Without a doubt, taking your family on a field trip is one of the best ways to spend some time together. Whether it’s a free afternoon or a whole week trip (or longer!), taking the initiative to explore a new place can be the first step into fun and educational adventures!
But, if it’s your first time planning a foray into the unknown, planning your field trip can seem a lot harder than it actually is. No matter where you hope to go, keeping a few simple principles in mind is all it takes to plan a successful family field trip.
The first step in planning an amazing family field trip is picking a location that will work well for your family. After all, a trip to an area known for great whitewater rafting could be amazing! But it’s probably a no-go for a family with younger kids, or for someone who prefers not to get wet.
Don’t worry too much about picking the perfect spot, though. Almost any location has things to offer visitors of all ages. Still, paying attention to a few key factors can really take a family field trip to the next level.
Some factors to keep in mind are:
When I pick a location for our next trip, I like to start out by thinking about the special reasons category. Usually, this looks like me trying to find trips that have a connection to something that we’ve seen or read about recently, like taking a mushroom foraging tour the week after we tried a new kind of mushroom we saw at the farmer’s market. Or, it could look like visiting a place that we read about in a book. For instance, my family is actively planning a trip to Cumberland Island National Seashore because a book we read was set there!
After I’ve come up with a handful of possible places, it’s time to narrow them down! I start by considering the time of year, and how that will affect our trip. If you’re hoping to see the northern lights on your trip to Minnesota, going during the summer won’t help much. Likewise, going to see turtles hatch at Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica won’t turn out well if you go during the off-season.
From there it’s narrowing it down by considering how far we want to travel, and figuring out which trips are in and out based on budget. Usually, by this point, we have a pretty good idea of where we’re headed.
Once you know for sure, it’s time to find a place to stay. We tend to use Airbnb for our longer stays, while we stick to sites like Booking.com for finding our short stays. Some places also have location specific rental sites, like this website offering beachfront rentals in New Jersey.
Whichever site you choose, try to balance the price of your stay with getting a place that’s close to your destination. If you don’t mind a bit of a commute, you can often get a great deal on a place that’s a bit farther away, but be mindful of traffic!
Traffic can be a problem if you’re staying too far from where you want to be, but it can also be a problem if you’re staying too close! When we stayed in Washington DC, we actually ran into a problem with parking in the city that wouldn’t have been an issue if we had stayed outside the city and relied on the subway to bring us in.
After you decide on the location, it’s time to figure out what you’ll be doing there!
As I said earlier, there will be some fun and educational activities available pretty much anywhere you go, even if they’re easier to find in some areas than others. I’ll be using my family’s upcoming adventure to St. Marys and Cumberland Island for my examples, but the techniques I use can be applied pretty much anywhere.
I like to start out by grabbing as many ideas for things to do in the area as possible, which means it’s time to turn to good ol’ Google.
I usually start with a really general search for activities in the area. I might also do a search for a specific one that I already know about so I can collect important information From there, I open every tab that looks interesting. Usually, I’ll end up with a ton of open tabs, many of which are “best things to do in X area” style articles.
Some search queries to get you started
| Best things to do near x | State Parks near x |
| Family-friendly activities near x | Fun things to do near x |
| Educational activities near x | Best restaurants near x |
| National Parks near x | Family friendly restaurants near x |
| UNESCO Sites near x | Off the beaten path in x |
I also like to do some more specific searches. I typically will search for UNESCO Sites, National Parks, and State Parks near my destination, since these are some of my favorite kinds of places to visit.
For our St Marys trip, I found a handful of locations, but the ones that stuck out to me were:
Lastly, I like to check Atlas Obscura, since they often have some great off-the-beaten-path kinds of attractions listed on their site. A search for locations near St. Marys gave me two different possibilities.
The Dungeness Ruins were already on my list for things to check out on Cumberland Island, but the submarine museum was something I hadn’t found yet!
Once I’ve compiled a decent list, I like to save them all to a Google Maps list so I can have a visual representation of the different places I’m considering.
From there, it’s all about whittling the list down to fit our scheduled amount of time there! I Google each spot, and get as much information as I can about what’s available there and how long different activities take. I ask questions like,
Depending on the pace of our trip, I either schedule one or two main events for each day we’re there, or as few as one a week, if we’re planning on staying a while. Many attraction websites will also tell you how long you can expect to spend there and that may help plan out your day. I’ve found that my kids tend not to hurry through natural areas, so I can expect to spend longer amounts of time than suggested there and they’re speed walkers in museums, so we can get through those in less time than estimated.
An itinerary isn’t as important if you only have a couple activities, but it can be a life-saver if you are wanting to fit as much in as possible!
I tend to be as detailed as I can when it comes to making an itinerary, and I’ll include time blocks for travel time and meal times along with our actual destinations. This gives me a better picture of what the day looks like and reminds me to schedule in break days so we don’t burn out. After all, having an early morning after a late arrival can really put a drag on the day’s activities.
Things to keep in Mind
For our family’s trip to Cumberland Island, I discovered that the only ways to access the island are by using the ferry or through a private boat charter. That limited the times I could schedule our island trip pretty significantly and ended up being the factor that dictated our schedule for that day.
This is also the stage where I check to make sure that any necessary reservations are made, and that I have all my confirmation codes together. I like to keep them in a couple different places, including my planner, just in case my phone dies.
I have found that even for trips where I’m trying to fit a ton of different activities in, it is best to only schedule a couple hours of activity for the morning, and a couple more for the afternoon. More than that and I end up feeling really rushed and distracted. Of course, different people feel differently. The key is finding a rhythm that works well for you and your family.
It can also be a good idea to alternate high-energy level trips and low-energy level trips. I’ve found that trying to fit too much into a single day ends up exhausting the whole family and keeps us from fully enjoying the rest of the trip. So, getting those easy field trips in can be a much-needed respite from the action.
Definitely keep in mind, though, that the itinerary is always subject to change. If a cool, new opportunity comes up, go for it! I’ve found that it’s often those unplanned-for side-trips that end up being some of my family’s favorites!
Organizing a family field trip can seem like a monumental task when looked at from a distance, but with a little practice and the ability to break the planning into smaller chunks, it’s a lot simpler than it seems.
Need someplace to keep all your field trip plans?
My new Field Trip Planner for Parents is designed to help with the hard work of planning a family field trip, from beginning to end. It has room for brainstorming activities, creating itineraries, thinking about questions to ask, and even a place for taping in your entrance tickets or other mementos!
