Prerequisites for the emergence and stages of development of printed publications about travel. How to create your own travel itinerary
. And for those who dream of going on a trip around the world, but don’t know where to start, we are sharing options for ready-made destinations.
Around the world in 80 Days
An easy way to go around the world is to use ready-made routes. The most famous of them is the path of Phileas Fogg from the cult novel “Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne. It looks like this:
London (UK) – Suez (Egypt) – Mumbai (India) – Kolkata (India) – Hong Kong – Yokohama (Japan) – San Francisco (USA) – New York (USA) – London (UK)
We remind you that the idea of the journey was in a dispute between the main character and his comrades whether he could complete this route in no more than 80 days. Considering that the novel takes place in the 19th century, this was quite a gamble.
Nowadays there are planes and high-speed trains, so 80 days here are for your eyes and ears. All cities are full of attractions, so a lot of impressions are guaranteed. One drawback: Russian citizens will need as many as 4 visas to travel - and Japan.
Modern Wonders of the World Remember the list of seven wonders of the world? It is also called the Seven Wonders Ancient World . In the classical version, it includes the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Pyramids of Cheops. The trouble is that only the last of the list survived. Therefore, a new one was drawn up in 2007. It includes seven famous architectural structures
Colosseum (Rome, Italy) – ancient city of Petra (Amman, Jordan) – Taj Mahal (Agra, India) – Great Wall of China (Beijing, China) – Mayan city of Chichen Itza (Cancun, Mexico) – ruins ancient city Machu Picchu (Cusco, Peru) – Statue of Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – Rome, Italy.
The route is basic and will probably have to be supplemented with several cities. For example, the easiest way to get to Agra is through the capital of India – Delhi. Flights from Rio de Janeiro to Rome are usually not cheap. You can make a transfer in Spain or Portugal, and from there get to your final destination on a low-cost airline. Finally, you can expand the itinerary and add a visit to the Egyptian pyramids in Cairo as a tribute to the last surviving wonder of the world from the old list.
If you budget 5 days for each destination, then the entire circumnavigation will take approximately 1.5 months. Why not an option for a long vacation? The situation with visas is somewhat easier. You only need to fill out a simple electronic form in advance. The entry permit to Jordan is placed right at the border. We have a visa-free regime with Peru and Brazil, and you can come to Beijing for a three-day transit by presenting return tickets at the airport. To visit Mexico, you usually need an electronic permit, which can be issued online in five minutes, but you can also enter with a Schengen visa.
Sea cruise
Cruise organizers offer a bunch of ready-made routes. This is far from a budget option, but for relatively a short time there is an opportunity to see many cities and experience all the romance of a sea voyage.
As a rule, travel agencies take care of all organizational issues, and the price of the cruise includes meals, accommodation, and entertainment. In general, this is a “package” trip around the world. Well suited for those who want everything at once, but have never organized an independent trip, or have too little experience in this. However, the price for such pleasure is off the charts. For example, with this agency, tours start at $11,790 per person.
Ready trip
It's simple - find an agency that organizes a trip around the world or a travel companion who already has a ready-made route. In the latter case, you will have to jointly resolve many travel issues (visas, hotels, etc.), but, according to at least, you definitely won’t think about where to go.
Short trip
A trip around the world doesn’t have to be long and tiring – fly around Earth maybe in two or three weeks. We offer several easy routes:
Option 1: Moscow – New York (USA) – Mexico City (Mexico) – Hong Kong – Moscow
To travel you only need a US visa. You can also enter Mexico with it. A visa is not required to visit Hong Kong.
Option 2: Moscow – Havana (Cuba) – Vancouver (Canada) – Beijing (China) – Moscow
You will need a Canadian visa. Beijing can be visited under 72-hour transit conditions.
Option 3: Moscow – Havana (Cuba) – Mexico City (Mexico) – Hong Kong – Dubai (UAE) – Moscow
Only an Electronic Mexico Travel Authorization is required.
Visa-free trip around the world
Let's move on to self-planned routes. There is an opinion that the Russian passport is one of the worst for travel, since we need a visa to many “top” countries. But that's not true. As of 2017, a citizen of the Russian Federation can visit 76 countries and territories without a visa, and in another 34 they are required to do so at the border. Full list you can see . In Lifehacker's article you will find up-to-date information for 2017, with the exception of the UAE - from the beginning of the year, a visa for Russian citizens is issued free of charge for 30 days at any airport.
In short, almost all of Latin America, half of Asia and part of Africa are visa-free regions for Russians. You can safely plan your route around the world using them. For example, from Russia go to Georgia, then travel through the countries former USSR, then fly to Hong Kong or Macau, then stop for visa-free transit in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou for 72 hours and Singapore for 96 hours, and then fly to any major city Latin America and travel further across the continent. The last part of the trip around the world can be spent in African countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and then return back to Moscow.
Route according to interests
This is exactly how we planned the route, but this is the most difficult option. What do we have to do?
Step 1: Make a list
Write down the key cities and countries that you would like to visit in your life. If you don’t have a big dream, look at ready-made collections, lists and ratings. For example, the 100 most beautiful places on the planet. It would be a good idea to monitor holidays and festivals around the world. So we adjusted part of our route to coincide with the Day of the Dead in Mexico.
Step 2: Write a draft
From the cities and countries that you wrote down, make a draft route, distributing the destinations in order - from east to west or from west to east.
That is, if you have Hong Kong, New York, Mexico City and London on your list, they need to be distributed either in the order London - New York - Mexico City - Hong Kong, or vice versa. So that you get a smooth route around the globe.
Step 3: Find out ticket prices
Look at how much tickets cost for the selected destinations, whether there is alternative transport and, in general, connections between countries next to each other on the list. The Rome2Rio service helped us a lot with this. The mechanics are simple: you need to sequentially enter all destinations, after which the site will offer different options for moving between them, indicate current prices and the name of the carrier.
Step 4: Optimize your route
For some destinations, tickets may seem expensive - they can be eliminated or a route can be built through countries that are cheaper in terms of transit. There are no uniform rules - try, add new cities and find more interesting options.
So, during the optimization process, we excluded Latin American countries. Airfare within the continent is outrageously expensive. Locals prefer long bus rides, hence the high prices for flights. After thinking about it, we simply decided to postpone our trip to these countries until next winter.
Step 5. Check if visas are needed
Monitor the availability of visa requirements in the countries you decide to visit. You may want to eliminate some of them from your itinerary after this, as certain visas can be lengthy and costly to process.
Step 6. Discuss everything with your travel companion
If you are traveling alone, then, of course, you are your own boss. Build a route based on your own preferences. Traveling with a travel companion risks having to exclude some countries due to the other party's lack of interest in them. In our case, we removed Afghanistan and Pakistan, which Andrei wanted to see so much, but I categorically did not want to. Andrey, in turn, was against some regions of Brazil and two cities in Australia.
Step 7. Create a final route
After a series of edits, make a final travel plan, at least in part of the key countries. Despite the fact that we agreed on the main route with Andrey at the end of March, over the next four months we still added several more cities to it.
So from the USA to China we fly in transit through Canada (added Vancouver). Then, we found out that in China itself, on the way to Hong Kong, it is convenient to see other cities (added Hangzhou and Ningbo). And about India, we thought that we have almost three weeks, so why not see the maximum and added Varanasi, Agra and Jaipur to the route.
In general, changes along the way are inevitable. The main thing is that you have the skeleton of the trip, a plan of key stops, from which it would become clear what visas you need to apply for and what to prepare for.
A well-designed travel itinerary is the basis of any independent trip! How well you plan your route independent travel Your expenses, your comfort, and your impressions depend. It doesn’t matter where you are going - to one country or several at once... For a European vacation, for Asian exotica or from the capital to the village to visit your grandmother... The main thing is to know where to start and take everything into account important nuances. If you have good travel route- the trip will be successful!
In this article we will not touch on autotrip (travel by car) - this is a big topic for a separate article with its own subtleties and nuances...
So, where to start planning a travel itinerary?
To begin with, do not get hung up and do not consider it a law that must be strictly followed. Nothing good will come of it if you plan your trip too carefully, scheduling every kilometer and every minute of the trip... Why?
Firstly, you will never be able to follow an overly planned route. This is impossible!
Travel is like marriage. The main misconception is to think that you have everything under control... John Steinbeck
Your route will probably change several times during the process of drawing it up, and with a high degree of probability - during the journey. And this is good!
Secondly, You will not enjoy such a planned trip. After all, you must admit, it’s not very exciting to have sex strictly on Tuesday at 23:00 and on Saturday exactly at 15:00... In travel, as in sex, there should be a share of spontaneity, fantasy and impromptu! Only then will you enjoy it.
But you still have to plan the main stages and take into account important nuances...
Good travel route. Stages of compilation
Timelines, target dates and budget.
Decide when and for how long you want to travel and how much are you willing to spend on it? And remember - you can travel for almost any money!
Our experience: We spent absolutely two different travel(including air tickets, transport, hotels and meals) absolutely identical amounts in ruble equivalent... 10 days "honeymoon" in the Maldives(with one round trip) in 2008 and almost 3 months in Asia with two children via Hong Kong, Philippines (Manila and Mindoro), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi), Thailand (Ao Nang, Krabi) and Istanbul (6 flights, ferry, buses, etc.) in 2014. Both of these trips, made 6 years apart, cost us about 150 thousand rubles. Accordingly, the first trip cost 15,000 rubles per day for two, the second - almost 10 times cheaper for four!!!
The longer the trip, the cheaper it will cost per day.
Destination.
Decide where you want to go? What are you dreaming about? Travel all over Europe or visit all the sights of Paris? Find out all of Yugo East Asia or spend a week in Tibet? Enjoy the beaches Caribbean Islands or the cities of the Golden Ring of Russia? Whatever your dream is, it is your dream and it is achievable!
Open the World Map and the Internet. At this stage, you will already have a preliminary travel itinerary. You will decide on the country/countries and cities.
Be sure to check the Internet for the climate and weather in the region for the selected dates, so as not to fall into the “rainy season” and not hide in the hotel building from a tropical downpour or hurricane.
Visas.
For most Asian countries, a visa does not need to be issued in advance - it is issued automatically upon arrival, on average, for a period of two weeks to a month. But in the majority European countries You will need a Schengen visa.
In any case, before traveling, be sure to find out the current visa requirements of the countries you are interested in. The most reliable way to do this is on the websites of consulates and official visa centers.
When traveling to Europe, choose as the country of first entry or longest stay those countries for which it is easier to apply for and obtain a Schengen visa. For example: Finland, Czech Republic, Spain...
How to get there?
There are many ways to travel! By car or hitchhiking, by bus or train, and of course by plane... The plane is the most popular option. And, when searching for air tickets to a destination, the traveler will greatly benefit from Aviasales- a search aggregator site that will find you the cheapest air tickets around the World! Moreover, absolutely for free!
Look for tickets in advance. When searching for air tickets, try changing the dates, cities and airports of departure and arrival. Use "Low Price Calendar" And "Low Price Card". Tickets purchased several months in advance, departing midweek and arriving at a nearby airport, may be much cheaper!
You can read more about all the nuances of purchasing air tickets in separate article: How to buy cheap air tickets?
Sometimes, when visiting several countries, it makes sense to look directly at the websites of low-cost airlines in search of promotions... There are many inexpensive low-cost airlines in both Europe and Asia. And a plane ticket to a neighboring country can often be purchased for literally 10 euros!
When moving around the country or to neighboring countries one region, we should not forget about other transport besides airplanes... In Europe, high-speed rail transport is very developed (for example, TGV trains). And in Asia you can get anywhere very cheaply on buses and ferries.
We had a great, quick and inexpensive trip from Amsterdam to Paris in Europe. And in Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines) they used ferries and buses more than once - to get from Manila to the island of Mindoro, to get from Bangkok to Pattaya or to the island of Koh Chang, to get from the island of Langkawi to Thailand to Krabi and Ao Nang. .. But initially, getting to your main destination is faster and more convenient by plane...
At these stages, your travel route will most likely be adjusted. It will be affected by ticket prices, flight dates, and possibly visa requirements.
Our experience: When we were going to Thailand(Bangkok, Pattaya, Koh Chang island) and picked up Emirates airline tickets with a transfer in Dubai, we learned about the airline’s service called "Stop in Dubai" (Dubai Stopover). As part of this Emirates service, you can get a short-term UAE visa, hotel and transfer at a very good discount. Accordingly, we decided to use the Dubai Stopover service and way back carried out from Thailand one unforgettable day in Dubai .
Our experience: When we were planning a trip to Amsterdam and Paris, we found out that it is very cheap to fly to Amsterdam from Helsinki, and it turned out to be much easier to obtain a Finnish visa than a French one... And air tickets from Paris to Moscow turned out to be much cheaper not directly, but through Berlin... As a result, we also visited Helsinki and Berlin.
Attractions.
Where do you want to go, where to go and what to see? This is the most interesting and exciting stage of planning a travel itinerary. When planning, you will already learn a lot about the culture and history of the country, its cuisine, nature, beautiful places and sights... And anticipation, as you know, increases your appetite even more...
At this stage, it is very important not only to choose places and attractions, but to find out how they work, how much it costs to visit and how to get to them! Yes, and don’t chase all the attractions or the most popular ones... Choose those attractions that are most interesting to you. And when drawing up a route for visiting them, try to mark the attractions on the map and move towards them sequentially, rather than rushing back and forth from one corner of the city or country to another.
Our experience: We planned three days in Paris during our trip to Europe as follows: one day for one half of the city, the second day for the second half, and the third for Disneyland in the suburbs of Paris. As a result, of course, we wore out our heels, but without rushing anywhere we saw absolutely everything we wanted, missing only one single attraction from the planned ones.
When planning your trip, be sure to find out holidays in the country you are visiting. An unexpected event can radically break all the plans of even an experienced traveler... A major Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist holiday can turn out to be interesting festive events, and a completely “extinct” infrastructure with closed shopping centers, shops, banks, exchange offices, restaurants and even pharmacies!
Our experience: Twice, completely unexpectedly for us, we found ourselves in such a situation in Warsaw - on Catholic holiday"Three Kings" and on the eve of Easter... The other side of the coin was the ruined shopping experience due to closed shopping centers, the inability to have a meal in a restaurant and even exchange money...
Choosing a hotel.
You can, of course, stay in another country not only in a hotel... It can be free couchsurfing, an apartment on airbnb, or renting a house... But the cheapest, most reliable and convenient way, in our opinion, is to book a hotel on search engine sites Hotellook or RoomGuru . Just enter your request into the search form and get the best hotel deals...
Public transport.
How to get around the city/country/countries? Be sure to search the Internet for information in advance! Otherwise, already being in another country, you will not know anything: neither how to get there, nor where to buy tickets, nor how much they should cost, nor ways to save...
Now your travel itinerary is becoming something whole and complete... It's time to move on to taking out insurance...
Insurance.
Insurance is probably the least expensive, but the most significant component of any trip. Some 10 dollars spent on insurance can save you tens of thousands of dollars spent on medical care, save your nerves, time, health and even life!
When searching for any information on the Internet, use only reliable sources. These are the official websites of the ministries of tourism and the websites of consulates different countries Mira. These are travel blogs of travelers with reports on real trips, Wikipedia, some forums (for example, Vinsky’s forum) or good travel portals. Beware of many forums and some even large portals (not to mention small sites), where the same unreliable and irrelevant copywriting information is often reprinted from authors who have never been anywhere...
Check out our page with secret information for travelers. There you will find links to the best and most useful services for travelers, discounts and great deals...
You can also use our new section Sales, where you can find great deals on flights, hotels and insurance and put them together...
So you have chosen perfect place for relax. Now it's time to get into the details: what will you do there? Where and how will you eat? How can you see everything in a week? For some people this is a pleasant activity, while others find such planning a tedious process. We've put together some expert tips on how to plan your travel itinerary.
1. Determine what kind of traveler you are.
Think about who you are in Everyday life. Are you a planner or a spontaneous person? Do you prefer lots of weekend activities or spending time on the couch watching TV? When you go on a trip, your preferences and lifestyle are unlikely to magically change. Instead of worrying about what you "should" do on vacation, figure out what kind of activity you'll find most rewarding: laying around or going on excursions all day. Once you decide which type is right for you, you'll have an idea of what to add to your travel itinerary.
2. Don't over plan.
There is always a temptation to cram as many activities into one trip. Let's say you are planning a tour to Europe. Instead of trying to cover four countries in four days, spend time in two major cities and don't overload your travel itinerary big amount actions.
3. However, do not forget to consider important details.
It is worth noting the time, address and cost of any activities on your route. Also, don’t forget about the bus and train schedules so you don’t have to search for it all in a hurry.
4. Make a daily map.
Instead of planning every day of your trip minute by minute, come up with several different options daily schedule: perhaps several events in one city or a museum day - your choice. Google MyMaps is a great tool for this as it allows you to create personal maps and mark the places you want to visit.
5. Give yourself time to relax.
Add planned breaks to your travel itinerary. How many you need depends on whether you prefer fast or slow travel. If you are terribly tired, you will not get any relief from contemplating the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
6. Don't rely only on Google.
For example, a city's tourism website is good option for information. Also, don’t forget about guidebooks and even local newspapers, which may contain announcements of interesting events.
7. Find out in advance where any festivals or holidays are held.
If you love parties, parties and making new friends, put Oktoberfest in Germany, Holi in India and Carnival in Brazil on your list. This is a great way to interact with locals and get to know the culture of a city or country. The ideal travel itinerary is one that includes a holiday.
8. Plan practical activities.
Master class on making pasta in Italy or tango lessons in Argentina - too great ways find out about . First, you'll gain new skills, and second, it's a useful strategy for travelers who are worried about not having a specific schedule.
9. Take advantage of long transfer times.
An eight-hour layover might be intimidating, but what if you turned it into an educational experience rather than just sitting in an airport? If you have enough energy after the flight, head into the city to enjoy local food and get to know the new area.
10. Be flexible.
Something can definitely go wrong - something you never expected. Be prepared for everything possible results. Stock up on cash as an emergency fund and don't worry if situations don't go according to the plan you've so carefully crafted. You can always change your travel route.
11. Talk to local people.
Again, if you search online for “best pizza in Chicago,” you run the risk of ending up in a overhyped, overpriced place crowded with tourists. Instead, talk to real people! Ask local taxi drivers, vendors, and homeowners to get their recommendations on where to eat, where to watch the sunset, and where to go interesting events. You can get a lot of useful information from them.
Travelers are people through whom great amount new information, impressions, new faces, cities and countries. Even with a very trained memory, memories are forgotten and blurred over time. Therefore, many adventurers use the Internet to document their adventures. Often, not only for yourself, but also for others. Now it's easy. You can even keep a diary using a modern telephone, which will replace a computer and. And the Internet has become so accessible that even in another country many can afford to be online 24 hours a day.
But it was not always so. For centuries, travelers were content with their paper travel diaries. Adventurers wrote in them about their adventures, accompanying the text with simple but very capacious sketches. They glued tickets, stamps, and labels into the notebook in order to make the note more life and the color of the area in which they are this moment are located. Only thanks to such travel notes, many years later the traveler could relive those bright moments. Each entry in a traveler's notebook acts as a bookmark for an event in memory.
If travelers had not kept diaries, we would never have known about the dramatic details of the conquest of the New World by Christopher Columbus. Thanks to the travel diaries of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, we know in detail about the discovery of New Guinea. James Cook's detailed accounts tell us about his three voyages around the world, during which he discovered hundreds of islands (including the famous Hawaii). And with the help of the diary of Antonio Pyphagetta, a surviving member of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, it was possible to reconstruct the events of the first trip around the world in history.
Keeping a paper travel diary is a way to develop the ability to fit the big in the small, develop imagination and learn to write sentences without subsequent editing, which we are so accustomed to in our computer era. No online blog can compare with the feeling of holding a battered leather-bound notebook in your hands and re-reading entries from 10-20-30... years ago. Try keeping a paper travel diary. I decided to write travel notes on paper on your next trip.
Services we use on our independent travels:
Search and purchase of air ticketsAviasales is number 1 for us among all search engines, we use only it because it is convenient and reliable, without any pitfalls.
One Two Trip! - an amazingly convenient search engine in which you can find and purchase not only air tickets, but also railway tickets. In addition, it is also easy to book a hotel or hotel there. By clicking on our link you will receive an additional 500 rubles discount on the purchase of an air ticket!
Search and book accommodation
- - a world-famous search engine where you can find and book accommodation from guesthouses to luxury villas. Have used it many times and highly recommend it.
- Hotellook is a service for searching and booking accommodation from the creators of Aviasales.
- Airbnb - booking and renting apartments, rooms, houses local residents. Tested on ourselves, everything is honest, we recommend. When booking using our link, you will receive a bonus of RUB 2,100, which you can use to pay for your accommodation. To do this, you will need to create your AirBnB account.
- an excellent alternative to traveling on intercity buses and trains across Russia. Prices are often lower public transport, and comfort is significantly higher.
Service aggregator for car rentals from local rental companies. You choose a car as if at a local rental, but through the service, booking by bank card, from which only 15% of the cost is charged. The guarantor is MyRentacar. You can choose not only the car class, but also a specific car, down to the body color and radio type. But most importantly, the prices on this service are the same as if you went to your local rental company yourself!
St. Petersburg is the largest cultural center in our country. Many class teachers from other cities try to visit there with their students.
But you can take an equally exciting journey through the streets and museums of your own city. The story about the cultural and educational program of studying St. Petersburg will serve as a model for studying any place. If you teach children to be active and interested spectators, then even a small local history museum can be a source of unexpected discoveries.
Tatyana Alekseeva
City as a gift
Educational travel around St. Petersburg
IN During the cultural and educational programs prepared by the Sreda Center, schoolchildren from different cities of Russia get acquainted with the history of St. Petersburg, looking for answers to many questions: “What can a city tell about?”, “Is a city capable of influencing the lifestyle of its inhabitants?”, “Why does a city need a temple?”, “What is a national treasure and where does it come from?”, “What is a museum and why go to it?”, “How do ideas about events and people change over time?” etc. Getting to know St. Petersburg takes place in stages: from the 18th century to the culture and history of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Educational journey
as a pedagogical method
The term “educational journey” itself helps to define the essence of the method.
Travel is not only a means of exploring the world, but also a way to find yourself, to find your own “I”. It allows you to relate yourself to others, expands the boundaries of communication, gives students the opportunity to test themselves for life maturity and assess their readiness for various non-standard situations.
Travel becomes educational when it turns from simple movement in space in search of new experiences into a process of learning about the world. The main result of such a journey is the awakening of the individual, his self-determination in the cultural space. The educational journey method can be considered as. Educational journey a unique strategy for mastering the world of culture
- this is always a journey into culture; it is focused not so much on acquiring factual information about the world, but on mastering the historical and cultural experience of mankind.
The main result of the educational journey is the personal mastery of those cultural values that are not comprehended in the process of traditional education, aimed at transmitting verbal information.
The defining criterion is not so much the theme of the trip as its idea , the cultural “text” that the student will master as a result of the trip: what concepts and cultural phenomena he will become acquainted with, what new ideas he will acquire, what relationships between various objects of the cultural environment he will reveal. In the programs of the Center for Cultural and Educational Initiatives “Sreda”, this idea is usually formulated in the form of a “question of the day” or a problem. This is what high school students are asked to solve during their trip.
An educational journey is
a method aimed at personal development.
Therefore, for an educational journey, the process of acquiring knowledge is no less important than its result - the mastery of cultural texts and concepts. The process of cognition, during which research experience, skills of mastering the world and its personal “experience” are acquired and assimilated, is structured in a special way:
Involves direct human interaction with the surrounding world, which becomes the main means of obtaining information;
It does not go from theory to illustration, but from personal feelings and observations to the formation of new ideas;
Based on the active and independent activities of travel participants;
Designed for work in small groups, which allows each participant to express their own versions and correct them based on collegial discussion;
Assumes freedom of choice of sources of obtaining information about objects of the surrounding world;
Eliminates the mediating activity of the teacher (tour guide) in the process of “dialogue” of the individual with the object of research and study (an adult, if he accompanies the group, acts not as an explaining and showing leader, but as an organizer of students’ research activities).
The educational journey method allows you to create a system focused on the holistic development of culture, not divided into separate areas of knowledge.
For schoolchildren, St. Petersburg acts as a kind of micromodel of culture.
An educational trip to St. Petersburg, offered by the Center for Cultural and Educational Initiatives "Sreda", consists of three interconnected stages: preparation for the trip, work on the route and summing up the trip (defense).
Each day of the program begins with a short introductory session. Then, dividing into small teams (7-8 people each), under the guidance of group curators, schoolchildren go on routes - walking walks, during which they explore the city.
A route sheet and a city map help them stay on track. The adults accompanying the group do not act as guides, but as assistants who direct and organize the activities of the group. The route usually continues with a visit to museums. Summing up the results of the day is called “defense” and can take place in a variety of forms: role-playing game , discussion, auction, creative workshop, blitz tournament, etc. In some
game days“defense” is carried out in a museum (Hermitage, Russian Museum, Dostoevsky Museum). The essence of the “defense” is a discussion of everything that was found and learned during the day: what amazed, what became a discovery.
Junior schoolchildren
they will get to know the city through the “Tales of St. Petersburg” program, students in grades 5–7 through the “What’s in the City” program, and students from grades 8–11 through the “City as a Gift” program.
Preparing for your trip
Preparation for an educational trip begins with determining its topic and, no less important, an idea, choosing objects for research and drawing up a route. Each journey has a name – a theme, and the idea of the journey is formulated in the form of a “question of the day”. The next stage is the determination of the algorithm for students’ activities in the process of mastering various objects of the urban or museum environment. Children receive special workbooks. They include not only itineraries for traveling around St. Petersburg, but also a research strategy: questions for discussion, topics for reflection.. But perhaps this knowledge will not be enough, or work on the route will require specific information that children do not possess.
They can receive such information on an excursion prior to independent work, or this material will become the content of the next school lesson. But, in any case, before the students set out on the route, the teacher needs to discuss with them the purpose of the trip, outline the range of problems that they will have to solve in the process of independent work, and outline ways to solve them.
The teacher must also take into account that, in addition to knowledge, travel requires its participants to have certain skills in research, viewing, orientation, and communication. Therefore, for novice travelers, the Center for Cultural and Educational Initiatives “Sreda” offers training, which includes tasks on developing visual literacy, communication skills, and navigation skills using a map.
The integrity of ideas is achieved through the study and exploration of urban space along several substantive (thematic) lines.
- Subject "Stone Faces" gives an idea of the geographical features of the city, its spatial structure, introduces the language of architecture, teaches how to analyze the features of the subject-spatial environment, as well as navigate using a map of the area and a system of city landmarks.
- Subject "The city as a historical monument"
helps you explore the city as a direct location historical events, which preserves the memory of them in one form or another, teaches you to read the urban environment as a historical document that helps you form your own attitude to the history of the city and country.
- Subject "The city as a center of world culture" considers the city as a form of “dialogue of cultures”, proposes to teach “travel” to the culture of different times and peoples, without going beyond the city limits.
- Subject "Centers of City Life" introduces the types of sociocultural practices developed by humanity, talks about the laws of existence of cultural institutions, and gives an idea of how to get involved in their activities.
- Subject "Townspeople" introduces laws social life of the city, its infrastructure, makes it possible to show the diversity and richness of the life forms of a city dweller in historical retrospect and the ways of his existence in a modern city.
- Subject "The city is like artistic image» reveals the secrets of a complex artistic and figurative language, in which the originality of the city is refracted, reality and fiction are united, teaches to consider the city not only as a picturesque addition to literary text, but also as an opportunity to expand and enrich this text, it helps to correlate the artistic image of the city with itself.
- Subject “The city as a center of scientific and technological progress” identifies technological aspects of the development of urban life, shows the relationship of any cultural phenomena with the level of scientific and technical achievements of society, teaches to consider objects of the urban environment as technical structures that reflect their functional purpose; use technical information as one of the possible channels of “dialogue” with the city.
Each of the seven content lines is implemented through educational routes around the city, revealing its various aspects. Routes form a travel cycle.
Work on the route
The main part of the educational journey is independent work students on the route. The route takes place in the city or through the exhibitions of St. Petersburg museums, and often involves a combination of both. As a rule, objects on a city route are selected in such a way that the distance between them is small, this makes it possible to travel on foot.
This fact is important for achieving the goals of an educational journey. Traveling involves a thorough and thoughtful comprehension of space, during which communication between a person and the world is established, new channels for obtaining information are opened, among which bodily sensations and experiences play an important role. An educational journey takes place most effectively in small groups of 6–9 people, and therefore the Center for Cultural and Educational Initiatives “Sreda” has prepared several routes on many topics. They can take place in different areas of the city, in different museums, but at the same time decide (in part or in part) in full
The route sheets clearly define the sequence of actions of students when working in urban and/or museum space.
Objects to be studied are identified, and sometimes a sequence in their study is specified.
In some cases, the preparation of the route is entrusted to the travel participants themselves.
The main thing is that the route sheet contains questions that allow students to concentrate their attention on objects of the urban and museum environment, to encourage them to carefully consider and research, and analyze the information received. The questions are open-ended, that is, they do not require answers of the “right-wrong” or “yes-no” type. They encourage children to express versions and assumptions, give reasons for them, again and again turning to the object of research. In addition, the questions are structured in such a way that answers to most of them can only be given by being directly near the object, studying it, summarizing the information and drawing logical conclusions. However, students can also turn to other sources of information that they have the right to choose independently - communication with citizens, seeking advice from specialists, research in libraries, archives or on the Internet. It should be noted that the route sheet may include additional
didactic materials
: maps, diagrams, illustrations, etc., which serve as auxiliary sources of information. In addition, it is important to provide students with a map of St. Petersburg, with which they can independently navigate the city.
It is possible that, while studying the proposed objects, travelers will encounter “unsolvable” questions. The teacher’s task is not to give ready-made answers, but to indicate possible ways to obtain the missing information. The result of this may be subsequent independent research by students in libraries, archives, museums, appeal to computer programs, meetings with unique people and new educational trips.
Summing up creativity
The journey is not complete until the final lesson has been completed. This lesson is called “defense”, since in it students are given the opportunity to defend their own, often different from the generally accepted, opinion, based on the facts that they became acquainted with during the trip.
The defense least of all resembles a report on work or a consistent presentation of what was seen or learned during the route. It is structured as a problematic discussion. Students are asked to express their views on the issues identified in route sheet under the heading “Think…” and justify your own point of view with the results of your research. Initially, this work is carried out in each of the subgroups, and as a result, a common position is developed, which is either discussed with the teacher or submitted for general defense. The ability to present different routes on a general defense allows you to identify the versatility of the phenomenon or event under consideration, get acquainted with various points of view
, build a logically complete picture that most fully reflects the stated theme of the trip.
The form of conducting such a lesson can be different and depends on the imagination and capabilities of the teacher: performances by subgroups or debates, theatricalization or the creation of visual images, the creation of exhibitions or collections, etc. In any case, this is not a lesson, but an educational game that has its own rules and a certain evaluation system. It is based on the following provisions:
The defense is structured in such a way that as many travel participants as possible speak out; the more speakers there are in a subgroup, the higher its work is rated;
The teacher is assigned the right to ask clarifying questions, as well as questions to support and develop the discussion;
The teacher’s task is to maintain the dynamics of the discussion and guide it in the context of solving the problems identified in this particular journey;
Participants in the defense are recognized as having the right to make mistakes; incorrect statements do not entail a negative assessment;
Reflection, construction of versions and hypotheses are encouraged; the dominant aspect of the discussion is not the students’ knowledge, but the assumptions put forward and their argumentation;
Welcome teamwork students, tips and additions to the answers of their comrades are considered a positive factor during the defense;
Not only are students' answers to questions highly valued, but also their own questions that arise during the discussion.
Protection brings an end to a particular journey, but is not its final outcome. Further research into topics and issues that interested students can continue in their school life after returning.
Travel dates
All three stages of the educational journey: preparation, work on the route and protection - form a single whole and are implemented sequentially. The greatest effect is achieved if all components of one common trip are carried out one after another within a short period of time - one or two days, a maximum of a week. This allows you to immerse yourself in the material, not to lose the intensity of your experiences and impressions, and to concentrate on the problems at hand. For high school students - guests of the city, an educational trip becomes one of the points
excursion program
. All its stages can be implemented within one day of stay in St. Petersburg. An educational trip is an alternative to a regular excursion trip, usually pursuing educational purposes. It can do more - not only introduce you to the sights of St. Petersburg, but also become a kind of school for the formation of a person in culture. Find