Traveling with your English Class
Traveling with your English class is a wonderful opportunity to nurture creativity and curiosity among your students. Beyond exploring the hangouts of literary greats, students will develop key communication skills and find inspiration for their own writing.
Inspire your students
Develop Critical Thinking Skills
Traveling requires an open mind, problem-solving and decision-making skills, and lots of teamwork! Watch your students become more independent thinkers over the course of a week.
Inspire Narrative and Expository Writing
Your students will want to document much of what they see and do on tour, whether that takes the form of reflective journaling or later provides inspiration for a college essay.
Encourage Curiosity
Tour managers will encourage students to ask questions, engage in debate and try new things, breaking them out of their comfort zone and strengthening their communication skills.
Compare and Contrast
Compare the writing styles of authors you discuss on your trip or the cultures of the new cities you explore.
Walk in the Footsteps of Literary Greats
Whether you want to better appreciate Shakespeare, Dickens, Rowling or Thoreau, there are opportunities to explore the destinations they felt most inspired.
Bring Literature to Life
See how literature can be transformed into three dimensions through theater workshops and performances.
As an English teacher, it was a joy to see students making connections with the literature authors and history we have read.”
Trips to Consider:
Literary Roads
9 Days | Overnights: Bath (2), Stratford-upon-Avon (2), London (3)
Tour Summary
Highlights of this 9-day tour include visiting the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, engaging with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Bard’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, visiting Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, and marveling at the treasures of the British Library.
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Kingdom by the Sea
10 Days | Overnights: Dublin (2), Lake District (1), Edinburgh (2), York (1), London (2)
Tour Summary
Begin sightseeing in the homeland of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, then depart Dublin for the stunning Lake District, beloved by the “Lake poets,” among them Wordsworth and Coleridge. Continue to Edinburgh, York and London to round out this literary journey.
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The Olympians
8 Days | Overnights: Athens (2), Nauplia (1), Kalamata (1), Patras (1), Athens (1)
Tour Summary
Explore the Mycenaen region which inspired the Western literary tradition, beginning with Homeric epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, on this spectacular Grecian tour. Visit the Theater of Epidaurus where Sophocles’ tragedies and Aristophanes’ comedies were performed, and travel to the oracle at Delphi, a token of Greek mythology. You’ll also participate in a Greek cultural evening and dance lesson!
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London and Paris Theater
9 Days | Overnights: London (4), Paris (3)
Tour Summary
In London, tour the Globe Theatre, explore the West End with an actor or theater expert, enjoy world-class performances, and journey to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare’s Birthplace before participating in a workshop with the one and only Royal Shakespeare Company. In Paris, take a guided Molière Walk at the Comédie-Française, delight in a French play with surtitles and explore Montmartre, a favorite haunt of Hemingway.
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London, York and Edinburgh
9 Days | Overnights: London (3), York (2), Edinburgh (2)
Tour Summary
Prepare for an enriching odyssey across England and Scotland, told through literature and storytelling. Highlights include a walking tour of Charles Dickens’s London that transports you back to the life and times of the beloved writer, exploring the University of Cambridge’s hallowed campus, a York Old Town ghost tour full of haunting stories, and walking in the footsteps of luminaries like Doyle, Stevenson, Scott, Burns and Rowling as you visit Edinburgh—the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature.
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Free resources to inspire your next lesson plan
The Danger of a Single Story Lesson Plan
Using Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story” and Sherman Alexie’s short story “Superman and Me,” students will craft their own definitions of a stereotype, make connections between the texts and themselves and ultimately use those reflections in an essay.
Ovid and the Art of Love Lesson Plan
In this classroom activity, students will engage meaningfully with Ovid’s primary source, Ars Amatoria, and compare cultural norms from the past with their own day-to-day lives.
Seeing Berlin through Literature
We recommend these poignant novels about life in Berlin spanning the inter-war, Cold War and Post-Wall periods.
6 Perfect Books to Inspire Your Students to Travel
Travel is an enduring, universal theme in literature, and these novels will inspire your students to travel out of their comfort zone.
7 Places in London to Experience Harry Potter
The Harry Potter books have helped many students fall in love with literature. Use this guide to explore the places where the Wizarding World came alive.
Did You Know?
ACIS tours are independently deemed so educational that teachers can earn professional development units and students can earn college credit!
Browse Tours
ACIS offers 200+ customizable itineraries to destinations around the world. Let’s work together and change students’ lives.