School Trip Area Choices
As we offer 100% bespoke trips where you can mix and match ANYTHING to suit your specific requirements, we don't have a "standard" itinerary, so here we present a random sample from a recent trip. This is one of our repeat customers that runs the same trip each year.
The example below is for a group of 50 KS3 students on an enrichment trip from the south midlands to the Isle of Wight for a bit of unstructured learning, and a lot of fun! - staying in an exclusive use hotel for 4 nights in June. Education Destination also provided coach and ferry transport, and arranged all meals and activities.
See some actual 2025 itineraries
Everyone's loaded up and the coach departs school for the 90 minute journey to Southampton
Trip Diaries (see below) are distributed so that everyone has something to keep them quiet
If they arrive a little early, the students will spend some time in Mayflower Park adjacent to the ferry terminal studying the container port
Arrive in Southampton after an unscheduled toilet stop!
The ferry departs right on time, so it's upstairs to the open deck for a couple of activities in the Trip Diary, and then down to the lounge for a quick packed lunch before arrival in East Cowes one hour later.
It's a fine sunny day so some of the students take the opportunity to study Calshot Spit as they pass, tying in with a recent coastal erosion topic in Geography.
After a short drive across the Island and a welcome chat from the park manager, the students meet the animals at the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary.
Over the course of the next few hours, they will groom the donkeys, race Shetland ponies through a slalom course, learn about condition scoring, feeding regimes and exercise, use a chip scanner to identify the animals and burn up some energy on a timed treasure hunt.
There's also time for a cheeky ice cream from the gift shop!
It's a 15 minute drive to the hotel in Shanklin for check-in, orientation and a fire drill. After a few room swaps and unpacking, it's down to the restaurant for a 2 course hot dinner.
After dinner it's back up to the rooms for a quick change!
After a short drive up the coast to Ryde, it's time to unwind and have some social time with a couple of games of 10 pin bowling. Teams are quickly formed but it soon turns into a teachers -vs- students contest!
The coach arrives at 21:30 for the return trip and by 22:30 everyone's in bed with a hot chocolate, shattered.
Everyone's up for breakfast after a relatively uneventful first night
It's a quick bite today as the first activity is on the other side of the island
Arrive at the Dinosaur Farm near Brighstone after a lovely coach trip along the Military Road
An early start because of tidal conditions later, the students meet up with resident paleontologist Oliver (a former middle school teacher) for a fascinating introduction about the geology and fossils to be found in the local area.
A tour of the exhibitions follow, with some fun breakout sessions including fossil handling and identification (the boys especially loved finding out that a coprolite they were holding is actually dino poo!) in readiness for the next activity.
A quick 5 minute coach ride later and we are at a local beach famous for its fossil finds and dinosaur footprints - Compton Bay.
After a safety briefing and a toilet break the group heads down to the beach to see what they can find.
It's back to the coach to grab a packed lunch overlooking the beach before heading off on the next adventure.
Arrival at Queen Victoria's Osborne House after a coach journey from the beach. And now for something completely different!
After a guided tour of the main house, it's time to head "below stairs" to find out what life was like for the servants - under the watchful gaze of Mrs Pilkington the housekeeper! It's pinnies on before brasses are polished, beds are made (properly - with sheets and blankets), and shoes cleaned.
Then some free time to explore the grounds, the Swiss Cottage playhouse for the young princes and princesses, and the Queen's private beach.
Coach arrives to take the group back to the hotel for dinner, and then another quick change!
A quick coach ride to the next town of Sandown, then it's wetsuits and lifejackets on for a supervised surfing lesson in Sandown Bay!
Back to the hotel for hot chocolate and bed.
After a bit of a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast, the coach picks up at 09:15 for a short transfer to Brading.
The group are met by Spencer, another former teacher who is now the education lead at Brading Roman Villa.
A detailed tour and some hands-on craft activities follow.
Following a coach transfer and a pre-arranged sit down hot lunch, it's time to meet the visionary owner of Tapnell Farm, Tom, who delivers some background information about the eco-credentials of this relatively new visitor attraction. This is specifically to tie in with a current in-school topic. Tom then takes the students on a tour of their ground source heat pumps, solar panels and wind turbines.
The group then get to spend the afternoon having fun with all the attractions - favourites included the wallaby walk, meerkat enclosure, pedal go-kart racing and the zipwire.
It's back to the hotel for dinner and another quick change!
It's the big party night out! The crew head over to JR Zone in Newport - the Island's biggest indoor soft play area - for a few games of Laser Storm in the darkened, smoke-filled soft play frame!
In bed. Most of them asleep already!
A lazy start after the night before and a quick coach trip to Robin Hill Country Park.
As it's the last day the group will spend it here. Supervision will be relaxed a little and control of their day given over to manageable groups of students. Teachers have included a couple of activities in their Trip Diaries - an extension task for their Romans project (there's a buried Roman Villa within the park) and a science/maths challenge involving the hilsside toboggan ride.
It's back to the hotel for dinner and another quick change!
After dinner, one of our professional mobile DJs kicks off two hours of party dances, the latest and greatest pop tunes and requests in the function room. A few fun games will be sprinkled into the proceedings depending on the age group and their willingness to participate!
And so to bed...
After a hot breakfast, it's time to pack the coach and head off home. Sadly this group had to be back at school for lunchtime - most of our visitors manage to squeeze in one more activity on the way to the ferry but today it's not to be.
The ferry leaves East Cowes and the students reflect on a wonderful week of learning and fun!
Here's the Trip Diary prepared for this group along with their Day by Day Guide - issued in addition to individual venue summary sheets for all the places visited
