Is pre- and post-camp travel really worth it?

Your J-1 visa gives you up to 30 days to travel the US after your camp contract ends. Some counsellors fly home the next morning. Some take the full month. Some even arrive a few days early to explore the area around their camp. The honest question is not "should I do it" — it is "how much should I do, and what will make it worthwhile".

The case for post-camp travel

• You already have a visa and a flight — the expensive bits are paid
• You are in the US with two and a half months’ wages in your account
• Camp friendships are strongest in the two weeks after the summer ends — road trips become group trips
• The first year after university is the easiest your schedule will ever be

Practically every returning counsellor we talk to says the same thing — the trips they did not take after camp are the regrets they still remember.

The case for skipping it

• You have a job or a term starting the day after your contract ends
• You finished the summer exhausted and broke — this is real, do not fake it
• Your visa only permits 30 days — it is not flexible

Three sensible post-camp trip shapes

1. The East Coast classic (7–10 days)

Boston → New York → Washington DC → maybe Philadelphia. Mostly trains and buses. Cheap, dense with things to see, and easy to co-ordinate with the friends flying out of JFK anyway.

2. The west coast flight (10–14 days)

Fly from your camp airport to LA or San Francisco. Road trip up or down the coast, stop at one national park, fly home. Expensive but spectacular.

3. The one big city, done properly (5 days)

Pick one city — almost always New York — and give yourself the whole time there. You will enjoy it more than two cities in the same budget.