Travel Honor

The Pathfinder Travel honor teaches you to plan a real trip: choose the transportation, compare places to stay, gather the right documents, build a seven-day itinerary and, at the end, retrace on a map the route of people in the Bible.

The full requirements of the Travel honor are in the catalog (code AR-086) and are summarized here, with no answer key. The legal side of club outings in Brazil, with a template authorization, is in the guide to exit, travel and overnight authorization. The data were checked on October 6, 2026.

🧭What is the Pathfinder Travel honor and what are the requirements?

The Travel honor has the code AR-086, belongs to the Recreational Activities area and sits at level 1, the most accessible. According to the catalog, it was created in 2009 by the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Its official English name is simply Travel, as on the Pathfinder Wiki, the North American Division's official honors site; the Desbravai catalog lists it as Travel and Tourism Honor, and in Brazil it is called Viagem e Turismo. It is a good entry point for anyone who has never planned a trip.

Next comes the Travel Advanced honor (AR-087, level 2), which lists it as its first requirement. Both count toward the Master Award in Recreational Activities.

Requirements of AR-086 in the Desbravai catalog, summarized with no answers.

🚗Which means of transportation do Brazilians use most, and how do you compare pros and cons?

Requirement 1 starts broad, with every kind of transportation you can think of (bicycle, ferry, cable car, rickshaw), and then narrows down to the five most common. To narrow it down with numbers, use the PNAD Contínua Turismo, the tourism survey of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), which counted 20.6 million trips by residents of Brazil in 2024.

When weighing pros and cons, compare every option by the same criteria (cost per person, door-to-door time, comfort, safety and environmental impact) on a concrete trip, because the answer changes with distance and group size. In Brazil, the club usually travels by charter bus, a service with its own rules from the National Land Transportation Agency (ANTT), explained in the guide to the ANTT travel license for the charter bus.

Source: IBGE, PNAD Contínua Turismo 2024, released on October 2, 2025.

🏨Types of accommodation: what should you weigh for a hotel, hostel, relatives' home, campground or resort?

The most common accommodation in Brazil is a friend's or relative's home: 40.7% of trips in 2024, according to IBGE. Hotels and resorts came second, with 18.8%; guesthouses (pousadas) had 5.9% and vacation rentals, 5.2%. For the pros and cons in requirement 2, compare what each type charges with what it offers, using a real place to stay that you researched.

In Brazil, before any paid booking, check Cadastur, the registry of the Ministério do Turismo (Ministry of Tourism). The Lei Geral do Turismo (General Tourism Law, Law No. 11.771/2008) requires lodging establishments and tourist campgrounds, among others, to register, and the registration is valid for two years. For minors, article 82 of the Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA, Brazil's Statute of Children and Adolescents) prohibits lodging them in a hotel, motel, boarding house or similar place without the company or authorization of their parents or guardian.

Suggested checklist for requirement 2.

🪪What documents do you need in Brazil for intercity, interstate and international travel?

A travel document proves who you are and, for a minor, who authorized the trip. On scheduled interstate buses, ANTT Resolution No. 6.033/2023, in force since February 1, 2024, requires an official photo ID, and children under 12 may show their birth certificate. On charter trips, the bus the club hires, Resolution No. 4.308/2014 accepts the identity card (the RG, or Registro Geral), the Carteira Nacional de Habilitação (CNH, the Brazilian driver's license) with photo, a passport or a work card, among others, and on domestic trips even an expired document will do, as long as the passenger can be recognized. On intercity lines, each state sets the rule, so check with the bus company.

Parental authorization comes from the ECA. Within Brazil, article 83 covers children under 16 who leave the comarca (judicial district) where they live without their parents or guardian: they need judicial authorization, with exceptions, such as going to a neighboring comarca in the same state, traveling with an adult relative up to the third degree or with an adult expressly authorized by the father, the mother or the guardian. For travel abroad, article 84 applies to everyone under 18: a minor traveling with only one parent carries the other parent's authorization, with a notarized signature, and a minor traveling alone or with third parties needs authorization from both (Resolution No. 131/2011 of the Conselho Nacional de Justiça, Brazil's National Council of Justice). There is also the Autorização Eletrônica de Viagem (AEV, an electronic travel authorization), created by Provimento No. 103/2020 of the Corregedoria Nacional de Justiça (the national judicial oversight office) and issued through e-Notariado; it is optional, and the paper version is still valid.

Brazil's rules. Sources: ANTT Resolutions No. 6.033/2023 and No. 4.308/2014, ECA (Law No. 8.069/1990), CNJ Resolution No. 131/2011 and Federal Police, checked on October 6, 2026.

✈️Do Brazilians need a passport to travel to Mercosur countries?

It depends on the purpose. For tourism, Brazil's Federal Police states, on a page updated on January 29, 2024, that you can enter Mercosur countries with an identity card in good condition and with a photo that still identifies the holder. The identity card has no legal expiration date, but airlines may refuse one issued more than ten years ago. The CNH and the birth certificate are not accepted, and study or work require a passport. On June 29, 2026, in Asunción, the Common Market Council approved, through Decision No. 10/26, the text of the agreement that adds the Carteira de Identidade Nacional (CIN, Brazil's new National Identity Card) to Brazil's official list of travel documents in the bloc; the agreement takes effect 30 days after it is signed, so check with the airline before boarding with only the CIN.

For all other countries, the passport is the rule. According to the service page on gov.br, updated on October 3, 2026, the Federal Police's regular fee is R$ 257.25, applications are made in person, including for minors under 18, and the passport is valid for 5 years for holders aged 4 to 18. Some countries also require the Certificado Internacional de Vacinação ou Profilaxia (CIVP, the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis) for yellow fever, which, according to the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (Anvisa, Brazil's health regulatory agency), becomes valid 10 days after the shot and lasts for life.

🗺️How do you build the 7-day trip itinerary with a historic site, parks and recreation?

Requirement 6 is the practical heart of the honor, and the research in requirement 4 (atlas, books, the internet or a travel video) works as a warm-up. For natural parks in Brazil, the federal protected areas of the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio, Brazil's federal agency for protected areas) are a good starting point: in 2025, according to an ICMBio survey reported by Agência Brasil, the national parks received 13.6 million visits, with Tijuca (RJ), Iguaçu (PR) and Jericoacoara (CE) at the top.

Each place needs details that let a family follow the plan without you there: address, opening hours, price, visiting rules and a plan B for rain. Also build a spending sheet, as taught in the Household Budgeting honor; in 2024, lack of money was the reason most often cited in Brazilian households where no one traveled (39.2%, IBGE). Seven days in a row always include a Sabbath, and in an Adventist family that day is set aside for worship and rest.

Sample structure for requirement 6; the order of the days and the places are the candidate's choice.

🤝How should tourists behave when they are in a different country?

The group discussion in requirement 5 works better with concrete situations: what is normal in Brazil and may be forbidden abroad, asking permission before photographing people, the right clothes for visiting a temple. Each country has its own laws and customs, and visitors are subject to them. A good exercise for the Unit: choose a country in the South American Division (SAD), such as Chile, and list the customs that differ from Brazil's.

For a Pathfinder, behavior carries extra weight, because the uniform or the club T-shirt identifies the church. On trails and in parks, follow the principles of minimum impact camping: what you carry in, you carry back out.

🐪How did people travel in Bible times, and what is the distance from Jerusalem to Damascus?

Transportation in the Bible varies a lot. Abraham's servant set out with ten camels (Genesis 24:10). Jonah paid the fare on a ship to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey (Matthew 21:7). The Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah as he sat in his chariot (Acts 8:28).

As for pace, historian Edwin M. Yamauchi, writing in Christian History magazine (1995), estimates that the average traveler walked about 20 miles a day, roughly 32 km. He gives a biblical example: Peter took two days to go from Joppa to Caesarea, a distance of 40 miles, or about 64 km (Acts 10:23-24).

Based on the coordinates of the two ancient cities, Jerusalem and Damascus are about 218 km apart in a straight line (our own rough calculation, meant only as a starting point). The actual road was longer, so do the math for requirement 8 with the route you draw, dividing the distance by the daily pace; the straight line alone takes almost seven days on foot. The Bible does not say how long Saul took: “As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven” (Acts 9:3, NKJV). The story is in the article on the apostle Paul.

For the requirement 9 map, Paul's journey to Rome (Acts 27 and 28) mixes means of transportation: by sea, from Sidon to Malta, where the ship is wrecked, and then on to Puteoli; from there, by land, to Appii Forum, Three Inns and Rome. Use a solid line for the ship, a dashed line for land and a legend; for scale and symbols, see the Map and Compass honor. When everything is ready, go over the full requirements of the Travel honor with your instructor.