This study reports on adolescents' experiences as exchange students in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Based on a literature review and multivariate analysis of original survey data collected from 408 exchange students from 40 home countries that had spent a year in one out of 37 destination countries, the study concludes that students' perceived social support during the exchange and students' proficiency in mastering the destination country's language impacted their well-being during the exchange. Neither cultural distance between the student's home country and destination nor the student's adventurousness as a personality trait had an impact on well-being during the exchange. These empirical findings suggest that the students' social support and ability to interact during the exchange play an important role in enabling exchange students to reap the benefits of international and intercultural exchange in their formative years.