Watch out for hidden extras

When you buy food, you might choose between a large chain supermarket and your local wholefood shop.

When you buy clothes, you might choose between a Knightsbridge retailer and Primark

In neither case is one right and the other wrong - they are different sources for different products.

I think school travel organisers can be differentiated in the same way.  If you want a five-day trip to the Rhineland or to the Ile-de-France, there are plenty of good, reliable operators to choose from, and as they will generally use the same hotels, attractions and ferry companies, the only way to choose between them is price.

If, though, you want a study tour that is carefully planned to provide curriculum support for, say, History or Classics, then you are probably better advised to use a niche operator who know the sites, museums, memorials etc. and how they focus your pupils' learning.

Too often, we hear of operators who expect you to pay for entrances to the very places that are the reason for your tour - sure the headline price is attractive, but it is far better, in my view, to have an all-inclusive price so that you, the organising teacher will have as little to worry about as possible.