How to Choose an Archeological Field Trip

There are tons of reasons to love taking a field trip to archeological sites! The most obvious reason is to get a better understanding of our past, but depending on the site you might also learn about geology, astronomy, engineering, or pretty much anything else you’re interested in.

Ultimately, planning a successful archaeological trip comes down to one main thing: choosing a location that lines up with your family’s interests.

What is Archeology?

Archaeology, as a field, covers a wide array of different topics, different times, and different cultures. But what all archaeological sites have in common is a focus on the search for knowledge about human history and its impact on the world as we know it.

Archaeology deals with “material culture,” or all the things that humans have left behind. It could be ancient ruins, like the Mayan pyramids, or Machu Pichu. It could be collections of artifacts, like Spanish gold, or the sword of a lost crusader. Or it could even be the bodies of the people themselves, as with Egypt’s mummies or the remains of Pompeii. 

Each of these things has a story to tell. They’re about who our predecessors were, what was important to them, and what they decided to do with their lives. Those stories, in turn, can tell us a lot about ourselves and how far we have come.

Plus, they’re all really, really cool!

What type of site? 

With such a wide array of archaeological sites out there, it can be helpful to think about the ways sites are different from one another when you’re planning a field trip. This is especially useful for figuring out which sites your family is interested in visiting, and which ones it might be better to skip this time. 

One site isn’t really better than another, necessarily. But it can be easier or harder to learn about specific parts of the archaeological process depending on where you go. 

In my mind, this is how I typically break them up.

Active vs. Inactive

I consider active sites to be those where there are currently archaeologists or researchers on the ground doing real work. I’ve found that active sites are great places to visit if you’re interested in learning about the discovery process, especially if you are able to include a conversation with an expert as part of your trip! 

Inactive sites, by contrast, are those sites where there aren’t currently scientists at work. Inactive sites can still be a ton of fun, but learning about the site and the discoveries being made there ends up happening through reading, research, or possibly through a friendly tour guide. 

Developed vs. Undeveloped

An active site can be a ton of fun for families interested in what archaeologists are doing, but unless it is also a developed site, it might not be as great for those who want to know what archaeologists are learning. 

Developed sites are the sites where the lessons learned from previous digs are displayed for guests to see. These are the sites that you visit to learn the history of a place, more so than to learn about the process of archaeology itself. They also tend to be a little easier to visit as they often have amenities on-site that an undeveloped site might not have. 

Some great examples of a developed site would be the Colosseum. As a developed site, the ruins have been restored and cleaned up to make it much easier to see what the site might have originally looked like. There are also plenty of competing tours in place to fill you up on great archaeological knowledge!

Undeveloped sites, on the other hand, have a much more “diamond-in-the-rough” kind of feel to them. These sites can be more difficult to get to, and won’t have signs to explain the importance of what you’re seeing. If you want to visit an undeveloped site, you are also going to want a guide who knows the site well. 

A great example of an undeveloped site would be the El Mirador ruins in Guatemala, which can take 2-3 days of hiking in the jungles to reach. 

Museums

The other great place for an archeological field trip is your local museum. While museums can’t provide the same feeling of actually being there, they have some definite advantages of their own. 

We often put an emphasis on the excavation and exploration aspects of archaeology, but an equal or greater part of it is actually the research and puzzle-solving being done behind the scenes. Museums are great places to explore the results of that research!

One of the biggest advantages that visiting a museum has over going to an archeological site is that a museum will typically do a better job of laying out the information that we have in a cohesive story. Dig sites focus on what can be learned from that specific location, but museums will often pull from many different sites in order to get the big picture.

Plus, they often house important artifacts that might be too fragile to leave at the actual site. 

I personally wouldn’t visit a museum instead of an archeological site, but I love adding on a visit to a museum as a way of enriching the overall experience.  

How Far Can you Travel?

Another major factor to consider when planning a trip is how far you have to travel to get the experience that you want. While getting the chance to visit some of the major archeological finds from around the world can be an unforgettable trip, you don’t always have to travel far to find something worth seeing. 

Near…

While you won’t find Greek Temples or Egyptian mummies, North America is filled to the brim with amazing archeological sites ranging from petroglyphs and ruins from Native American civilizations to the sites of colonial forts and villages. Depending on where you’re at, you might even find signs of Vikings!

 I highly encourage you to seek out archaeological sites near you. There may be something closer than you think!

Far…

Of course, if you’re willing to travel a bit further, there are a ton of amazing archaeological sites to visit!

International travel with kids isn’t as difficult as you might think, and it can be extremely rewarding for those who take it on. Aztec, Mayan, and Incan ruins are among some of the most impressive structures in the world, and they all can be reached without having to deal with jet lag. In fact, Chichen-Itza, one of the new 7 wonders of the world, is only a 2-hour flight and a short car ride away from Texas! And it is far from the only set of ruins in that area.

Is it Kid-Friendly?

We have taken our kids to all sorts of amazing places, and I can say with certainty that just because a site might be historically fascinating to me as a parent does not mean that my kids will find it interesting at all! I do still take them with me, and I’d like to think that I’ve been fairly successful in getting them to see the wonder in places that they originally found boring, but visiting a place that isn’t aimed at kids can make things a lot more difficult. That’s worth factoring in when making a decision on where to go.

Kids’ Activities

Ideally, the site you choose to visit will have activities or exhibits specifically geared towards teaching kids about what is going on. From personal experience, sites that have these activities tend to engage kids more and get them excited to learn. 

Surprisingly, the best example I have of this from our recent travels was a small, prehistoric Native American village site in Mitchell, SD. They have an excellent set of exhibits set up surrounding the actual dig which really made the archeological process tangible. Our kids got to measure the size of pottery shards and sort through animal bones similar to ones found on site. Outside, they also had a “kids’ dig” where kids could search through a sandbox for plastic arrowheads. If they found one, it could be exchanged for a stone arrowhead inside! 

Space to Explore

Another option is making sure the site has plenty of space to explore. My kids loved Ek Balam far better than Chichen-Itza, despite the latter’s position as a world wonder. The main reason was that we could explore Ek Balam’s ruins, even climbing to the top of the pyramid. Chichen-Itza, on the other hand, was locked down tight.

Even if there aren’t any kids’ activities or spaces to explore, not all hope is lost! Sometimes all it takes to make a site enjoyable for kids is drawing connections between the site and their own experiences. 

One of our family’s favorite ways of doing this is by finding audiobooks that deal with the time period or location of the places we plan on visiting. That way, once we’re there, we can point back to the story to help them focus on the things that are interesting.  

Where to Stay

At the end of the day, knowing that you have someplace great where you can recover is important for making sure the trip remains a success. This is especially true for trips with a multi-day itinerary since no one is going to feel up to a second day of ruins without a great night’s rest.

If you’re staying in an area for less than a week, a hotel or family-friendly resort might be exactly what you’re looking for. But if you plan on staying in the area for longer than that, I highly recommend looking for a house stay through Airbnb or something similar. 

My family loves having the ability to retreat to our own space, and with a whole house to do that, we can all get the time we need to recharge. That said, if your stay is less than a week, it can often be more cost-effective to stay at a hotel. If I decide to go the hotel route, I’ll typically start my search at Booking.com, as it’s a pretty easy experience and I’ve found some great deals there.

Ultimately, planning a great archeological trip for your family comes down to making sure that whatever destination you choose is a good one for your family. Your trip doesn’t have to focus on the places that other people have deemed “the best.” Just find something that looks interesting and dive in! Any trip that gets your kids asking questions is a trip worth taking.

Need more help planning your trip?

Check out How to Plan a Family Field Trip