorism, strikes, lockouts, acts of God, governmental actions, civil commotions, incidence of disease or other illness that reaches epidemic or pandemic proportions (expressly including COVID-19), or other causes beyond the reasonable control Deliberate Detour, except at Deliberate Detour’s express sole discretion.
Nope! Here’s our payment schedule:
- Pay a deposit of $500 per family upon enrollment.
- Pay 50% of your remainder 30 days later.
- Pay the remaining balance 30 days prior to the start of your Immersion.
We invoice you each time, and all prices are in US dollars.
We offer a 10% discount on the Standard Package fee for each child after the second. We also offer sales throughout the year and Early Bird Discounts. Be sure to join our newsletter in the footer below to learn about these opportunities as they arise.
All costs described on the What’s Included in Your Fee are covered by your fee. We have no hidden fees.
If you join optional Family Field Trips, tips are already included in your fee. While you may meet artisans and craftspeople with Deliberate Detour, you will never be pressured to purchase their wares. You will have to purchase your lunch and water on Friday Field Trips. Any additional expenses you incur will be purely voluntary.
In some cases, Deliberate Detour can support children who present as neurodivergent or who have special cognitive needs. We strive for inclusion, though we assess fit on a case-by-case basis. During the enrollment process, we ask for transparency. In some cases, we schedule a phone call to learn more about your child prior to making a decision to ensure the success of your child, other children, and hub staff. Our staff are not specifically trained to support children with special needs, so we take an untrained, yet loving approach with these children.
Most hub countries are not equipped to accommodate people with physical disabilities, meaning curbs might not be cut, stairs may not have railings, buses may have steep steps, and more. Participants with physical challenges may have difficulty not only at the hub space but throughout the city. We cannot support participants in wheelchairs. Families are responsible for researching extensively prior to enrollment to ensure that their needs can be met.
Deliberate Detour requires no specific vaccines nor do we request a history of vaccinations. We do ask that parents be respectful when sending enrolled children to the hub when they exhibit signs of illness. Parents will be called to pick up their child immediately if the child has a fever, vomits at the hub, or informs us that they vomited within the previous 24 hours.
Some countries recommend vaccines to enter certain parts of their territory. For example, you may find that a yellow fever vaccine is recommended for the Peruvian Amazon. Deliberate Detour will not take participants to these regions, but you may travel onward to them. We suggest visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US or your country’s equivalent to read these recommendations.