Passenger Profiles

Brown Travelers will offer three “Alumni Campus Abroad” (ACA) programs in 2009: Alumni College in Spain (April/May), Alumni College in Greece (June) and Alumni College in the Italian Lake District (September). We have offered trips in the popular ACA format – shorter programs, where passengers stay in one or two places and take “day trips” – for over 10 years, and there are several alumni who have enjoyed many destinations. So for this edition of our e-newsletter, we thought we would profile two such alumni, each of whom has enjoyed at least three ACAs. The Alumni College program allows the traveler the ease of having a home base without having to move from place to place. In addition to being convenient, the format enables passengers really to get to know one region.

If you have an experience, story or photo from a past Brown Travelers trip that you would like to share with us, please feel free to contact us at Brown_Travelers@alumni.brown.edu.

Charlie Crawford ’56
(The Woodlands, Texas)
Charlie and his wife, Kim, have enjoyed eight Brown Travelers programs, and each time they have visited a different place on a “campus” trip. The #1 reason they keep coming back is their fellow passengers. They have made several good friends, with whom they continue to correspond, on their trips, and they feel that they always find people with whom they have things in common. On the Alumni College in Normandy (2002), Charlie reconnected with a classmate whom he hadn’t seen in over 45 years.

According to Charlie, for years he and Kim received the Brown Travelers brochures, but they would just glance at them. Then they received the brochure for the Alumni College in Provence (2000) and decided to go. They have been convinced of the quality and value of the ACA programs ever since. They find that an ACA is “a lot like a cruise,” in that travelers don’t have to pack and unpack. The Crawfords like having a “home base” and feel, “When you stay in one place, you see a lot of the area.”

Charlie recommends that potential ACA travelers consider going a day or two early to help with jet lag and allow extra time to relax and explore the area. For Charlie, choosing one ACA as his favorite was difficult because “there haven’t been any that we didn’t like,” but they felt that the Italian Lake District was very beautiful. The Crawfords have particularly enjoyed their trips to Italy and France.

Fred Armenti ’70
(Flint, Michigan)
Fred and his wife have traveled on three Alumni College programs and said that while each has been different, all have been fantastic. He thinks it’s a wonderful way to travel because the company takes care of everything and you don’t have to worry about anything. In Fred’s opinion, the ACA format “is a perfect mix of sightseeing and education.” He also added that all of their tour guides have been great.

Like Charlie Crawford, Fred feels that it’s easy to form bonds with fellow travelers because you have a common base. There might be someone on a trip who had the same professor as you or who took the same class. Even crossing generations, there is a common link to Brown.

Fred’s primary advice for someone considering a Brown Travelers ACA program is: “Just go ahead and do it – you won’t regret it!” Second, he advises to take plenty of pictures (he took 800 on one trip!) to capture all of the good memories.

Where in the world are the Brown Travelers going now...

Can you guess where this picture was taken? (answer below)