I finally have some free time and money as a student to travel!!!!! I unfortunately and regretfully didn't study abroad in college but I have one month free in my long and hard Engineering curriculum. My issue is that my friends (yes engineers have friends) don't really understand the pleasures of travel. They either want to go home or go to someone else's home while I want to go see the other side of the world. I love my friends but they would not good be travel companions. I hear that traveling alone is not a bad idea and then making friends in hostels but growing up with a mother that didn't let me cross the street alone until the 7th grade it's pretty hard to get permission to do that. I have looked in group student travel (EF college break, contiki, etc.) but I find endless bad reviews about how horrible the planning, travel arrangements, and scams were. If it was anything like my trip to israel on birthright then I don't want to pay for something like that. Birthright was free for jews :) and it was fun but I could find many complaints if I had to pay 3-4 grand for a planned out bus trip like that which is what the college tour groups look like. To me it doesn't make sense to lose a once in a lifetime opportunity (it feels like that in engineering) to see other parts of the world simply because I cannot find travel companions. If anyone here has some advice for a college student that wants to travel but cannot find travel companions please feel free to let me know :).