Check out learning trips for teens by National Geographic

Adults are not the only intrepid travelers who like to learn as they go. This summer, National Geographic is offering a variety of summer expeditions for high school students who can learn and have an adventure at the same time.

At various points in each trip, the young travelers are treated to experts, such as writers, photographers, researchers and explorers. For more information, go to www.ngstudentexpeditions.com. On each trip, a student can choose from three different assignments, which can focus on photography, writing, documentary film, culture and arts, wildlife and conservation, music and dance, or spiritual traditions, depending on the destination.

Tour leaders and experts help guide each person's project, which is completed during the trip. The countries in the program this summer include Mali, Tanzania, Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Costa Rica, China, India, Ireland, Spain and Iceland.

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In print

"Whistles, Smoke & Steam" by Pete and Pat Arrigoni, published by the book division of Roue 66 magazine and available on Amazon.com at $24.95, is a large, coffee-table-style paperback with essays and colorful photos documenting every train trip they've enjoyed on 33 different lines worldwide.

Their rail adventures include boarding a train to explore the hidden towns of Italy's Cinque Terra, taking the Bullet Train in Japan, riding the Midnight Sun Express in Alaska, taking the William Tell Express in Switzerland and, of course, riding Amtrak in the U.S., including runs from New York to Washington, D.C., and the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle, among others.

Part One is devoted to trains offering public transportation, from The Canadian, run by VIA Rail, to the Eurostar, which runs from London to Paris.

The great thing about this book is that the authors give every detail you might want to know, good and bad, on how to reach the train, how crowded it is, whether you can buy an earlier departure ticket if you arrive early, exactly what you'll see, and how clean the cars are. It's information brochures usually leave out.

The second part of the book is dedicated to excursion and tourist trains, funiculars and cable cars. These include the elegant Rovos Rail line in South Africa, linking Cape Town to Pretoria; El Transcantabrico, a scenic tourist train that runs 625 miles through northern Spain and is the longest narrow-gauge line in Europe; and the Arizona Grand Canyon Railway, which links Williams Arizona with the Grand Canyon and climbs through jaw-dropping western scenery.