An Inspection Trip to Iceland
As part of the services provided by Discover the World Schools, I attended a teacher inspection trip to Iceland ahead of our trip in just over 7 months time to check out the quality (and safety!!) of the activities and the accommodation that our student will be using whilst out there.The first task was to get to London Heathrow and meet the other 21 teachers that are also using the same company as us. Those teachers were there for the exact same reasons as me and it was great to see how we all had different ideas, activities and itineraries planned that were being tailored to our own students.
I met the representatives from the Tour company after the short 2hr 30mins flight in which I was pleasantly surprised to find a TV in the seat infront and a selection of films. TV shows and Icelandic documentaries our first stop was the world famous Blue Lagoon.
We made our way to the Youth Hostel that many of the schools stop at when in Reykjavik, which was pleasant and totally appropriate for the wet weather that students will face in Iceland. However we have already selected to stay in the Hotel Cabin which is of a much higher standard.
The two pictures here show a typical twin room with private en-suite facilities which all of our students will have. We had breakfast here and was very satisfactory, however it will be worth pointing our to students that a cold continental breakfast similar to other countries of Northern Europe. Another great plus for us staying here is that next to the hotel their is a small supermarket so students can get anything extra they need.
Our planned evening activity on Day One is to go on a tour to the countryside and try and see the Northern Lights, however as there are only active in the Winter months this activity wasn't available, so instead we all had a relatively early night after being up early to catch the plane from Heathrow.
Day two was great and we managed to do and see lots of the activities and sites we are going to do and see so I don't want to spoil anything too much here but the glacier walk was truly amazing. Although it will be so important that students are aware that this is natural, there are no natural paths and very real big holes. Students will have to be fully aware of their surroundings as they make there way across the glacier!
The rest of Day Two was spent seeing some fantastic waterfalls but you will have to wait to see pictures of those! The evening accommodation was in a different hotel which was very similar to those that we will be staying in. One thing that became very obvious to me was that we will be living out of our suitcases and so to pack sensibly!
Day three took us off to see more of the incredible sights that Iceland has to offer, with a particular highlight being Geysir and the other hot springs. Again, don't want to give away too much of the magic here so Going to stop here!
The final day was again action packed and we had some time in Reykjavik centre. There were a few shops and places to eat but students may be unimpressed to hear that the only McDonald's to ever close due to lack of custom was in Reykjavik!! However, the Icelandic favourite of HotDogs were very easy to find!
The four days away were absolutely brilliant and really insightful. We are looking into making a few tweaks to our schedule but on the whole I am delighted at what we have planned such an interesting trip which the students will remember for many years to come.
The company we are using can be found on twitter @DTW_Schools or their schools webpage http://www.schools-discover.co.uk/ if you want any further details!
Planned Itinerary
Hi all,
Thought this would be a good place to show all the up to date news on the trip to Iceland next year... below is a link to the suggested itinerary that we have planned to date.
https://www.box.com/s/ddc3bf59d8a4819e9a64
Still very excited, stop by from time to time to see what other information you can find out.
Mr. Simmons
