We're not a cruise ship that disgorges thousands of passengers to overwhelm a port city for a few hours. We often dock in an industrial container port and need a bus or taxi to reach the city. We stay for 5 to 7 days in each country and seek to learn about nature, geography, history, politics, culture, and food.
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| Arriving at Aqaba Jordan at dawn |
Before we arrive in a country, the anticipation builds for days. We focus on our destination in Global Studies. We hear from interport lecturers, peruse travel websites with our ridiculously limited bandwidth, gather for country-themed appetizers at The Chappy, and have a big boisterous "preport assembly" in the auditorium.
We typically arrive in port at dawn. It's very exciting to join hundreds of others in the bow as we approach land after many days at sea. Unlike in the open ocean, the sea is green and brown and the sky is full of birds. We join gigantic container ships and cranes and pull into a bustling industrial zone.
Breakfast is a buzz of excitement and activity and bleary-eyed students who stayed up all night. Before anybody can go ashore, everyone must clear immigration. This is done for the whole ship by officers who board and check all the passports and visas. All of us file into the auditorium by group to have our passports stamped. This takes hours.
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| Traffic in Mumbai |
During the country stay, there are no classes. The vast majority of passengers head inland to explore. SAS encourages students to combine organized Field Programs with private travel and to mix and match between day trips and multi-day explorations. Take the time to plan your time in each country carefully.
Field Programs are curated educational experiences provided by SAS for which participants pay an extra fee. Some of them are just incredible, offering cultural experiences that you'd almost certainly fail to find on your own. Others are kind of run-of-the-mill tours that you could organize yourself for less cost.
Click here to browse all the Field Programs offered by SAS during the Spring 2025 voyage.
Some really outstanding Field Programs we've done included an overnight visit to a snowy mountaintop monastery in Japan and learning about the deep cultural roots of silk and lace production in a small home museum in Croatia. SAS also organizes home stays with families and amazing service learning opportunities in rural villages, which allow a deep experience of local culture that goes far beyond tourism.
We've found some SAS Field Programs to be fantastic ways to connect with students and staculty in a sustained way over a period of days and nights in country. A couple of dozen people traveling in a van or bus together for three days through the countryside and cities, eating and hanging out together during the evenings, is a very different social environment from the formality of the shipboard experience.On the other hand, some of the Field Programs have been kind of a waste of time and money. We have been especially disappointed with first day "City Orientation" tours that feel more like rushed dashes through big city tourist traps on a nausea-inducing bus. Your mileage may vary, so shop carefully and don't just sign up for everything on the website!
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| Kenyan "fixer-upper" hotel |
Private travel for a couple or a group is a great way to learn about and explore a country. I'd recommend scouting all this out from home while you have great internet access. Look carefully at itineraries, lodging, intercity travel, flights, etc. You can probably put together a fantastic 5-day adventure for about half the price you'd pay SAS to do all the arrangements. Plus you can choose your destinations, whether you prefer luxury hotels or little B&Bs or lodges.
You can certainly fly from most port cities, but you're discouraged from leaving the country (think visas and immigration). Students are forbidden from leaving the country where the ship docks. You absolutely MUST be back by "on-ship time" or risk being left behind! Think carefully before booking return flights to the ship on the last day in a country.
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| Kilimanjaro at dawn in Amboseli National Park (right outside our room!) |
Some of the students pool their resources and rent vacation homes with a bunch of friends where they party and carouse and may get into trouble. Others are on full scholarships with no spending money at all and stay on the ship the whole time in every country. Some do day trips to museums and parks and thrift stores and libraries, returning to the ship for meals and sleep.
It's important to know that the ship is your home: you're always welcome on board and it's comforting to know that your safe zone is always there, with food and lodging you've already paid for.
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| Gigantic container port in Mombasa |
When it's time to depart, there's always a mad crush to re-board the ship. Everyone goes through a security screening that's a bit more stringent than at an airport. Students' luggage is mercilessly searched for drugs and alcohol, which means the lines are very slow. Sometimes it takes a couple of hours to re-board, so it's good to get on board before the lines get bad.
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| Students line up in sweltering shade of the ship waiting to re-board after 11 days in Vietnam, Feb 2020 |