California College Tour 2026

Each attendee (including parents, relatives, and guests) must complete their own enrollment form to attend the tour. Please note that tour prices are per person regardless of group size. Adults can only be placed in a room with students they are attending the tour with. If a parent and a student would like to attend the tour and room together, the student would fill out an enrollment form and select TWIN. The parent would complete their own enrollment form (with their information as both the traveler and the emergency contact) and select TWIN. If the student does not want to room with their parent and would like to be paired with other students attending the tour, the parent must select SINGLE, and then the student can select any rooming option. 

For a group of 3 or 4 attending the tour (any combination of parents, students, siblings, or guests) who would like to share 1 hotel room (2 beds), please email tours@nshss.org to discuss alternative rooming options. In some cases, a TRIPLE or QUAD occupancy room may be available for families to share with a small discount. 

Regardless, ALL attendees would fill out their own individual enrollment form with their personal information.

No! As an NSHSS member benefit, members and their relatives can use the NSHSS member tour pricing. Please note that tour prices are per person. Non-member pricing is reserved for students unaffiliated with NSHSS who would like to attend the tour. If a member is planning on bringing a high school student-aged guest who is not an NSHSS member, then Non-Member pricing would apply, but they are welcome to apply for NSHSS Membership to reduce this fee!

Each attendee is responsible for their own transportation arrangements. NSHSS does not assist with airfare, and flights are not included in this tour price. With NSHSS members all over the country, it would be too difficult to facilitate flights for every member coming from different airports at different times. Some members are also within driving distance and don't need flights, so we are able to offer a lower price for everyone without flights included.

The package includes premium hotel accommodations for the week, charter bus transportation, all meals on tour days, guided tours and activities, a full-time tour director, refreshments on the bus, parent information packets, and all gratuities.

Since this is a traveling tour with days spent on the road for much of the time, some university stops will be longer than others. Each campus visit differs depending on schedule constraints and the university's restrictions. We do our best to secure a guided private group tour at each university, but occasionally a school will not allow group tours and instead offer only self-guided or public tours, so we will find a local student to act as a guide. Each campus visit will include a stop at the university bookstore. The university's student ambassadors will lead most tours, but others may be led by current university students, depending on the campus. Where available, campus tours could also include an information meeting provided by the admissions office staff.

This is a traveling tour with a very tight schedule. We are fitting ten university stops into five days while traveling up the coast, so a good bit of time will also be spent on the road. We will be doing A LOT of walking – anywhere from 10,000-20,000 steps and at least 5 miles PER DAY. We will be outside a lot, and it will most likely be hot since it is summer in California. Students are encouraged to pack comfortable clothes and shoes, sunglasses, hats, sunscreen, and portable fans. When we leave the hotel in the morning, we will not be returning until we check into a new hotel at the end of the day. The days will be very long, but the experience will be worth it!!

NSHSS will provide a welcome dinner reception upon attendees' arrival in San Diego on Day 1. On each full tour day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided. Snacks and drinks will also be provided at various points on the bus, but make sure to bring some snacks or money to buy some snacks if you get hungry easily! On departure day, attendees can enjoy breakfast at the hotel before making their way to the airport. 

The NSHSS CA College Tour is only sold as an all-inclusive tour package, so, unfortunately, we cannot remove the hotel's cost from the tour price as that is a large part of the package. Keeping all tour participants at the same hotel makes it easier to keep everyone accounted for overnight so we don't run into logistical issues in transportation to and from the hotel and daily activities. This is also a traveling tour, so attendees are staying at a new hotel each night. The package, however, does not include airfare as members are flying in from all over the country, so that's great you are so close and won't have to worry about purchasing travel arrangements!

Upon arrival in San Diego, the tour staff will meet attendees at the airport baggage claim. Students are encouraged to book flights arriving between 1 - 3 PM PST for minimal wait time. Once the entire tour group arrives, we will load onto the bus and head to the first hotel to check in!

As NSHSS tours are entirely optional to our members, we currently do not have any financial assistance programs for our tours at this time. However, payment arrangements are very flexible to allow participants to create their own payment plan and pay the tour fee in increments of their choosing at any time and as many times as they would like up until the final due date. We send all of our invoices through PayPal, which also offers several payment plan options. Please be sure to check out our NSHSS Scholarships page for multiple scholarship opportunities, where many of the scholarships are open to both high school and college students. Keep an eye out as new scholarships are always being added!