John Crane ’82 had a few hours to himself in Spain on the edge of the Mediterranean when he decided he had not traveled all that way merely to look at it.

The day was slipping away. The rest of his Guilford College group had already visited the water. John had spent his time wandering Barcelona trying to take in as much of the city as possible.

Then he looked at the sea and did what any curious 67-year-old traveler standing beside the Mediterranean ought to do.

He went for a swim.

“When you take a trip like that you don’t know when you’ll be back,” John remembers. “I had to take a dip. I just had to.”

That swim captures what John loved about the 11 days he spent this spring traveling with Guilford students through Barcelona, Nîmes, France, and Milan, Italy. The journey was filled with organized tours, professional interviews and visits to places most tourists will never see. But it also left room for wandering, observing and occasionally jumping into a sea simply because it was there.

Two upcoming trips sponsored by the College are offering alumni and friends opportunities to make discoveries of their own: the United Kingdom Sports Experience, scheduled for Oct. 9-19, 2026, and Adventures in Shangrila, a 16-day journey set for June 15-30, 2027.

The destinations and itineraries are dramatically different, but the idea behind them is the same: Travel is more meaningful when it is shared with curious people who want to do more than simply pass through a place.

These are not ordinary sightseeing tours. They are distinctly Guilford experiences — thoughtfully designed journeys that blend discovery, education, culture and community.

“Guilford students often tell us these trips are life-changing,” says Sarah Munro ’09, the College’s Senior International Officer. “By offering a version for alumni, we’re honoring that same spirit of exploration and making space for lifelong learners to reconnect — with Guilford and the world.”

John admits that traveling for 11 days with more than 35 people he had never met might have given him pause. It did not.

“I knew it was going to be all good because the one connection we had was Guilford,” he says. “There was no downside to it. Everything was perfect.”

The trip rarely slowed. John attended a motorcycle race, toured cathedrals, explored neighborhoods and marveled at the many languages frequently spoke in town squares and narrow city streets. He noticed how much Europeans walked, how little space they wasted and how effortlessly pedestrians, bicycles, trains and buses moved alongside one another.

He ate constantly, walked even more and somehow lost weight.

He watched students ask thoughtful questions, absorb complicated answers and speak confidently about their plans. They could have been students from Wake Forest, Davidson or Duke, he says, and no one would have known the difference.

“We shouldn’t hold a second candle to those schools at all,” John says. “These students were on top of their game.”

By the final days, the man who had wondered about leaving home for 11 days was searching for a way to extend the trip. ”It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that I hope I can do once more,” he says.

He would go again without hesitation.

“When you’re around other Guilfordians you never get bored, you’re never at a loss for  conversation regardless of the age difference because you always have Guilford to talk about,” he says. “You make friends and learn a little more  about places you might never have a chance to go to.”

That may be the finest endorsement of Guilford travel: You leave home uncertain of precisely what you will find. You return with new friends, a wider view of the world and stories you will tell for years.

And, if the opportunity presents itself, perhaps a swim in a distant sea.

Want to learn more about Guilford’s exclusive alumni and friends adventures? Contact Lauren Reinking.