Our Story

Prior to working in the student travel industry, I was a middle school Spanish teacher. Careful preparation, setting clear expectations, getting to know your students, and collaborating with colleagues were essential to a successful school year. Of course, things don’t always go according to plan, so flexibility and a sense of humor helped too.

Those same skills carried well beyond the classroom. Whether it was organizing and leading bike tours in Colombia's Eje Cafetero or managing the operations for a student travel company for more than a decade, the same preparation, communication, and collaboration were essential through it all. The classroom got bigger, but the instincts stayed the same.

Over time, something about the way these trips were run started to bother me. The relationships felt transactional. Teachers weren’t treated as partners.

In the same way teachers work together to share their best (and worst) ideas, Retki was built on that collaborative spirit. Groups who work with Retki are partners, not customers. Without them, none of this exists.

A Retki partnership means working together to plan itineraries from scratch, built around your goals and our experience. It also means honest accounting: clear estimates, a disclosed service fee, and a commitment to return any savings to students if the actual costs come in lower than expected. Because doing what’s right will always come before profit.

That’s why I started Retki. Not to be the biggest student travel company. Just one that remembers who the trip is actually for.

I live in Minnesota with my wife and two young children. When not suffering through Minnesota sports, we spend as much time outdoors as we can, preferably on a bicycle. Fair warning, I will push for bikes at some point on your trip.

Thanks for stopping by,
John