The Ultimate School Trip Pre-Departure Checklist

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when planning your student tour? Like your class field trip is departing soon, and you still have a million things to do? You're not alone. Educators leading their first tour and veteran trip leaders alike have the same concerns. Our group leader best practices alleviate the stress of trip planning. 

1. Read our PDF Plan a Trip that Inspires

2. Post your rooming list

3. Final Itinerary Call

4. Pass out your trip Swag

5. Group your Participant #s and Chaperone Groups

6. Pre Trip Meeting

Imagine starting your trip full of optimism. You board the airplane and leave the stress and worries behind. That's how you should feel when leading an educational trip. 

We hope these steps will bring you inspiration and fond memories with your students — and hopefully inspire their hidden genius, too!

Plan a Field Trip that Inspires 

You're the kind of teacher who connects with students and wants to share real-world experiences. Your students want to make memories that will last forever. Your trip and your teaching will never be the same if you follow these steps. Take a look at our guide that will help you connect with your students and lead your best trip ever.  7 Keys to Leading a Memory MakingTrip

Your student trip provides learning and growth opportunities for your students. Your lesson plans throughout the school year turn into learning experiences at your trip destinations. Students make new friends, gain independence and picture their best version of their future self. With your inspiration and guidance, you and your students will grow together on your experiential trip.

If your goal is to inspire students, you don't want to spend the first day or two of the trip getting to know names. You want to step onto the bus having a relationship with each student. This is where trip magic happens, and it's the secret between an average trip and a Memory Maker trip. Your students will remember this trip and your impact for a lifetime. Enjoy your trip, and have fun with your students.

• Rooming / Bus - There is no way around it. Your students will put a major emphasis on rooming with their friends. There is a major social component of student travel. Your goal as a trip leader is to have students room together who will make good choices and have fun. Ideally, you want to make students happy and excited about the trip. One way to keep the process simple is to have chaperones assign roommates for the entire group. This will temper expectations and limit the amount of work on your end.

 If your trip has a tradition of having students select their roommates, here are a few strategies. Bridge your goals as a trip leader with the students' social goals by preparing them how to pick roommates. Here's what to say to students or write in an email.

• Talk to your friends before selecting them as roommates. Don't pick someone randomly. Ask them do they want to room together? Your job's a trip leader is much easier as the same students pick each other as roommates.

• Choose roommates who you will have fun with and who will make good choices.

• If you are unable to make good choices with a roommate, choose a different roommate.

Your students want to have fun and make good choices on your trip. Set up a successful roommate request process by following the steps above. You'll send your list to your tour coordinator. You're set. Students are excited, and you've set a big social component of your trip up for success. 

• Final Itinerary Call - You have a vision for your perfect trip. We get it. You're going to want to read your itinerary a few months before departure. Next, schedule a call with your tour consultant and go over your must-haves and inclusions. The last thing you want is to be on tour and realize that one of your favorite activities or restaurants is missing from your itinerary. Your tour consultant can make tweaks for your tour group.

If it's your first time leading a trip (or if you want a refresher), your tour consultant will also share best practices for leading your group on a flight, on a motorcoach, at a restaurant and hotel. You've done it! You're ready to take your best trip ever. 

• Swag Arrives at your School - Build trip excitement and pass out trip SWAG early. We recommend passing out your student SWAG as soon as possible to create excitement for the trip. Alternatively, trip SWAG items can be passed out at the pre-trip meeting or just before your group departs.

Your students will proudly wear their trip gear to school. Students across campus will see the excitement for your program. You might also consider having students wear a trip t-shirt on the day of departure. This will make keeping your group together at the airport much easier. Your trip will provide your students joy well before departure.

• Participant #'s and Chaperone Groups: Do you want to streamline your processes to make travel easier? Implement this strategy, and your trip will save time on tour.

Assign each of your students a number and write or type that number on the students' ID Card that hangs from their lanyard. If you have 80 students, your students will be numbered 1-80.

Assign each chaperone to a small group of students. In this example, each chaperone will have a small group of 10 students. When your entire group meets up, students will meet in their small groups and count the numbers of their chaperones. 

For example, the chaperone of group 1 would have their small group count off 1-10, the chaperone of group 2 would have their small group count off 11 to 20. All of the other groups would count off simultaneously. Once all students were accounted for, the group would depart. This strategy works well in busy cities like Washington DC and New York. Your tour guide can help with this as well. 

Your itinerary is ambitious. You don't want to waste time waiting for your group. Use this small group counting system to save time and have more fun.

• Pre Trip Meeting - A few weeks before departure, you and your tour consultant will schedule a pre-trip meeting to answer questions and help students and their parents. Holding a pre-trip meeting will answer all-important trip questions. Trip meeting topics include:

  • Safety on your tour

  • Your trip Itinerary including pick-up and drop off times and airline information

  • Roommates and bus (If your group is traveling on more than one bus) assignments

  • Money and IDs needed (travelers 17 and under can travel with a school ID)

  • Hotel Expectations

  • Food - your students will want to know what they'll be eating, and in some cases, you'll pre-order your meals.

  • Tour expectations - behavior, buddy systems, etc.

This is the final step before you meet your group. You've done it. Your trip will depart soon, and you will have an amazing experience with your students. 

Why this all matters

You have a vision of leading an amazing school trip for your students, a school trip that your students and you will never forget. Follow these steps, and you will ensure that your trip is a success.

Download our PDF and follow the steps to plan a trip that inspires at any grade level. Get to know each trip participant before departure. You are their guide, and they are ready to be inspired. You will lead a trip they will never forget.

Having a roommate selection policy is key. While some teachers select roommates for the group, others allow their students to select their roommates and make final decisions on the rooming list. Both systems work well. 

The outcome of selecting roommates for your students is straightforward. If students select their roommates, follow our tips to ensure that students make good choices for themselves and the group.

 A few months before departure, reach out to your tour consultant to tweak your itinerary is perfect. You'll review all of your must-haves from the planning phase of your trip. Your tour consultant will make revisions for your perfect trip. Your middle school or high school students will love this tour. You want the best learning environment for your school field trip. 

Build excitement on your campus and pass out trip swag early or at the pre-trip meeting. Students will wear their trip t-shirt proudly and promote the tradition you created on campus. 

Assign chaperones to a small group of trip participants. For example, have a chaperone 1 be responsible for student numbers 1 through 10. Write numbers 1-10 on their respective name tags. Have chaperone 2 to be responsible for students 11 through 20. And so on. This will come in handy when meeting up after an activity. Your group will efficiently count off and so that all students are accounted for. This will allow your group to see more and wait around less. 

Schedule your pre-trip meeting and answer any student and parent questions. Your meeting will review safety on your tour, your trip itinerary. Roommate and bus assignments, money and IDs, hotel expectations, food, and tour expectations.

You've done it! You planned an inspiring trip itinerary, and you know each student well. You have created an inspiring trip that chaperones and their students will love. You are excited to start your trip and create memories with your students. 

If you need support or want to learn some more best practices, we can definitely help you.  Create a lifetime of memories for your students. See what your trip can look like. Let's talk.