One of the interesting facts about traveling with your family is that travel, by its very nature, is an educational experience. Essentially, any trip that you take with your family has the potential to be a Family Field Trip!

However, to get the most educational bang for your buck, it helps to be prepared. One way that I’ve found particularly helpful in that regard is to put my different trips into specific categories of field trips. This helps my family to think through our expectations for the trip and helps us to focus on learning the lessons in front of us, whether that means paying extra special attention to the geology of an area during our hike or asking questions about how specific flavor profiles found their way there.

Of course, categories are just starting points that can give your travel a little focus. The best learning experiences almost always end up being filled with surprise lessons that none of us saw coming!

That said, these are the categories that I’m currently using to classify my family’s field trips. Pick a topic that interests you, read up on our experiences with that type of field trip, and go have some educational adventures of your own!

Nature-Focused Field Trips

Nature-focused categories include any field trips that focus on exploring and learning about nature and our place in it. These trips include trips dealing with animals and fossils, hiking or camping trips, gazing at the stars, learning about rocks, or anything else that looks at the way our world works!

Astronomical

Astronomical Field trips are all about exploring the wonders outside of the earth!
It could be visiting an observatory, looking for constellations in your own backyard, or just marveling at a clear night sky. No matter which, space has a lot to offer.

Botanical

Botanical trips are all about the plants we find in nature. Marvel at the size of mighty redwoods, discover the desert adaptations of different kinds of cactus, or take a whiff of the *interesting* smell of the corpse flower. These are botanical field trips.

Geological

Geological trips focus on the ground beneath us. Explore geothermal heat at a hot spring, check out stalactites in a cave, or become a paleontologist looking for dinosaur fossils. It’s all geology!

Zoological

Zoologic trips focus on the wide variety of animal life out there. Yes, it could be a trip to the zoo, but it could also be birdwatching in the forest, visiting a prairie dog town, or volunteering at a rescue center!

Ecological

Ecological trips is my “catch-all” for other nature-focused trips that might not fall into another category. Camping, hiking, waterfall-hunting, and more all fall into this category.

People-Focused Field Trips

Culture Field Trips are about the ways that humans have found to express themselves around the world. Art and architecture, food and the very foundations of our modern societies are all up for examination here. Wherever there are people, there’s something to be learned about how we interact with each other and with the world around us.

Agricultural Trips

Agricultural field trips deal with farms and the production of our foods! Farm trips, mushroom foraging, fisheries, and more are all trips dealing with how humans produce and gather our food, and all count as agricultural field trips.

Architectural Trips

The main focus of an architectural field trip is the beauty and grandeur of more modern buildings and monuments. This could include a trip to well-known places like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty, or it could be a walk around a new city to admire the local buildings.

Archaeological Trips

Archaeology is all about the things that humans have left behind and what they tell us about our past. Field trips in this category include trips to see ancient ruins or amazing artifacts.

Historical Trips

Historical field trips help teach about the way things were in the past. Historical battlefields and memorials, living history exhibits, and historic houses are all great examples of this kind of trip.

Gastronomical Trips

These trips are all about exploring the wide world of food! Whether it’s a cooking class, eating a traditional meal, or searching a farmer’s market for something new to try, gastronomical field trips are often a hit with the whole family.

Cultural Trips

I consider this to be my catch-all category for other people-focused experiences. Culture trips are all about the ways humans interact with one another and could be anything from exploring local economies and traditions to figuring out how your local government functions.

Museum Trips

A trip to a museum can be an excellent way to learn about all sorts of different topics, but since the main focus is usually learning by looking instead of learning by doing, I tend to set them in their own category of trips. Whether it’s art, science, or history, my family loves museum trips, and we tend to sprinkle them liberally throughout our other travels.

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Culture and Art
Museums

Culture and Art museums are museums that focus on the things that humans create.

Museums displaying sculptures, paintings, photography, and more all fall into this category, but so do museums looking at the things that make up a culture, like movies and props from pop culture.

History and Archaeology
Museums

History and archaeology museums focus on humanity’s past and the impact it has had on our present.

These are the places where the discoveries that archaeologists make will typically end up, and there is typically a focus on learning about or trying to rediscover our past.

Nature and Science
Museums

Nature and science museums focus on teaching visitors about the natural world.

Displays in these museums will often contain things like dinosaur bones, collections of modern animals, or physics demonstrations. There will usually be a heavy emphasis on learning about the world around us today and making sure we preserve it for future generations.