The world is your classroom: Family holidays that offer an education

How does the old Alice Cooper song go? “School’s out, for winter. School’s out, forever.”

Not quite – but it might feel as if those are appropriate lyrics at the moment, when another full lockdown has descended on the UK and the education system is once again largely shuttered against Covid-19 – officially until mid-February, but maybe all the way into March. How to get through the coming weeks, with the children under your feet?

One solution will be to daydream of travel – but not just beaches and resorts. If you are going to let your mind wander to distant shores, why not summon up the image of a holiday that will assist your offspring’s learning in a far more stimulating manner than your fractious attempts at home-teaching or a Zoom lesson?

If the virus is going to devour big chunks of the nation’s time in the classroom, fill some of the gaps with a trip that will provide a dash of knowledge as well as a break from routine. Not now, of course – but in the summer, or later in the year, when vaccines have been rolled out and the storm clouds have cleared.

Each of the suggestions below takes its cue from a classic corner of the curriculum, and should be an evocative way to absorb facts, figures and theories – whether at the top of Scandinavia or amid Indonesia’s islands.

English

Where better to seek the soul of our language than in the Warwickshire market town where William Shakespeare was born in 1564? Stratford upon Avon has long been an able guardian of its most famous son, most notably in the form of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s main theatres. The RSC has been tentative in its plans for reopening, and a production of all three parts of Henry VI, which had been slated for the autumn, is now on hold – but it is worth keeping an eye on the group’s calendar (rsc.org.uk/whats-on).

In the meantime, you can delve into the Bard’s story in five properties related to his life – including his birthplace on Henley Street, and the home of his wife Anne Hathaway in Shottery (see shakespeare.org.uk for details on all five). And Stratford is a pretty location for a break at any time. A seven-night stay at the two-bedroom River Retreat Lodge, checking in on July 24, starts at £1,231, with Vrbo (020 8827 1971; vrbo.com).

History

No city offers as spectacular a cross-section of ancient history in quite as ­concentrated a space as Rome – where you can be admiring the first-century arena majesty of the Colosseum in the morning (coopculture.it), and inspecting the fractured structures of the Forum – including the Temple of Caesar – in the afternoon.

Better still, you can bring it to life for younger children by enrolling in the “Gladiator School” run by the Cavalieri – a day of “training” in said five-star hotel’s gardens, with intricate costumes and wooden swords from €500 (£450) for up to six people (romeccavalieri.com). A four-night stay at the property for a family of four, flying from Heathrow on July 28, starts at £2,146 in total with British Airways Holidays (0344 493 0787; ba.com/holidays).

Not that you need to travel to Rome for Roman heritage. Britain has its own epic slice of Italianate yesteryear in Hadrian’s Wall, which still cuts a 73-mile path across Cumbria and Northumberland, 19 centuries after construction began.

The seven-day “Hadrian’s Cycleway” holiday sold by Saddle Skedaddle (from a basic £655 per person, bikes extra; 0191 265 1110; skedaddle.com) allows families with older children to trace its full length, and at a steady enough pace to allow for pauses at key archaeological sites en route – like the mighty Vindolanda (vindolanda.com) and Housesteads (english-heritage.org.uk) forts.

Military power is visible at Warwick Castle too (01926 406610; warwick-castle.com) – which, though run as a dragons-and-fairy tales attraction since 1978, was one of the great strongholds of medieval England (dating to 1068). It retains its aura in its towers, turrets and dungeons, and visitors can absorb some of its story by staying overnight. A two-night break for a family of four in the glamping site in the grounds, arriving on July 23, costs from £650, including day-tickets to the castle, with its archery and falconry shows.

Geography

There is surely no more stark a demonstration of the forces that have shaped this planet than Arizona’s 277-mile-long scar in the soil. The Grand Canyon is a first-rate geography lesson where the effects of erosion and the comparative colours of rocks such as granite, limestone, sandstone and gneiss are apparent at a single glance. And why stop there

The 10-night “Exhilarating Western USA Family Self-Drive” offered by American Sky (01342 395418; americansky.co.uk) goes beyond the South Rim to trawl the desert landscapes of California and Nevada, with stops at Joshua Tree National Park and Palm Springs (as well as Las Vegas and Los Angeles). From £1,899 a head with car and flights.

There is a similar sense of geological drama to Iceland, where, in some cases – grouchily active volcano Hekla, the every-10-minutes geyser Strokkur – the earth seems still to be in the furious process of being formed. Thingvellir National Park takes that even further, as a place where continents effectively collide. The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet in this expanse of lakes and waterfalls – and are drifting slowly apart (a fact that is clear in the park’s many cracks and chasms).

You can gaze at each of these jewels via “Family Explorer: The Icelandic Way”, a one-week fly-drive sold by Discover the World (01737 214250; ­discover-the-world.com) from £859 per person (with flights).

But then, it is Italy that delivers the most notorious example of seismological cause-and-effect – where the ancient world’s most famous dead city still lives with its killer, Vesuvius. Their relationship is examined in the “Amalfi Coast: Pompeii & Pizza Family Holiday” offered by Exodus Travels (020 3811 3760; exodus.co.uk). Six 2021 departures are scheduled of an eight-day group tour which – helpfully for extra-curricular education – also features a pizza-making course. From £1,549 a head, with flights. Minimum age nine.

Home economics

There is, of course, much more to food than dough bases and tomato purée. Families with inquisitive teenagers can pick up a few Andalusian kitchen skills with a getaway to Annie B’s Spanish Kitchen (0034 620 560 649; anniebspain.com) – a cookery school at Vejer de la Frontera, a hilltop town 40 miles south east of Cadiz. Host Annie Manson has an edition of her four-night “Spanish Culinary Course” (where, among other things, you learn to prepare paella) in the diary for April 20-24, but offers bespoke bookings for small groups. Prices start at €1,280 per person – including hotel accommodation (flights extra).

Physical education

Never mind a rainy cross-country run or a gym session in a draughty sports hall – if you are going to combine a ­holiday with a spot of “PE”, you may as well have the tuition element provided by an expert. Like an international footballer. Football Escapes (020 3907 6855; ­footballescapes.com) runs coaching camps in several European countries, and will host six five-day sessions (from £450 a head) later this year at the Parklane resort in Cyprus – three of them in the summer holidays, including Aug 9-13. The company’s list of former pros stretches to ex-England stars Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Ashley Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Rachel Yankey. Accommodation is extra.

A week’s stay for a family of four at this five-star retreat near Limassol, flying from Glasgow on Aug 7, starts at £4,590 all in, through Sovereign Luxury Travel (01293 839566; sovereign.com).

Alternatively, if you want to go to the roots of athleticism, you need the place where the Olympics were born – Olympia, in Greece. True, there is scant ­exercise to be had walking around an ancient site – but you can ensure that your brood raises its heart-rate by visiting this archaeological wonder as part of the “Peloponnese Family Activity Holiday” sold by Responsible Travel (01273 823700; responsibletravel.com). This eight-day romp across the peninsula incorporates river-rafting, ­sea-kayaking, gorge-hiking and mountain-biking. From £650 a head (flights extra). Departures every week between April 3 and Oct 30.

Physics

Lovely airy Switzerland and what is perhaps the driest of the core sciences seem unlikely friends – but it is in Geneva that you can peer into the ­fundamentals of our existence. The lakeside city is home to both CERN (the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) and the Large Hadron ­Collider – the particle collider that physicists are using to unravel some of the mysteries of the universe (including the key issue of the Big Bang).

A viable reason for a holiday? Why not? Interested parties can dig comprehensively into the detail at the Microcosm Museum (visit.cern/microcosm), which boasts a scale model of this monster machine – while Geneva is an elegant destination, all gourmet ­restaurants and gorgeous views.  A seven-night stay for a family of four at the four-star Diplomate Hotel, leaving Heathrow on Aug 7, starts at £2,651 in total through Travelbag (020 3930 1443; travelbag.co.uk).

That said, if all this sounds a touch too, well, scientific, there is always the other-worldly experience of the aurora borealis. Physics? Why yes – Scandinavia’s glorious light-show is caused by the interaction of charged solar particles with the magnetic field above the North Pole. Families Worldwide (01962 302062; familiesworldwide.co.uk) has an eight-day group “Northern Lights Adventure” to Hossa National Park in Finland planned for Dec 26-Jan 2 2022. From £1,599 per adult, and £1,489 per child, with flights.

Biology

Biology – or, at least, marine biology – appears in no brighter a rainbow than a swirl of tropical fish in a suitably warm and sun-pierced patch of ocean.

Dive Worldwide (01962 302087; ­diveworldwide.com) offers a holiday that promises a feast of new information – not just the everyday behaviour of clownfish and turtles, but the art of watching them below the surface. Its “Learn to Dive Thailand” break is a nine-night package, ideal for families, that combines relaxation at the Palm Garden Resort in Phuket with four days of scuba tuition in the Andaman Sea.

From £1,675 per person including international flights. Obviously, you can enjoy animal encounters above the water, as well as beneath.

Explore (01252 883060; explore.co.uk) also dips into the exoticism of the Far East with its “Family Dragons and Islands of Indonesia” tour – a 14-day group break that goes in search of the archipelago-country’s famous Komodo monitor lizards. The trip is designed for parents and children, but has an active edge, with ­hiking on Mount Kelimutu and bike rides on Lombok (the minimum age is 11, but the average child age is 15). Departures are slated for July 18 and Aug 1, from £3,015 per adult and £2,830 per child (with flights).

Then there are the big beasts of Africa – a worthy subject for study by anybody’s educational standards. Expert Africa (020 3405 6666; expertafrica.com) hails its “Porcupine Safari” as one of its “top family holidays”. This 12-day adventure offers a cross-section perspective on Botswana, taking in “a vast spectrum of ecosystems” as it forges between the Okavango, Savute and Khwai regions, and the desert contours of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Wild dogs may be encountered in Kwara, fluttering birdlife in the dense forests of Khwai. Prices start at £7,900 per person (including flights).

Languages

The teenager who would fail to groan at the mere suggestion of a few days in a classroom as part of a holiday has not yet been born, but there are plenty of language schools in Europe that merge intensive tuition with relaxation and fun. One of them is CESA ­Languages Abroad (01209 211800; cesalanguages.com), which has a base in the Basque city of San Sebastián – a cosmopolitan place for studying where myriad fine restaurants and hours on the beach await once the bell goes. A week’s ­tuition (20 sessions), including accommodation, costs from €483 per person (from €796 for two weeks). Better still is the option that supplements the Spanish syntax with afternoon surfing lessons – from €573 per person for a week (with lodging) or from €976 for a fortnight (flights extra in all cases).

A similar trick is played by the Deutsch-Institut Tirol (0043 664 433 4486; deutschinstitut.com), swapping warmth and waves for snow and the slopes of Kitzbühel. The school serves up tuition in German from €490 per person per week (€980 for a fortnight). Private lessons cost €100. It describes its courses as an “intensive learning experience”, but there is still time to hit the pistes in what is one of Austria’s most celebrated resorts. A seven-night half-board stay for a family of four at the four-star Hotel Tiefenbrunner, flying from Newcastle on Dec 27, costs from £7,003 in total, including transfers from Innsbruck, through Crystal Ski (020 8610 3123; crystalski.co.uk).

Of course, some might say that the best way to learn a language is to mingle with the locals. In which case, there is no more sink-or-swim a situation than a Paris brasserie and a busy waiter. A two-night bank holiday weekend stay for a family of four at the three-star Paris Bastille Hotel, travelling out on May 29, costs from £720 in total – including return trains from St Pancras International – with Eurostar (03432 186186; eurostar.com).

Art

Arguably, no school subject lends itself better to a holiday than art. And if you have older children who can take gentle instruction and won’t daub the walls in streaks of red, there are plenty of painting courses that take advantage of splendid locations in the UK. HF Holidays (020 3974 8865; hfholidays.co.uk) offers a group “Sketch Book Holiday in the Southern Lake District” that dispenses four days of rambling, drawing and full-board country-house accommodation close to Coniston Water, from £469 per person.

St Ives School of Painting (01736 797180; schoolofpainting.co.uk) offers tuition in said Cornish town, and has a three-day “Discover Painting” course in acrylic art planned for Aug 27-29. A week’s stay in the three-bedroom Anjarden Farmhouse (ref: 982379) in Newlyn, arriving on Aug 23, costs from £3,026 through Sykes Holiday Cottages (01244 356666; sykescottages.co.uk).

If you would prefer to gaze at art rather than create it, then little beats a leisurely spell in Florence – where the Uffizi (uffizi.it; Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi) and Accademia (accademia.org; Michelangelo’s Statue of David) galleries contain numerous marvels to inspire young minds.

A seven-night stay for a family of four at the Grand Hotel Baglioni, flying to the Tuscan capital directly from Manchester on July 24, starts at £3,342 in total with Citalia (01293 832200; citalia.com).