I hope it doesn't become compulsory!

easyJet have announced that they are trialling mobile boarding passes at Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nice, Stansted and Southend airports.

The passes will be downloaded and stored on the traveller's mobile phone, and all the passes for a family travelling together may be on a single phone or distributed.

I can quite see the attraction for the individual passenger, or even a couple.  But how do you cope with entering the security area if you have more than two or three on a single phone?

For those of us who arrange and accompany groups, I cannot see the mobile boarding pass as being in any way a benefit - let's hope the paper option remains.

I certainly cannot see every child in a school group having his / her own pass on individual mobile phones.  Anybody who has been away with a group will know that the number of phones returning does not necessarily equal the number going out.

And for the reason mentioned before, I equally cannot see the party leaders having the students' passes.

New extended Great War tour.

Most school groups who visit the battlefields of the Great War tend to concentrate on Ypres and the Somme.  And this makes good sense - they are redolent with memory for British visitors and are easily reached.

We at Culture Trails continue to make arrangements for schools to visit these areas on short tours.

However, with the centenary of the outbreak of war rapidly approaching, we have designed a tour which takes a little longer (six or seven days), but which tries to convey the totality of the war, at least on what the Germans called the Westfront.

We travel from the point at which the Front ran into the sea in Belgium to that where it reached the Swiss border, more than eight hundred kilometres to the south-east.

On the way, we see many of the places whose names echo down to us over the years, Ypres, Arras, Verdun, as well as many less well known, at least in Britain, such as Le Linge, Pfetterhouse and St Mihiel.

If you'd like to know more, please call us on 01691 88 61 61 or e-mail greatwar@culturetrails.co.uk

Airline baggage charges

I wrote a few weeks ago about the cost of taking checked baggage on flights.

Here's what the Daily Telegraph has to say on the subject today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10025059/Airline-fees-and-baggage-charges-soar.html

Do remember that the kind of travel jacket manufactured by Rufus Roo enables you to carry an extra 10kg or so at no cost.  There's a link to their site at the bottom of this page.

Need to change a name?

The first thing to say is that if you are travelling by coach / ferry, there is no problem right up to the last minute (but make sure your insurance company is aware).

If you are flying, however, it could be costly.

The no-frills airlines tend to charge a fixed fee (each way) for each change, plus the difference between the fare at the time of booking and the present ticket price.

It could be less expensive just to book a new ticket at the present price - it is certainly worth checking both options.

Passport due for renewal at an awkward time

You are going to visit a country that needs a visa, and you have to apply just at the time you are due to go on holiday with your family.

Or maybe you are visiting a country which requires you to have a passport valid for three or six months beyond your visit dates, while your passport is due to expire just two months after your travels.

While this can be a nuisance, it need not cost you any more than regular passport renewal.

You can renew your UK passport at any time within its last six months of validity and it will be valid for ten years from the date of expiry of your present document, not from its own date of issue.

In fact, as passport fees only ever go up, maybe you should consider renewing six months early as a matter of course.

New destinations from Manchester

easyJet are introducing three new destinations from Manchester - of interest to Geography / Geology, History and Art teachers:

Iceland, Prague and Venice all now feature from this group-friendly airline.

Twentieth Century German History

I have been working on an itinerary recently for a long-time client and I have to say that I am really pleased to see that some can still make the commitment to a long tour.  For those studying the Third Reich, our tour to Nuremberg, Prague, Kraków, Auschwitz and Berlin carries a powerful impact which I am told is reflected in the students' work after such a series of visits.

In ten days, they become familiar with the early years of Nazi power and rapid growth, with the conduct of the War and the Holocaust and with the downfall.

More than that are the contexts - walking in the immense Rally Grounds, travelling from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, standing in the peaceful lakeside villa by the Wannsee where the detail of the administration of the Final Solution was delivered.

The price?  Just over £65 per day per student, including all travel, accommodation in good hotels, three meals a day, visits and guiding.

Call us on 01691 88 61 61 to discuss a similar tour for your students.

Like us on Facebook

If you find my postings here useful, you might find that by liking our Facebook page, you will not miss any of my offerings:   https://www.facebook.com/pages/Culture-Trails-for-Schools/204820429609781

The page is a copy of my postings here in the blog.

Flying with easyJet? No more airport check-in.

If you are flying with easyJet, then you need to be aware that as from 30 April, you will need to arrive at the airport already checked-in and with your boarding passes for both outward and return flights printed off.

All check-in desks will be converted to bag-drop only.

Of course, if you have no checked luggage, then you may proceed directly to security.

If your booking has been made by a tour operator, you should contact them to ensure they check your group in online and send you the boarding passes in good time.

Make sure you are getting an inclusive price!!

It was last Easter that I first posted this message, and from feedback I get from teachers who have booked tours in good faith from even some of the largest school tour operators, I think it bears repeating.

How do I choose between tour operators?

It's the time of year when the school tour brochures start arriving, and to be sure many of the offerings look inviting.

It is tempting to look for the lowest prices, but this is not necessarily the best solution, as often they are achieved by including as little as possible in the quoted price - possibly no lunches or evening meals included.

Even worse are the history or geography study tours (or those in other subject areas) which do not include all the necessary visits and guiding.

I have always felt that it is best to have totally inclusive prices for travel, accommodation and meals together with all visits, entrance fees and guiding included in the tour.  This way, you will not be going to parents some way through the process to ask for more than originally budgeted.

That said, of course, if you are travelling with senior pupils, you might well decide that allowing them to purchase their own lunch might be preferable to an included packed lunch, but I would certainly expect to have a substantial breakfast and an evening meal included each day.

Back from the freeze - to the snow!

Well - what can I say?  Back from an excellent trip to Central Europe accompanying a school group to several feet of snow to clear.

In my absence, the office was cut off by road and by broadband and telephone; so there's much to catch up on.

During the trip, we visited Berlin for both Reich and Cold War elements, Stalag Luft 3 on the very date of the anniversary of the Great Escape, Auschwitz1 - Birkenau and the Kazimierz quarter of Kraków where some of Schindler's List was filmed. 

In Birkenau, the temperature was several degrees below zero, but the wind seemed to be coming from the steppes with nothing to impede it.  It was physically painful just to be there, but the students fully appreciated how it must have been to endure these conditions wearing no more than a pair of pyjamas.

A few days away

I'm travelling with a group from tomorrow, Thursday, until next Tuesday; so might not be able to post very often.

We'll be visiting Berlin and Kraków (why does the weather forecast look so unappealing?).

Of course, any high spots will be reported.

Getting through the airport with a school group

For most of us, an airport is a place we visit / pass through very few times a year.  And when you are responsible for a group of students, the journey from the kerb outside the check-in to actually sitting on the aircraft ready for take-off can be even more daunting than when travelling alone.

There's some step-by-step advice here, which I think will be useful:

Through the airport

RE tours

I rarely mention tours for groups studying RE, but with both the Protestant Reformation and the Holocaust featuring in exam syllabuses, perhaps I should do so.

If you are teaching either of these, then take a look at  Religious history tours for some inspiring ideas.

An extra 10kg of luggage free of charge!

Following my last blog post about luggage allowances, I have been looking into ways of getting more unchecked luggage on board without falling foul of the airlines' policies .

I have found an excellent range of jackets / waistcoats with large pockets capable of carrying even a laptop computer (the largest pocket is 43cm x 20cm).

For your health's sake, it's probably advisable to limit yourself to 10 kg, but as you also have your carry-on bag allowance, you can probably take a total of around 20kg - plenty for a week away (?)

Take a look at   Luggage Busters

Save time and money when flying on tour

Do you really need checked luggage?

If you are taking a group away by air for three or four days, ask whether it is really necessary to pay for luggage checked in the hold of the aircraft.

Not taking such luggage will save you both time and money.

Of course, not having to wait for cases to offloaded at your arrival airport can save the best part of an hour in each direction - but did you know that your suitcase can substantially increase the cost of your travel?

Taking three no-frills airlines as examples, easyJet charge £22 return, Jet2 £25 return and WizzAir £34 return.  Ryanair charge even more.

Of course, if you travel by coach, there are no such extra costs.

Three extra free places on Battlefields tours

Although details of the government's subsidy to secondary schools in the state sector in England is delayed, Culture Trails has made the decision to give three extra free places to any group of 35 or more students travelling on a study trip to the Western Front battlefields throughout the centenary period from summer 2014 to Christmas 2018.

This offer is available to schools in all parts of the United Kingdom.

www.culturetrails.co.uk/history-trails/school-study-tours/world-war-1.htm

Do not read this if you live in the south of Britain

But if you are in the north of England, North Wales or Scotland - it's intended for you.

If you are taking a group on a study trip to Europe, it's a long way to Dover, and it's not necessary to drive those extra miles.

P&O Ferries have an overnight service from Hull to Rotterdam and another from Hull to Zeebrugge.

An early evening departure, buffet dinner, cinema, good night's sleep in comfortable cabins, breakfast, and on the road by nine o'clock.

If you are headed to the battlefields of the Western Front, you can be meeting your guide in Ypres by 10 a.m., fully refreshed and ready for a day in the trenches and museums.

But if you are going further east, you can be in, say, Berlin by afternoon having made a relevant visit on the way.

Bring your school choir to the Western Front

Between 2014 and 2018, we shall be arranging recitals of commemoration for school choirs from the UK in churches and other venues in Flanders and on the Somme.

If you would like to be included, please contact us for more details: music@culturetrails.co.uk  or phone 01691 886161

Given sufficient planning time, we should be able to organise a recital in places of significance for your own local area, and frequently to include a local choir as well, if you wish.

Should your school have links with a school in Germany, they, too, may be included.

New tour itinerary - Third Reich Essentials

It's more than twenty years since I organised my first school study tour "Third Reich Uncovered", visiting Nuremberg, Prague, Auschwitz and Berlin over the course of ten days.

It has proved an immensely successful tour ever since, but I am very conscious of the increasing cost, especially in these straitened times, and have been considering how we might cut the length of the trip while preserving its major educational benefits.

If you are teaching Germany 1933-1945, I hope that an 8-day coach tour might appeal.  It includes Prague's Jewish quarter, Lidice and Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Berlin.

E-mail hugh@culturetrails.co.uk or call 01691 886161 to discuss this or any other study trip.

Three competing ferry companies, plus Eurotunnel

For the short term at least, there are three ferry companies competing on the short Channel crossing from Dover to Calais.

P&O have been around longest, while DFDS came onto the route after last year's demise of Sea France.

The Eurotunnel operators have taken over three of the Sea France fleet which they now operate under the name of MyFerry Link.

It is possible that the Competition Commission will rule this anti-competitive, and I shall keep you updated, but for the moment, many more daily sailings and more price competition cannot be bad.

From Rallies to Ruins - Nuremberg & Berlin

It's a matter of perspective

In Nuremberg, your pupils can begin to understand how it felt to be a small part of a massive machine

Our study trips to Nuremberg and Berlin help bring out the reality of life in the Third Reich - why ordinary people supported, or at least did not oppose, such a brutal régime.

From the gigantism of the Nuremberg Rally Grounds and the unbuilt Germania to the tranquil lakeside setting of the Wannsee Conference, our local expert guides interpret the sites in a way that helps us understand the workings of the Nazi machine.

In a pattern that will become familiar over the next days, Matt relates it to his own experience: "I've been to rock concerts and I guess it's a similar thing. There's a real vibe. Everyone's there to see the same thing, to do what everyone else does." And, as the guide points out, Matt's reaction is an echo of what the British ambassador felt as he watched one of the rallies. "For two minutes," he recorded, "I became a National Socialist."

You will have the personal attention of our Central Europe expert throughout the planning of your tour and whilst you are away; so you can be sure your pupils will get the most appropriate experience for their studies.  Visits are themed to suit your syllabus.

Central hotels and single rooms for staff

Wherever possible, we use three- and four-star hotels rather than hostels, and accompanying staff have single room accommodation.  Unlike many other school tour operators, we include all visits, guiding and entry fees in the price of your tour.  We are confident that on a like-for-like basis, even with all these pluses, you will find our prices very competitive.

Extend your tour

You might extend your tour and discover the wartime history of Theresienstadt and Prague or of Kraków and Auschwitz.

Whatever your requirements, Culture Trails are experts in school travel so please call 01691 88 61 61 to discuss your plans or e-mail: hugh@culturetrails.co.uk

Take a look at some of our ideas at:

www.culturetrails.co.uk/Nuremberg1.htm

Culture Trails, Travel House, Llwynmawr, Llangollen LL20 7BB

Berlin: 1918-1992

It happened, and it happened here

Twentieth Century History - brought to life in the places it was made

YOU know that Berlin is the place to visit for pupils studying almost any part of

twentieth century German history - Weimar Republic, Reich or Cold War.

WE know Berlin best!

We have been taking school groups there since the days when the Wall was still standing and we know the ins and outs of this magnificent city.

You will have the personal attention of our Berlin and Central Europe expert throughout the planning of your tour and whilst you are away; so you can be sure your pupils will get the most appropriate experience for their studies.  Visits are themed to suit your syllabus.

Central hotels and single rooms for staff

Wherever possible, we use three-star hotels rather than hostels, and accompanying staff have single room accommodation.  Unlike many other school tour operators, we include all visits, guiding and entry fees in the price of your tour.  We are confident that on a like-for-like basis, even with all these pluses, you will find our prices very competitive.

Extend your tour beyond Berlin

You might extend your tour and discover the wartime history of Theresienstadt and Prague or of Kraków and Auschwitz, or you could visit the immense Rally Grounds and the courtroom of the War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg.

For Cold War studies, why not add on Leipzig, scene of the anti-government demonstrations through 1989 which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the East German state, together with a selection of the intra-German frontier fortifications.

Whatever your requirements, Culture Trails are experts in school travel so please call 01691 88 61 61 to discuss your plans or e-mail: hugh@culturetrails.co.uk

Take a look at some of our ideas at:

 www.culturetrails.co.uk/berlin1.htm

Culture Trails, Travel House, Llwynmawr, Llangollen LL20 7BB

Check out our tour ideas

Although in the body of this blog I try to help anybody who is thinking of taking a school tour, I have now started to add a few ideas of tours we can organise - do, please, check out the sidebar to the right of this page page for programmes.

And if there's a destination or curriculum topic for which you'd like suggested tours, just get in touch.

Including non-EU students in school tour

I am frequently asked about the problem of taking students in a school group who are passport holders of non-EU countries.

Well, one possibility is to tell the parents to obtain the necessary visas (which will cost).

The other, provided you are visiting only member-states of the EU (or Iceland, Norway or Switzerland), which covers the vast majority of school trips, is to get a List of Travellers form from the British Council.

It's free of charge and simple to to do - just take a look at http://www.britishcouncil.org/home-information-centre-list-of-travellers-scheme.htm

Iceland even more accessible!

I wrote here before about the increasing number of flights to Iceland.

I have just heard that WOW Air is increasing its service between Gatwick and Reykjavik to twice daily Sunday to Friday plus once daily on Saturdays, a total of 13 per week.

Considering next year's study visit?

When you are comparing quotes for your study trip from different tour operators, do be sure that you are comparing like with like.

What standard of accommodation is included, and what meals?  There is a big difference in quality of experience if you stay in a hotel, rather than a hostel, and students (not to mention staff) enjoy the experience of eating in different restaurants when compared with eating in the same place every day.

Are all visits, guides, entrance fees included in the basic price, or are they "optional" extras?  There's not much point in a study trip without relevant visits.

Ask yourself, and ask the tour operators, about their knowledge of the destination and how the visits you will be making tie in with your studies.  Can they tell you in detail, for example, how to use public transport to get from one visit to another, or do they intend to just give you a map of the general area?

Another blog you might find useful and interesting

I found a new blog yesterday which I have started following.

It's written by a teacher and covers topics related to all aspects of taking pupils out of school on trips, tours, expeditions and days out.

I recommend it!

http://takethemoutcouk.blogspot.co.uk/