Thailand Study Tour
Thailand Study Tour
Overview
In celebration of VIA’s ongoing commitment to global learning and social impact, VIA invites alumni, past and current participants, and first-time travelers to join a one-of-a-kind study tour through Thailand in summer 2026.
This immersive experience will take participants across northern and central Thailand, combining cultural exploration with meaningful engagement alongside VIA partners, fellows, and community-based organizations. From historic temples and vibrant markets to refugee-led initiatives and social enterprises, participants will gain deeper insight into Thailand’s cultural diversity and regional social issues.
The itinerary includes Chiang Mai (June 29–July 4), Mae Sot (July 5–6), and Bangkok (July 7–10), with opportunities to connect with VIA partners and meet current VIA fellows.
Trip Leader: Wallace Wong
Wallace joined VIA in September 2022 as Strategic Relationships Director. Prior to VIA, Wallace spent over a decade working in nonprofit leadership and education management across Asia, with volunteer and professional experience in Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Nepal, Poland, and the Dominican Republic. Wallace brings deep regional knowledge and long-standing relationships with partner organizations across Southeast Asia.
Program Costs
Spaces are limited to ensure an optimal travel experience. Registration will be confirmed on a first come, first served basis until May 3, 2026, or the program is full, whichever comes first.
The following costs are estimates only. The program fee will be finalized in early March.
- $4,400 USD – VIA Program Participation Base Fee
- Includes all items listed below and a non-refundable, tax-deductible $500 donation to VIA.
- $2,550+ USD – Additional estimated costs (not included in fee)
- $6,950+ USD – Total estimated cost to participate
Please review our Payment and Participation Policies
What’s included:
- Domestic travel in Thailand
- Lodging for a total of 11 nights
- Lodging will be arranged for two participants per room ($400 additional fee for private room for duration of the trip)
- Special accommodations can be arranged for families traveling with children (submit details in your registration form)
- Some group meals
- Most entry fees, guided services, organization and site visits
- International Airfare (as low as $1,400 USD if departing from SFO)
- Passport application / renewal and visa fees, if applicable
- Travel and medical insurance – see participation details (approx. $30-70)
- Some meals (approx. $75-150 per person)
- Some activities fees (approx. $100-150)
- Shopping and other personal expenses
Overview
The study tour itinerary is subject to change any time before or during the tour. Additional details will be added as scheduled activities are confirmed. Participants are welcome to arrive before the tour start dates or continue their travels after the tour ends.
Note: There will be an online pre-departure briefing in May.
Day 1: June 29 (Mon) – Chiang Mai
- Arrive in Chiang Mai
- Group Welcome and check in at White Boutique Hotel and Spa
- Event Orientation and Group Dinner
Day 2: June 30 (Tues) – Chiang Mai
- Joint session with VIA Global Community Fellows
- Old City Walking Tour
- Temple visits highlighting Lanna history and culture
- Night Market visit/Free evening
Day 3: July 1 (Wed) – Chiang Mai
- VIA Global Community Fellowship Conference
- Meet current VIA fellows and engage with VIA staff
- Night Market visit/Free evening
Day 4: July 2 (Thurs) – Chiang Mai
- Visit local social enterprises and community-based organizations
- Cultural exchange activities and reflection session
- VIA Gathering with Global Community Fellows and VIA Partners
Day 5: July 3 (Fri) – Chiang Mai
- Elephant Nature Park – Half Day Visit
- Ethical elephant sanctuary experience
- Additional cost: approximately 2500 THB per person (estimate)
- Free afternoon/evening
Day 6: July 4 (Sat) – Chiang Mai
- Doi Suthep Temple visit
- Free afternoon
- Farewell dinner in Chiang Mai
Day 7: July 5 (Sun) – Mae Sot
- Group van from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot
- Check in at Centara Life Hotel Mae Sot
- Cooking Class at Borderline Cafe (Burmese refugee-led social enterprise)
- Additional cost: 600 THB per person (estimate)
Day 8: July 6 (Mon) – Mae Sot
- Visit to Burmese migrant and refugee-serving organizations
- Visit VIA partners
- Rim Moei Border Market visit
- Evening at Mae Sot Night Market
Day 9: July 7 (Tues) – Bangkok
- Flight to Bangkok
- Check in at Siri Oriental Bangkok Hotel
- Evening visit to Khao San Road
Day 10: July 8-9 (Wed-Thurs) – Bangkok
- Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha
- Wat Pho (Reclining Buddha)
- Ferry Ride to Wat Arun
- Flower Market visit
- Visit to Museum Siam
- Visit China Town
Day 11: July 10 (Fri) – Bangkok
- Program closing session
- Hotel check-out
- Departure from Bangkok (BKK) or continuation of personal travel
Travel & Medical Insurance Coverage
We require all participants to maintain health insurance coverage while traveling abroad. Please check with your insurance provider to understand what coverage you may or may not have while overseas. You can choose to enroll in your own insurance plan and provide proof of coverage. VIA can also arrange comprehensive travel health insurance coverage for US residents through iNext’s Comprehensive Ultimate Group Plan with Standard Political & Natural Disaster coverage at an additional cost (see policy details).
If you choose this option, you will be enrolled for a minimum 13-day period (June 28 – July 10, 2026, to allow for transit time), at an additional cost of $31.95 for travelers 60 and under or $78.23 for travelers over 60 years old.
You will have the option to purchase additional Trip Cancellation & Trip Interruption coverage and/or extend your travel dates after initial enrollment.
Please Note: We will not enroll you in the iNext plan until your registration fee is paid in full. If you change your mind and find another option before then, just let us know and we will remove the charge from your registration fee invoice.
Registration Process
The application form is hosted on Airtable and requires a login for security purposes. If you already have an Airtable account, you can use your existing account login information. If you haven’t used Airtable before, you will need to create an account (email and password or use SSO through a Google account or Apple ID). The registration is a 2-step process:
Step 1: VIA Profile
You will need to create one profile for each traveler in your party (this can be done with the same Airtable account). You can create or update your VIA Profile at any time. You must be logged in with the same Airtable user account to access an existing profile. If you log in with another Airtable account, you will need to create a new profile.
Your profile will be connected to any current or future VIA program applications or registrations, so you won’t need to provide this information each time you apply or register. After saving your profile, a copy will be sent to the email address(es) associated with your Airtable account.
- Personal Information
- First Name*
- Last Name*
- Preferred Name
- Full Name in Native Characters
- Gender*
- Date of Birth*
- Citizenship*
- Current place of residence*
- Contact Information
- Email Address*
- Phone Number*
- Alternate Email
- Messaging App Contact
Step 2: Study Tour Registration
After creating or updating your VIA profile, you will be directed to the Study Tour Registration form. You only need to submit this form once for your entire party. The form is one page, so please be prepared to fill in all questions before submitting your registration.
- Traveler Information
- Primary Contact* (select VIA Profile)
- Mailing Address* (for invoice)
- Additional Travelers (select VIA Profiles)
- Program Information
- Select Tour*
- Have you traveled to this location before?*
- Tour Add-on (check to include Kamakura add-on tour)
- What are your particular interests in this trip?
- Accommodations
- Accommodations Preferences (select shared room or single room upgrade)
- Additional Accommodations Requests
- Travel & Medical Insurance
- Insurance Enrollment (select all, some, or no members of your party)
We recommend printing a copy for your records. After filling out all the questions on the registration form, click the [···] icon in the top-right corner to print.
After Registering
After completing your registration, you will receive (at minimum) the following communications:
- Registration Confirmation (via Airtable) – You should receive a confirmation email within a few minutes of submitting your registration. This email will include a summary of your registration details and a cost estimate (this is NOT an invoice). The estimate is automatically generated based on the options you selected in your registration.
- Participation Fee Invoice (via Bill.com) – After reviewing your registration details, VIA’s finance department will issue an invoice for your participation fee. If you are traveling with minors or requested special accommodations, VIA staff may contact you regarding adjustments before finalizing your invoice.
- Participant Portal Invitation (via Airtable) – A few months before the tour, you will receive an invitation to the VIA Participant Portal. The portal will provide information about your tour, what to expect, tips on preparing to travel, and pre-departure tasks for you to complete.
After completing your program fee payment, you will receive the following communications:
- Donation Receipt (from VIA Finance) – You will receive a donation receipt for the donation portion of your registration fee ($500 per registration).
- Travel Insurance Enrollment (via iNext) – If you opted to be enrolled in travel medical insurance through iNext, you will receive an email from iNext within a month of your departure date. Please follow the instructions in the email to confirm your enrollment. You will have the option to purchase additional Trip Cancellation & Trip Interruption coverage and/or extend your travel dates after initial enrollment.
Application Information
Program Dates:
Application Deadline:
Testimonials from Past Participants
2024 Japan Study Tour Participant
The Japan study and cultural tour exceeded my expectations. The experience was enriched by thoughtful guidance from our group leader and the opportunity to learn directly from a native Japanese perspective. Exceptional balance of cultural sites/street knowledge. Meetings with the alumni, program and hospital directors personalized the mission and goals of VIA.
Bill Lehman
2024 Thailand Study Tour Participants
Though more than thirty years had passed since we alighted to our VIA posts as fresh-faced young adults, the excitement at the prospect of seeing new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new cultures felt very familiar. In January 2024, four of us VIA alums met our tour guide (strategic director Wallace Wong) in Bangkok, Thailand to begin a week and a half of immersion in Thai culture and history and reconnection with VIA. We naturally enjoyed seeing glorious temples, eating fantastic food at night markets, and, of course, cavorting with elephants. But the most memorable aspect was visiting VIA-connected institutions in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Myanmar border. There we helped teach a school lesson to refugee camp students at the Minmahaw School and visited a clinic for Burmese refugees. Soon afterwards, spent the day at the Social Impact Partnership Conference in Chiang Mai, exchanging stories and ideas over great food with current Global Community Fellows, leaders from partner organizations, and other VIA alums.
We were confident that traveling through VIA would provide special insights and perspectives that no standard tour or solo travel could provide. We weren’t disappointed. We really valued sharing our VIA experiences from a generation ago with current fellows and other alums. Even decades later, the imprint of our time with VIA during our formative young adult years remains sharp. Hearing about how the organization has adroitly evolved to changing times and continues to do important, innovative work over sixty years since its inception was deeply gratifying, and makes us very eager to join the next study tour!
Janet Gwilym & Bing Tso
2024 Japan Study Tour Participant
VIA’s study tour was a great first experience of Japan! We saw so many beautiful and interesting places and ate so well. I really enjoyed our small group and the opportunity to talk with our group leader Kazutoh about what we were seeing. He was incredibly organized, patient and flexible, helping us get the most out of each activity. Meeting Japanese alumni of VIA programs, hearing about their experiences and discussing social issues was a highlight for me.
Anne Huckins
2018 Indonesia Study Tour Participant
My first introduction to Indonesia was as a freshly minted college graduate serving as an English teacher at two institutions of higher education. My subsequent return to Indonesia on a VIA sponsored Indonesia study tour was one of the best travel experiences I have encountered. The organization and accommodations for this trip were outstanding and all locally owned and run. The people and projects that VIA partnered with to provide this experience connected me to amazing local individuals who were focused on social impact leadership in their communities. These groups included local villages striving to retain their youth, fair trade organizations seeking to improve the economies of local villages, and Taman Baca, an artist and intellectual collective for the community seeking among other things to freely discuss the events of ’65 in Indonesia. As with all VIA events, the invitation to enter local communities in a very authentic way provided participants with perspectives on Indonesian society that would not otherwise have been accessible. All of this is in addition to visiting the main cultural events and monuments in this part of the world. It was a once in a lifetime trip for me to a country rich in art, culture, humanity and change.
Steve Hope
2017 Japan Study Tour Participant
On our first date, my future husband Paul talked about his 1966 summer internship with VIA in Vietnam. The experience changed his preconceptions about other cultures as he developed a sense of community with his hosts in Buôn Ma Thuột. He also made lifelong friendships with other participants and strengthened his commitment to VIA and its goals.
When I joined him on a ten-day study tour of Japan that Kazutoh Ishida led in the spring of 2017, I shared new perspectives, friendships, and experiences of VIA’s global reach. We met VIA experts like Dr. Takayuki Oshimi, who illuminated some of the interrelationships of culture and medical care. I also got to know recent VIA participants from Japan, who helped me learn to hold chopsticks politely, read Tokyo metro maps, and discover the treasures within Japanese Seven Eleven stores.
We sampled regional cuisines that ranged from Osaka’s octopus balls to Tokyo’s signature tempura. The study tour scheduled for this autumn takes place in a different season and is more centered on Kyoto and nearby Nara. But I’m sure you will meet unexpected generosity and kindness, as well as surprising experiences.


