Hvar you ready for it? Our trek will take you to the exotic lands of Hungary and Croatia. Come explore the best of Eastern Europe with the best of Ross, from Lake Balaton, to bombed out bars in Budapest, to island life off the Dalmatian Coast, to doing splits in Split.
This trek has a bit of everything: forays into the great outdoors with hikes and swimming, local culture and cuisine, lots of boats, even more nightlife and a bit of historical blah-blah-blah so you have something to tell your grandparents. With an eye-watering seven MBA2 leaders who are ready, willing, and eager to show you the time of your life and become your new best friends, hope you’re ready to get up close and personal.
Wine. Hiking. Beach Towns. Meat (or not, if you’re like Emma). Mountains. More Wine. If you don’t like these things, this may not be the right trip for you. But also if you don’t like those things, you should reconsider your life choices.
We’ll start our adventure in Santiago, roaming the streets of the picturesque town while downing our first few bottles of Chilean wine. We hear the city has top-notch restaurants, an incredible art scene, and beautiful parks – sounds like the whole package, right? We’ll hit up a few wineries en route and carry on to Valparaiso for the seaside cliffs and some fresh fish. Say goodbye to Chile because we’ll cross over into Argentina and attempt to pair the perfect wine with some authentic Argentine asado. We’ll hike through the Andes. We’ll drink and make you question whether your liver was really ready for business school. We’ll have some singalongs (Arjun has promised to bring his guitar along). If you want a low-key, beach trip, this isn’t the trip for you, but if you want a truly authentic, life-changing start to your business school experience, we’ll see you in Santiago.
Wine, castles, boats, baguettes, beaches, and bougie. That’s right, we’ll be the first up against the wall when the proletariat rises up. If you want to enjoy Michelin star rated restaurants, dress like Gigi Hadid and George Clooney for dinner, hike in the very instagram-able Pyrenees mountains and turn up in your Kim Jong Un romphim afterwards, then this trip is for you.
We will begin our bonding experience in Bordeaux, France focusing on being more cultured than the average wolverine. Bordeaux has much to offer in the way of wine, food, history and history of wine. Once we’re done stumbling through the streets of Bordeaux, we’ll head further south and climb a sand dune, eat some oysters, wander through some fairytale castles and drink wine on a boat. After that, we’ll go to the bougie country of Andorra and burn off all those calories hiking in Pyrenees. NBD. Then, our journey will get wild in Barcelona – and then to Ibiza if you so choose. We recommend you finish the trip off on the beaches of Barca with a tan, or at least a sunburn, and definitely a hangover. Don’t leave disappointed or you’ll go in the chokee.
Your trek leaders met last year on an MTrek to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, and bonded while stuck on a bus, in the Andes for 24 hours. 24 hours? Yep. 24 hours. Don’t ask. Or do. Victoria wasn’t on “the bus” with the group, but she spent her MTrek getting poisoned at a pig roast in Bali. That doesn’t sound great either. But this group is friends forever, and that’s key if you actually want to have any fun on MTrek.
The world’s biggest rainforest, a weird “desert”, some breathtakingly beautiful beaches and a water park (yay!), all in a single trek? Yes, and to make it better –you can find it all in Brazil! We’ll travel to the northern part country from West to East, from Manaus to Lençois Maranhenses to Fortaleza, to go way beyond the obvious and visit some of Brazil’s hidden gems. We’ll hike in the jungle, see pink dolphins, watch alligators at night, party, visit local tribes, taste local foods, have colorful drinks, drive a buggy in the dunes, chill at the beach, party some more, slide down a 14-story water slide, and much more. Sounds amazing? You’re right, Brazil IS amazing (the Brazilian writing this description is completely unbiased). Once the MBA starts, you’ll hear a lot about the “other” Amazon and maybe even recruit for it, but only a handful will be able to say they’ve been to the real deal. Be ready to have amazing experiences in the Brazilian summer (technically, it’ll be winter, but in Brazil, it’s always summer) that will get you through once Michigan winter arrives.
There are MTreks. And then there is this MTrek.
Years from now, the legendary exploits of those who were fortunate enough to be on this spectacular trek to Thailand and Malaysia will live on, eminent and eternal, whispered in the halls of Ross (possibly even the classrooms), as the infallible measurements of greatness, the unequivocal benchmarks of dreams. “They didn’t Instagram the beaches. The beaches Instagrammed them,” they will say. “They didn’t just become the definition of fun in the dictionary. They became the dictionary,” they will say. Does that even make sense? No. But they will still say it. We’re not promising immortality if you go on this trip…but we’re not NOT promising it either.
Born in the brains, hearts, and bowels of your leaders during their own MTrek together, this unforgettable trip will take you on a truly amazing journey of incredible cities, an epic rainforest, and beautiful beaches in the place where we all fell in love with each other. We will adventure, we will dance, we will sweat, we will definitely sweat while we dance, we will rage, we will certainly at some point not feel great digestively, but most importantly, we will (most likely) live through it all together. Sound good? Great. We’ll see you in August.
Deciding whether you prefer partying, eating great food, visiting historical spots, or relaxing? Don’t know which cool places in Europe you would like to visit? Just like you, we don’t like making such decisions, so we gathered all of that in a trip to the Baltics. In Lithuania, we’ll visit the historical sites of Vilnius. But fear not, pub crawls are a way of life there, so we’ll rage on after getting our education on. In Latvia, we’ll be in the boisterous city of Riga. Considered the “wild child” of the Baltics, Riga is the best city to party in and as the responsible trekkers that we are, we’ll put it to the test. Ok, so we know that it sounds like there will be tons of partying and grubbing; but, we’re not at Ross for nothing! We’re socially responsible type A business school students with livers that foresee a break in the midst of the raging, so to appease our livers, we’ll head to Jurmala (a 30-minute ride from Riga) to relax on the beach. In Estonia, we’ll head over to Tallinn; and since short term memories reign during MTrek, we’ll quickly revert to our regularly scheduled program, i.e. eating delicious food and partying the night away. By the end of the trip you’ll realize that sleep is a total waste of time. Cheers!
Do you keep a detailed calendar? Like having enough information to make informed decisions? Does giving up control make you anxious? …Are you sure you want an MBA? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this is probably not the trip for you. But for the degenerates out there, we’ve got the only MTREK you need. You see, the MBA experience will challenge your preconceived notions, (un)lovingly twist your whole life into a toppingless soft pretzel, and ultimately mold you into the hot mess competent businessperson you were born to be. What better way to start off than with a mystery?
The infamous “Mystery Trek” is the ONLY MTrek where trekkers show up at the airport not knowing where they are going, and destinations are revealed as the trip progresses. All leaders are Mystery Trek veterans, so you know you are joining the wildest crew out there and, more importantly, that all of us physically made it back (mentally and spiritually, not so much). During the course of the trip, we will form enduring bonds that your future classmates will never understand — bonds fueled by amazing food, conversion to Scientology, beautiful sights, and questionable people. If there’s a better way to start your MBA experience, then we haven’t found it… because it would already be part of this trip.
DISCLAIMER: Though we will be sober for at least part of each day, there will be a good amount of partying as we kick off your two-year, $180,000 vacation. If a glass of wine makes you sleepy, or you’ve ever said “I’ll just have one” and meant it, this trip might not be for you.
Lions, and wine, and hiking, OH my! Is there anything better than potentially being chased down by a rhino, taking in gorgeous ocean views after a steep ascent up a mountain, and listening to the head writer of Follies make bad jokes for 9 days straight? We think not. Crank up the J Biebs because we’re not too late to Safari. Consider this your formal invitation to join the krew and kick-off your MBA experience by getting weird with us on this South African journey.
Our journey kicks-off in Johannesburg, where from day 1 we’ll get your legs moving with a bike ride around the colorful and cultural Soweto, but don’t worry, you can #bikeforyourbeers. From here we make our way to mothership of safari kingdoms, Kruger National Park. Brush up on your best Ace Ventura moves since we’ll be heading into the wild on daily game drives. While on safari, you all may or may not (read: definitely) will be responsible for hunting and cooking your meals as your Trek leaders look on…you can just think of it as action-based learning.
Next, pack up your binoculars (for animal watching only…you know who you are) and safari hats and put on your party pants, we’re doing a 180 where the gauntlet will be thrown as the final leg of our trek will be spent in beautiful Cape Town. This city has incredible beaches, booze, and braai so get ready for authentic south african food, vineyard tours, hikes, and penguins (we’ve asked, you can’t keep one but if we all put our heads together we might just be able to make some magic happen). Join us on this adventure and we’ll make sure to provide you with enough FOMO-inducing photo ops for your friends back at home and an experience you South AfriCAN’T miss.
Looking for a trip that covers metropolitan cities, natural beauty, and beaches? Want to spend 10 days combining culture, amazing food, physical activity, relaxing, and raging? We know what you’re thinking…such a trip does not exist. WRONG!!! If you want the trip that has it all, Sing-a-laysia is for you. We will start in the beautiful metropolitan Singapore, home to some of the best food EVER and the cleanest streets you’ll ever see (seriously though, don’t drop your gum wrapper on the streets there…we hear they get pretty feisty!). After getting ALL of our eating and raging on in Singapore, we will then move on to the magical country of Malaysia. First we will tackle the thriving capital of Kuala Lumpur (KL as known by locals…stick with us, we’ll keep you in the know) for tours, cooking classes, and all around debauchery. We’ll then move on to the majestic Taman Negara National Park, where we will be embarking on night jungle walks, canopy walks and again, all around debauchery in the jungle. Have you ever partied on a boat in the jungle? Surely no other way to experience this pristine primary rainforest. We will then cap off our trip on the beautiful and relaxing Perhentian Islands, where there will be snorkeling, boating, sunbathing, and likely crying because the trip is ending. But not to fret, the Fast and Furious recklessness and adventures will continue in the lovely Ann Arbor.
All right ladies and gentlemen, this is it. Fasten your seatbelts, and hold on! This trip has everything a Rosser could want: Beautiful cities, beach parties, wild animals, and even wilder MTrek leaders. If you want to kick off your MBA experience with good food, chill vibes, and awesome people…look no further. This handcrafted, farm-to-table itinerary will start in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to check out the culture. We’ll jet up to beautiful Chiang Mai where you can get your adventure on before ending the trip in Koh Phangan with a legendary full moon party on the beach. On a scale of 1 – 10 Instagrams, this trip is rated an 11.
