Hostelling International Activity Patch for Cadette and Senior Scouts

Requirements: Complete at least 7 activities (2 from Skill Builders, 1 from Technology, 1 from Career Exploration, 1 from Service Projects, and 2 from the areas of your choice).

Skill Builders

1. Research several transportation and accommodation options for a troop trip. Compare, contrast and choose your mode on the basis of cost, convenience and suitability. Consider how the rank in terms of accessibility for handicapped persons. Decide which best suit your travel needs and be prepared to justify your decision.
2. Call a tourist bureau or other source to obtain information about sites you might like to visit on your trip. Choose several destinations to tour. Consider transportation and cost in your travel plan. Make reservations for your group when necessary.
3. Arrange to interview someone who has stayed at a youth hostel or who is a staff member of a hostel you plan to visit. Ask them what to bring with you and how to pack it. Share your findings with your troop or group.
4. Consult with an experienced traveler or health professional about any special health, safety, and diet concerns that come with traveling. Find out how to prevent common travel injuries and illnesses and what to pack in a small first aid kit for the road. For international travel, find out if and why you may need special inoculations or medications.
5. Learn from other hostellers how to say hello, good-bye, and thank you in seven different languages.
6. Make paper passports or use pillowcases to get signatures from other hostellers. Have them write their names and the country they are from, as well as some ?Words of Wisdom? they have to share based on their hostelling experiences. Share these with each other.
7. People perceive places differently based on their differing backgrounds and experiences. While on your trip, interview both visitors and residents of your destination about their impressions of the city/town. Ask people at the hostel or at colleges, parks, shopping centers, local hangouts, and tourist attractions. Compile your findings and compare and contrast them.
8. Make a budget for your trip and then keep a log of your expenses. At the conclusion of the trip, compare your actual and estimated budget costs. Include this in an evaluation of the trip. Share any tips or changes you would recommend for others going on a similar trip. Share this evaluation with another troop in your council.

Technology

1. Search the Internet for information on hostelling. What are the mission and goals of different hostelling organizations? Where do they have hostels? What are the costs involved? Can reservations be made via the net? Do many other countries have hostel web sites? Are they in English?
2. Take three ?virtual tours? of sites you are interested in visiting during your hostelling trip. Look up the home pages. What sort of services or facilities do they have? If they have an email address, write to administration to help make plans for your trip. Share your findings.
3. Means of transportation have changed over the years. How would hostellers have traveled in the early part of the century? How will you? What role has technology played in these changes? In what ways has travel become easier for the disabled?
4. Using your computer, make a persuasive ad promoting a youth hostel that you have visited. Utilize guest interviews and promote historic and interesting sites in the proximity of the hostel.
5. How can technology help break down cultural barriers? Discuss examples and new ideas with your troop. If practical, test out some of these ideas and report on how they worked.
6. Obtain and study a pictorial map of the area you will visit on your hostel trip. Learn how to read the legend and locate places of interest. Decide your route of travel and mode of transportation.
7. Plan a trip with another troop or group. Use modern technology �telephone, computers, and fax machines � to arrange and consolidate your trip plans. Assess under what circumstances it makes most sense to use each form of communication, and list the pros and cons of each.

Career Exploration

1. Hostels need people to manage them, to implement programs in them, and to welcome people to them. Interview several of the people working at the hostel where you are and find out what education and experience is necessary for their jobs, why they chose to work in the hostel, and what they like and dislike about their positions. Compare your list with others in your group. Would you like a career in hostel management?
2. Interview at least one adult hosteller about the choices they have made in their education and careers. Find out how they have gotten to travel. Are they on business? Vacation? Have they taken significant time off to travel? How have their career choices influenced their ability to see the world? How are career options different in other parts of the world? After interviewing them, consider whether you would make similar or different choices.
3. Find out the official mission statement of Hostelling International-American Youth Hostels. Discuss how the work they do fulfills their mission. Create your own mission statement. What would you do to fulfill it?
4. Research the role of the travel industry in the area you plan to visit. How does it contribute to the economy of the area? What career possibilities are available in the industry?

Service Projects

1. Keeping in mind that hostellers often do not have their own transportation, make a binder of things for them to do in your home area. Include information on museums, parks, low cost accommodations, local food specialties, and how to get around. Suggest points of interest and make a good case for why they should come and visit. Ask the managers at the hostel you are visiting what information is most needed. Bring or send the binder to the hostel for future guests to use.
2. Share your hostelling experience with other troops or groups in your area. Use resources such as pictures, slides, or videos to give your audience a visual conception of what your experience was like.
3. Volunteer your services during your stay at the hostel. Clean up a room, cook a meal, help pick up a room, or give an educational presentation to other guests. Be observant, and leave the environment there better than you found it.
4. Is there a hostel near your home town? Volunteer to help international visitors there upon your return. Find out how you can be the most help.