Need some inspiration? Here are some of our most popular destinations for October half term school trips.
Barcelona is a fantastic choice of destination for an October half term trip as the weather is glorious – still warm and sunny, but not too hot. And although there will be plenty of tourists, they won’t be anywhere as numerous as during the summer.
This vibrant city always goes down well with students, who love the lively atmosphere, unique architecture and fantastic variety of visits. Most of our groups choose to stay in one of the lovely resorts along the Costa Brava – it’s easy to get into the city for visits, but in the evenings, you can really relax and enjoy some downtime on the beach.
Certainly, if you’re considering a cross-curricular school trip, Barcelona is an excellent option, as there are educational visits here for so many subjects, including Spanish, art, food technology, business studies, fashion and even geography.
And it’s a fantastic option for a halal school trip if your group is from an Islamic faith school.
We know Barcelona really well, so whatever your reason for visiting, we’ll ensure that your itinerary supports your curriculum and leaves your students feeling inspired.
Opal Coast
The Opal Coast is one of our favourite destinations in France, because it’s still a bit of a hidden gem! This area of northern France is usually passed through by most visitors on their way to Paris, but it’s a great option for school trips, with minimal journey time and plenty of excellent educational visits for both French and food technology.
The scenery here is spectacular, with vast sandy beaches, dramatic cliffs and charming, traditional French towns and villages.
Your students will love visiting a traditional fromagerie, learn about baking from a traditional French baker and explore the art of chocolate making, all while practising their French skills.
And make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to visit a snail farm, where your students will be fascinated by how the snails are reared. They’ll even have the opportunity to taste some – always an interesting experience, and a real highlight of the trip!
Our groups love the Belgian capital for a school trip to the heart of Europe. This is an exciting city with plenty to offer school groups, whether you’re travelling for food technology, science or business studies.
Science groups will be amazed by the variety of educational visits available here, from zoological museums and natural science museums to planetariums and science parks.
One of the highlights though has to be the Euro Space Center, where students can ‘train’ to be an astronaut. Royal Liberty School did just that earlier this year, find out what they thought about the experience by reading their case study.
Brussels, and Belgium as a whole, is famous for its food, making it a great choice for a food technology school trip.
On a visit to the Museum of Cocoa & Chocolate, or an artisanal chocolaterie, your students can find out more about the art of chocolate making and discover why Belgian chocolate is considered the best in the world.
At Mechelen Fruit & Vegetable Auction, one of the largest in Northern Europe, students can discover how produce makes the journey from farm to table. And at the Cantillon Brewery Museum or the Stella Artois Brewery, they’ll learn the secrets of Belgian beer.
Business studies groups will also enjoy some of these visits, where they’ll be able to focus on the business models of the artisan chocolaterie and Stella Artois. They’ll also enjoy a visit to the National Bank of Belgium, where they can learn about the role and importance of money in the economy, how the national bank works within the European framework and the role of money in culture.
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Delhi
If you want your school trip to be an experience that lives with your students forever, why not take them to Delhi? India is such an ancient, fascinating country.
Your students’ senses will be overwhelmed in the capital, Delhi, but you can also visit the Mughal city of Agra and the famous ‘pink city’ of Jaipur during your school trip to India.
Of course, as India is the birthplace of several of the world’s major religions, it’s the perfect destination to visit on a religious studies school trip. Your students will learn more about Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Bahà’ísm. They’ll also learn more about Islam and the Islamic rulers that ruled from Delhi for around 600 years.
Delhi is also a great destination for a school trip designed to widen your students’ horizons and deepen their intercultural understanding. If you’d like your students to enjoy a really profound experience of India, you might like to consider one of our expeditions, which include opportunities to volunteer with local community projects.
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Berlin is one of our absolute favourites and is definitely a year-round destination thanks to the many incredible educational opportunities available here.
Berlin is a city that has endured some dark moments, but it certainly doesn’t shy away from its past. There are so many fantastic museums and other visits here that bring both the Nazi and the Holocaust, and the Cold War to life for students.
In fact, there are so many that if you choose to make this an annual trip you can easily change up some of the visits to keep it fresh for staff without losing any of the educational value for the students.
Berlin also offers some excellent educational experiences for German, politics, art and design and technology groups, making it an inspired choice for a cross-curricular school trip too.
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Krakow
One of the oldest cities in Poland, and one of the most beautiful in the world, Krakow is a great choice of destination for an October half term school trip for history or religious studies groups.
On your school trip to Krakow, you’ll have the opportunity to visit Auschwitz with your students, to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust. They’ll gain a deeper appreciation of the scale and industrialised nature of the Nazi killing machine, and they’ll hear some of the personal stories of those who were murdered here. A difficult visit, it is certainly one that will stay with your students forever and will make them determined to not allow history to repeat itself.
A visit to the Galicia Jewish Museum is also not to be missed. Here, your students will learn more about the Jewish community in Poland before, during and after the Holocaust. Your students can even meet a recipient of the Righteous Among the Nations award.
And at Schindler’s Factory, your students will learn more about life in Krakow under Nazi occupation for Jewish and non-Jewish residents, through the personal stories of those who experienced it first-hand.
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October half term is a great time for a WW1 battlefields tour, as the weather is still pleasant. You can choose to visit Ypres, the Somme, or both, to give your students a better idea of what life was like on the Western Front during WW1.
There are some fantastic museums here, including the In Flanders Fields Museum and the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, where your students can learn more about the experiences of the soldiers who fought here.
They’ll be able to pay their respects at the many magnificent memorials and war cemeteries in the area, including the opportunity to take part in the moving Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate.
And they’ll be able to explore reconstructed trenches, and visit Talbot House, where soldiers went for some relief and leisure time while serving on the Western Front.
All of these visits will help your students to understand the scale of the devastation wrought by WW1, as well as give them a better idea of what life was like for the soldiers fighting here.
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Ho Chi Minh
Spectacular Vietnam certainly offers the opportunity to provide your students with a once-in-a-lifetime school trip and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is a fantastic base.
The largest city in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City is located in the southeast of the county and is the perfect place to explore the Vietnam War.
Explore the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were the Viet Cong’s base of operations during the Tet Offensive. As well as hiding places, this network of tunnels served as communication and supply routes, hospitals, caches for food and weapons and even living quarters. Your students can actually crawl into the tunnels, and they can see examples of booby traps that were used to protect the tunnels against American forces.
They’ll even be able to taste some of the food typically eaten by those living in the tunnels!
Another highlight of your history school trip to Ho Chi Minh will be a visit to the War Remnants Museum, which focuses on some the darker, crueller aspects of the conflict, including the use of tiger cages and Agent Orange.
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You don’t have to travel too far for an unforgettable school trip – Cornwall offers some excellent educational experiences for geography and art, and also makes a great choice for a school residential trip.
Geography groups will love the opportunity to explore a variety of topics, including coastal and river landscapes, and sustainability. One of the highlights of a geography school trip to Cornwall is a curriculum-linked workshop at the Eden Project.
Art students will love the chance to explore how Cornwall has inspired artists, with visits to the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden, the Newlyn Art Gallery and Tate St. Ives. You could even enjoy a textile workshop with a local textile artist.
Naples and Sorrento
This spectacular corner of Italy is fabulous in October, when there are fewer tourists and the weather is still warm and sunny.
And Naples and Sorrento offer some really exciting opportunities for geography, Italian, food technology and classical studies groups.
A visit to Pompeii or Herculaneum is unmissable, especially for geography and classical studies groups. Geographers will be awestruck by the destructive power of Mt. Vesuvius, while classicists will be fascinated by this opportunity to walk through the streets of such a well-preserved Roman settlement.
Food technology groups will want to explore why this region has given us so much of what we consider to be typical of Italian cuisine – in particular, pizza! Your students will never forget the experience of learning to make a traditional Neopolitan pizza under the instruction of a pizzaiolo. You’ll also be able to visit local producers of olive oil and mozzarella, to find out how they’re made and why this region is so famous for its produce.
Italian groups will love all of this too, as it gives them the chance to explore Italian history and culture through their language skills.
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Iceland is, in our opinion, the ultimate geography destination. After all, where else can you see volcanoes, glaciers, geysers, waterfalls, basalt columns and black volcanic beaches, all within such a small area?
Iceland’s landscape is totally unlike that of anywhere else. It’s almost ethereal or otherworldly. Your students will be totally mesmerised by it. If you’re looking for a school trip to inspire the geographers of the future, then Iceland is certainly the destination for you!
And if you want to open up this incredible trip to more students, why not team up with the science department? Iceland offers some fantastic opportunities to explore geology and earth sciences, and many of the visits here work just as well for science as they do for geography.
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Ready to start planning your October half term school trip?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for further information or to request your tailor-made quote.