BBC Breakfast: Backpacker Safety

20 August 2004, BBC1

"After their A levels, thousands of teenagers each year head off on the trip of a lifetime around the world. But - although many think they know it all - most are woefully ill-prepared for their trip... [BBC Breakfast] talked to Mark Hide, of the company Planet Wise, which runs a training course for Gap Year students - and to Robert Newton and his 18 year old daughter Gina, who's about to go travelling the world. "

Young travellers set out to mind the gap

17 August 2004, The Times

"Practical without preaching... [Planet Wise] shatter our complacency" Sam Coates takes the Planet Wise test on our three-day travel safety course for Gap Year students.

Students on gap year are shot by African pirates

5 July 2004, The Times

"Planetwise says that in the event of a drug-smuggling accusation, around 70 per cent of students inadvertently sign confessions to smuggling heroin by signing a different document with carbon paper underneath. That mistake could land them with a 99-year prison sentence"

Travel safety advice Q&A

5 July 2004, The Times

Mark Hide, the founder of Planet Wise, gives the low-down on how to stay safe while on gap-year travels

Sankha Guha: Man About World

4 July 2004, The Independent

"Planet Wise (www.planetwise.net) is offering to answer such tricky conundrums as part of a gap year "training" programme. Parents with children about to embark on their pre-university adventure may find the three-day course reassuring."

Daily Telegraph

June 2004

A crash course in travel safety

May 2004, Handbag.com

Catherine Jarvie, a journalist from handbag.com, spent three days with Planet Wise on a gap year course in May 2004.