Welcome to Ignite Travel
Current and future destinations with Ignite Travel
It’s an exciting day here at Ignite Travel Group, LLC. We are open for business and have two exciting trips planned for our launch in 2024.
I, Shae Pepper the co-founder of Ignite Travel, have had the dream to make travel more accessible to marginalized young people for almost 20 years. If there’s two things I’m passionate about it’s travel and educating young people about social and emotional skills in creative and hands on ways. As a Professional Youth Worker with a Master’s in Youth Work and Community Development, and through my own extensive travel experience, this is a marrying of those interests into an exciting new business venture.
The dream for Ignite Travel is to change the way the world views teen travel. We want it to be open to anyone, no matter their barriers and challenges, and we want it to be seen as a necessity for a global citizen, not a luxury. We have a particular focus on marginalized teens based on race, socio-economic status and the LBGTQ+ community and where those barriers intersect.
We believe travel is different than a vacation. Don’t get us wrong - vacations are amazing and a ton of fun. But travel is where you have fun while learning about another place - the ecosystem, the people, the culture, the history and more. A balance of learning interesting things WHILE having a grand adventure. That is why we say we want to “spark your curiosity for the world.” We want those who travel with Ignite Travel to leave feeling more connected to - and curious to learn even more about - themselves and the world around them.
Our first teen trip is in July of 2024 and will be to the Republic of Ireland. We have an exciting itinerary lined up and can’t wait to take 8 teens on the experience of a lifetime.
Bunratty Castle in County Clare, Ireland
Our first adult trip is in October of 2024 and will be to South Africa. Why do we run adult trips if we are a teen travel company? We want to build a multi-generational community that believes, like us, that travel is for everyone and that there are many barriers to teen travel that can and should be addressed. A portion of each of our adult trips goes to support scholarships for teen to remove those barriers.
Giraffe at sunrise - Kruger National Park in South Africa
In keeping with our social mission, despite being a “for-profit” business Ignite Travel prices trips with tight profit margins in mind. We lessen our profit to make sure as many teen travelers as possible can join our adventures. We put our money where our mouth is.
So, are you ready to join us? We have a lot of dreams in the future for the growth of the company and can’t wait to experience it with supporters and teen travelers like you! We have international and US-based trips we’ll be adding in 2025 and beyond.
In the comments below tell us what destinations you’d like to see as a future Ignite Travel trip.