For over a decade, outstanding teachers have won free bike trips during their summer vacations, thanks to the generosity of Bicycle Tour Company, ExperiencePlus! 
Teachers have biked in Europe and South America so that in the Fall, when they return to the classroom they have shared what they learned about geography, ecology, history, culture, physical fitness and the greater world with their students.
Since the program began in 1996 ExperiencePlus has given away over 25 free bicycle tours across Europe and Latin America.
Kelly Barofsky, a 1st grade teacher from Prospect Elementary School in Clarendon Hills, Illinois won a free trip to Italy in 2013. When she returned to her classroom after summer vacation, she shared her passion for riding with her 6-year-old students.
“I LOVE incorporating my bike rides into my writing lessons with my students. I have showed them it’s so much easier to write about something we are passionate and excited about because I demonstrate that during Writing Workshop almost every day,” she explains.
Jacquline Malanga, a New York City high school art teacher biked through Italy in 2014. She described the highlights of “riding along the River Po and arriving at the Renaissance city of Ferrara to visit the Villa Bardoe, visiting Leonardo Da Vinci’s birth place, and then riding through the country side of Tuscany.” She shared her trip with her students “using photographs on my new Smart Board…so they could directly interact with the landscape while learning perspective.” She also taught architectural elements though the photos of the Renaissance buildings she saw along the way.
ExperiencePlus! was founded by two educators, Rick and Paola Price who believe in the power of a passionate teacher. They met in college, wanted to spend their summers in Italy, so they started organizing bike tours for instructors at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Rick and Paola Price retired from their professorships at CSU over the past couple of years and are now traveling the world on bicycles including Mongolia, Cuba and many points in Europe.
Today two sisters, Monica and Maria Elena, run the family-owned company and they are training the third!
If you know of a deserving K-12 public or private school teacher be sure to have them apply for our Send a Teacher Traveling program.
