Your most memorable school trip memories

[yellowstars]

... good or bad.

I was telling my DS about a residential trip I went on aged 9. Out for the day and I was gasping for a drink and too shy to ask the teacher for water. Everyone seemed to have spending money except me... I counted out enough change to buy a tin of Rio from a corner shop at robin hoods bay and to this day, 25 odd years later, it was the most thirst quenching drink I’ve ever tasted. Funnily enough this is my most memorable school trip memory!

Excuse the memorable memories clumsy title; I’m tired!

Aged 6, we went on a trip to two different places and upon return to school, we had to answer some questions on our day. The first question was “where did you go to first?” I answered “the toilet” 😂 which was factually correct, but the teacher put a X next to my answer.
I still haven’t recovered from the injustice

That's because Rio is the best drink in the world.
My granny used to buy it for us when we went for tea on a Sunday.
It's mostly only available in kebab shops.

I went to a residential school for special needs in Florida. Every year we would have certain trips that we could go on if we had good grades, one of them was to space camp in Alabama and one, once we reached high school, from your nine and above we could go to ski camp, a ski week for visually impaired.

I attended both. When I went to space camp, you are given rolls on a space mission. During the second year, space camp to, you go on a six hour mission. During the first part of the mission, I was the Capcom or the flight director, one of these high positions. You were given problems and my problem was that I went insane. I was given an Eminem to fix my insanity. 😂 One of the counselors also started whispering in my ear piece that it was aliens, and I totally fell for it. It was very funny. During the second part of the mission I was the flight commander and I crossed the spacecraft. I was with a guy from Australia who was hilariously humorous and he kept making jokes the whole time. We also were given pizza for dinner.

Another memory, again from space camp, was one of my teachers sitting in the 5° of freedom machine and it’s turning on. She started screaming it’s loose it’s loose because her belt was coming off. We all thought it was hilarious.

From the trip to Colorado, we would go sledding toward the last day and a family who lived in this log cabin with an out house would prepare lunch for us. The food was great, and after we would all go and play in the snow. It was a lot of fun.

I also have one more to share, are used to do sports, and I remember we went to South Carolina and we’re on one of the military bases. During the swim competition, I wasn’t feeling very well. I was the smallest in my school physically and I was very young man to lead to, so sports helped me a lot. I remember that day though, I was the absolute last one to finish that race and all of the Marines from the US military were cheering me on until I finished. I will never ever forget that.

1976 and having to walk from school to a local landmark about 2 to 3 miles away with no water, a lovely lady in a house we passed felt sorry for us and came out with glasses, I was 6.

1982, trip to Grantham. I had a wham bar from a vending machine. It was the most fabulous thing I had ever eaten.

On a coach to a museum I pulled down an ashtray. It was filled with sick and went everywhere. I was about 5 or 6.

French exchange trip, age 14, mid 80s.
Nothing mind blowing but I fancied a boy in my class also on the trip. Serious serious teenage crush. The holiday was the start of a 3 year romance, my first love, so very happy memories 😍😃

We went down a coal mine, and were told to turn our lamps off.

It was very, very dark. And amazing.

My best friend and I hid Drifter bars in our pockets to sneakily eat whilst we traipsed around a local village on a trip aged 10.

We were always really well behaved so felt so naughty doing that.

We still talk about that trip to this day.

Martin Mere, boy whose name I forget threw bread into the pond to feed the ducks; he forgot to let go and fell into the pond.

Residential activity school trip , year 7 or 8, I did something minor (can't recall now) and my punishment... I was told to go and pick up the 'dog ends' so I went actively looking for dog shit - my naive 12 year old self didn't know they meant fag butts.

Abseiling on residential, going on roller coasters at Thorpe Park. Both come to mind whenever my fear of heights comes up, I think, well... I managed to do it then.,

I also remember a picnic at school once where all the school dinner kids had school packed lunches and everyone who didn't get free school meals had homemade. I felt very sorry for them being single out but also a bit left out because even though they had crappy sandwiches they also had golden wonder crisps. I didn't have any crisps. I don't remember anything else about the school trip (including where it was too) but think it was when I was very young and first learning that not everyone's family was the same as mine.

I was on free school meals later at various points but never had a school packed lunch.

People think I went to a posh school , but it was a normal Grammar School in the 1960,s and 70,s
we went on board the SS Nevasa for 3 weeks cruising

it really was like Harry Potter all the schools from our area went (well the kids who could afford it ) this long train all of us in compartments aboard train to Southampton

we were all in our dormitory's I still have my Dorm badge did Gibraltar Izmir , Athens Naples and Venice
if memory serves me right it cost my mum and dad about £60

Did a year 6 (ages 10-11) trip to Paris by coach. Went through the channel tunnel and I was most put out at not being able to see the fishies! The hotel turned out to be in the middle of the red light district and the teachers went along the coach and pulled the blinds down. Finally ended up in a little restaurant where the menu was exclusively French (unsurprisingly) and ordered chicken and chips. Received it, cut into it and was promptly greeted by vertebrae. Turned me right off the chicken. Also got locked in the hotel room when the door handle fell out of the door, spindle included. Had to call the (limited English) receptionist and explain in my really astoniahingly rubbish french "porte non ouvrir". Eventually managed to get out using a pair of scissors in the spindle hole. Probably only trapped for 10-15 minutes but felt like hoooours!
Was actually a great trip, went to the Louvre (was really disappointed by the Mona Lisa), the Eiffel tower and Notre Dame, but that 24 hours was painful.

All the most vivid memories seem to be of disasters/misbehaving!

Primary school coach trip, a girl vomiting on the coach - in the walkway as she’d been on her way to the teachers at the front - she threw up so spectacularly hard it came out of her nose, poor thing (at the time 8 year old me found it hilarious, but then she had bullied me).

Another primary school trip, to a nature reserve, one of the high spirited naughty boys in the class climbing over a fence because there was a sign saying “do not climb” and then getting seriously stuck in the mud the other side, teacher hoiked him back over but he lost his wellies and spent the rest of the day wearing carrier bags on his feet.

Year six outdoor pursuits type residential, staying in youth hostel dorms, 4-6 beds in each, I remember getting caught that we had every girl in the class (and one boy) snuck into one dorm for a ‘midnight feast’ (it was probably about 10pm, we’d clearly read too much Mallory Towers). He got in more trouble than everyone else and I thought it was very unfair.

School trip to France early secondary school, plugging my travel hairdryer in and electrocuting myself with it - proper sparks and smoke and got knocked a few feet across the room and was tingly for ages. Found it hilarious.

Slightly older - perhaps around 14/15 - youth orchestra trip to Switzerland or Germany, discovering a back exit to the hotel to sneak off into town. All we did was buy chocolate and mooch around the park though, and then get told off for being late for rehearsal.

hellokittymania it sounds like school trips in America are somewhat on a grander scale than they are in the uk. I remember my friend throwing her pound into the lake instead of her bread for the birds (a pound was a lot back then!) and also a trip involving a coach with brown and orange seats. I don’t remember where we went (might have been a museum) but I was amazed at how velvet like the seats were and it was like luxury to me!

A coach trip to Holland, aged 10. One boy being sick on the coach, all over his friend. And his friend having a chunk of sick on his shoulder.

One of the best school trips we had was to the local sewage farm, when I was about 11. It was really interesting.

I also remember a great one to Weymouth (the next town), where we went rock pooling. It wasn't all great - most people we wearing drainpipes, but my mother insisted I wore some old hand-me-downs, in case I got wet, so I was in old flares.. Though I wasn't the one who fell in the water.

Another good one was where we went out to the Frome river in about 3 different locations, measuring depth, width and water flow. It was just a gorgeous day at Moreton, sunny and warm, and I was always happy splashing about in water.

The ones I probably remember most we the ones I didn’t go on. In the late '70s, they discovered Dorchester''s Roman baths, which were opened to the public for a couple of days. I was at infant school, so about 6, and my class went for a visit - except me, because I didn't have my coat (hot and sunny, no chance of rain.) I had to sit in with another class. My parents did take us at the weekend, and I probably remember more of it, because I had previously been denied it.

Then when I was 8, my mother refused to give permission for me to go to the Weald & Downland museum in Sussex, on the grounds it was too far for a day trip. I finally went by myself about a decade ago (in my 30s.) It would have been a long trip, but everyone else who went survived.

Walking across the moors to Top Withens, supposed to be the house in Wuthering Heights. Soooo cold, hail like tiny ice chips hitting us in the face, no gloves or hat (not cool, sigh) Numb by the end of it. I'd love it now though!

Going to Nostell Priory in Yorkshire and getting told off for touching one of the tables (they're original Chippendale, doncha know?)

Measuring a dyke on a geography field trip to Malham and losing 2 rulers down it. Having to trek down all the steps down to the bottom of the cove (I might be mistaking this bit with the Biology field trip to a similar but different place - Keswick, possibly?). Going to the outside phone box at night when it was really dark, darker than I'd ever seen it before because there were no outdoor lights, taking a wrong turn and falling down some stone steps and hurting my knee. We had to climb a really steep hill felt like a mountain the next day.