Geography Study Tours
Nowhere can compare with Iceland as a country to inspire young geographers and geologists, and our two tours introduce some of the most outstanding features to your students. Although we see raw nature, we also see the way that man interacts with it on a daily basis
In contrast, a few days in former East Germany offer fresh insights into urban planning, or into coastal geography.
If you have other destinations in mind, please contact us as below – there’s nothing we like better than researching new projects.
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Iceland - 3 day
Your three full days in Iceland will take your group on a guided tour of the world’s most northerly capital city, to a geothermal power station and Þingvellir National Park, where two of the Earth’s tectonic plates meet. In Reykjanes, you might walk across a bridge from Eurasia to North America in a matter of a few moments.
Add to this Gullfoss, one of the most impressive waterfalls in Europe, and the famous Great Geysir, a lake filled extinct volcanic crater and vast lava fields as well as the world-famous Blue Lagoon.
Iceland - 8 Days
In addition to the visits made in our 3-day tour, in this circular tour to the north of Iceland you will travel across the greatest lava flow on the face of the Earth, and see the floating icebergs in a glacial lagoon.
You will see the mighty Vatnajökull Glacier and the eastern fjords, where mountains plunge vertically into the sea. Then the highland desert plateau and boiling mud pools, the Goðafoss waterfall and the timber buildings of Akureyri before meeting the unique Icelandic horse in Skagafjörður.
Urban Planning - Germany
In Berlin and in two towns within easy reach, your group will encounter a number of approaches to urban planning, mainly in the post-War communist state of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic).
Large parts of Berlin were destroyed by allied bombing and in the arrival of the Red Army in 1945. Interesting contrasts may be drawn between the developments after 1945 in the western and eastern parts of the city – not least the soviet style apartment blocks leading away from Alexanderplatz. You will also visit a less-well-known residential development from around 1930, which somehow managed to survive the war.
Neubrandenburg, about 90 minutes north of Berlin, was and remains a mediaeval town surrounded by a 2.3 kilometre long, 7 metre high wall, with four gates. After 1945, new suburbs were built conforming to the GDR idea of mixed residential, commercial and industrial zoning.
The third town you will visit is Eisenhüttenstadt, on the River Oder facing Poland. Following the destruction of the war, the East Germans built a massive steel works here and the town around it was built according to socialist principles, like Nowa Huta in Poland and Magnitogorsk in the USSR. In the early days, Stalinist and neo-classical architecture predominated, but this gave way to Plattenbau (prefabricated) construction.
Baltic Germany - Geography and Ecology
After your flight to Germany and coach transfer, your tour starts in Zingst, on the Fischland-Darß Peninsula. A few hundred years ago, it comprised three separate islands which have become joined to each other and to the mainland partly by human engineering and partly by a process of silting. Between the peninsula and the mainland is a shallow lagoon.
You will spend a day walking, cycling and exploring on the peninsula as far as the High Dune, a living dune 12 metres above the sea.
The following day, you travel by boat following the coast to the island of Hiddensee, for a walking tour taking in the points of both erosion and deposition – the island is never the same on a return visit. Then cross to Rügen and transfer to your accommodation.
The next two days are spent visiting the Biosphere Reserve and Jasmund National Park, home of Germany’s tallest chalk cliffs. We also visit Prora, an eery reminder in concrete of Nazi times. It was built to be a holiday resort, 4.5 kilometres long and with 10000 rooms.