THE LATITUDE DIFFERENCE
When choosing an educational travel partner you need to look closely at all the details to ensure your tour is everything you expect it to be – and more.
At Latitude Group Travel we offer world class service and tour delivery that is truly educational and safe. We provide unconditional support every step of the way – before, during and after your tour. You will experience a real difference with Latitude Group Travel.
- Truly curriculum linked – to the specific curriculum you teach
- Experiential learning activities – learning by doing
- Unique, well researched itineraries
- Real educational outcomes
- Bespoke tours – nothing off the shelf
- World class service and tour delivery
- Tour directors and specialist guides
- Delivering teacher goals through collaboration
- Safety first protocols
ALL EDUCATIONAL TOURS IN THE ONE PLACE
We are the only tour operator to offer every type of tour a school or higher educational institution may require
Education – all subjects – all curricula, including Cross Curriculum Priorities
Performing Arts
Service Learning
Professional Development for teachers
Sport
Special Interest tours for other groups
WORLD CLASS STANDARDS
Our itineraries, tours and service are world class.
In fact – we are completely unique in our approach.
- In Australia – each state curriculum and the Australian curriculum
- International Baccalaureate
- All international curricula
- Workshops
- Clinics
- Master classes
- Themed guided tours
- Experiments
- Q & A sessions with subject experts
- Simulations
- One on one coaching
- If we cannot access enough experiential learning activities we will develop our own custom designed projects for your students for before, during and/or after your tour
- Your desired student learning outcomes
- The desired budget – we develop the tour within the budget parameters – and if we can get under your budget, we do. We cost tightly so that we can include the most for the best price
- Specific inclusions or locations
- Your goals for the tour
- Accommodation preferences and meal inclusions
- We ask for your time up front so that we completely and fully understand what you are trying to achieve with your tour
- Nothing is off the shelf
- Your specific subject/s, goals and learning outcomes are the focus
- Our research capabilities mean that we can find the best experiences, activities and locations that match the subject, skills and development you are teaching
- We can cater for several subjects on the one tour
- Subject groups separate to take their own experiential learning activities and come back together for iconic sightseeing, meals and anything else they can do together
- Each subject group learns what they need to learn and are not bored or disinterested when an activity is focussed on another group – because they are off doing their own activity
- Latitude Group Travel is the only tour operator that takes all performing arts, media, visual arts and design students on tour together, if you wish
- Combining subjects assists with the economies of scale and allows you to satisfy the needs of many students in the one tour. In some cases it means that the tour can actually go, as you are more likely to have enough students to make the tour cost effective
- The comprehensive, preliminary itinerary provided to you includes complete descriptions of everything you will experience, see and do
- You will have a complete picture of every aspect of your tour
- We take 2 – 4 weeks to design, develop and complete our itinerary for you because it is custom designed and requires a great deal of work
- A large amount of research is required to ensure that we cover every possible sight, activity and location and then we are able to develop a unique, learning focussed itinerary within budget and any other parameters you have determined
- Our itineraries are worth the wait, because you know every possibility has been reviewed and considered and the itinerary you receive has been carefully crafted
- Organising a tour of any kind is extremely time consuming for the tour leader
- We believe that it is up to us to do everything we can to make the process easier for the teacher, so we do!
- Latitude Group Travel does everything – from the first presentation to parents and students right up to ensuring you can contact us 24/7 while you are away
- We will ensure that every piece of paperwork is completed and that you have everything you need to take away with you, including letters of introduction, waivers and more. You don’t want to arrive at a location and find you don’t have what you need to enter – and each country and location has its own requirements
- Additionally, your tour director has a copy of every confirmation, entrance requirements, passenger lists, meal choices, rooming lists and more – there is nothing for you to worry about because it is all taken care of
- If you have special requests such as a particular speaker, to organise a student conference, locate and visit a local school, a special workshop – anything at all – we will organise it all for you
- We’ll explain all of the services we provide. You may be shocked when we advise you of some of the things we do for you, that perhaps you had not even considered!
- A full time tour director is with you on tour to provide knowledgeable commentary and to organise all the logistics. Having a tour director is also part of our safety protocol. If you insist that you do not want a tour director, we will comply with your request
- Specialist guides are employed where required. These might be for a specific location, site or subject
- We rarely use a third party ground operator. This means we do all the organisation and booking of all the tour elements ourselves. You can rest assured that, as a result, we have our fingers on the pulse of every aspect of your tour and we don’t rely on anyone else to do the organising
- We take care of all the detail and all the planning
- Before you go, we conduct a pre-departure presentation covering safety, medication protocols, vaccinations and much more to ensure that you and your group are well prepared
- We provide travel notes including a packing list developed for your specific tour
- On tour everything works seamlessly, because your tour director will ensure that it does and we have planned everything to the last ‘t’
- You will receive a final, timed itinerary, so you know exactly what is happening every day
- Your tour director will meet with you most evenings to go over the next day’s activities
- The way we operate our tours minimises any concerns you may have and reduces the stresses that can come with being a tour leader or chaperone on tour
- All you have to do is to set meeting points, count the students to ensure everyone is there and supervise the students’ safety – all with the help of your tour director
- You don’t have to worry about how to get to the next location or even think about what comes next. It is all done for you so you too, can enjoy the experience
- We even have a student behavioural clause in our terms and conditions so that if someone misbehaves seriously, you have a course of action that you can take – and we’ll assist you with anything you decide to do
- Having a tour director on tour minimises the risk of anything going awry and increases the safety aspects of the tour. They know where they are going and how to get there, how to solve problems and where the local emergency services are, if required. Plus they speak the local language! Your tour director has vast experience which means that they instantly know what to do if something happens that requires their intervention. You’ll travel in peace with an experienced tour director
- You will have a 24/7 emergency phone number direct to us for the duration of your tour, which we encourage you to use for even a minor concern. What we don’t know, we can’t fix!
- We supply lanyards with emergency numbers ( including those of the chaperones if you wish ) to all students and teachers to wear at all times.
- Our tour director has a comprehensive operations manual and knows exactly what to do in an emergency
- If your school doesn’t have its own insurance we have a great, but inexpensive insurance product for each group member
- If your school does have insurance, we’ll review it to ensure that it covers you properly
- Don’t forget our pre-departure presentation on safety protocols and we can even advise your chaperones on safety tips, if you wish
- In the event of an emergency (earthquake, flood, terrorist attack, tsunami etc) or any event which requires us to act, we will contact both the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA). We would also be in constant contact with the Tour Director who would be receiving advice from local authorities. DFAT knows exactly where you are and so do we. We take immediate action based on the advice from DFAT and with assistance from AFTA, so rest assured that we will look after you and will take action in the most effective way possible
- We ensure that we know what’s happening in education and we adjust our research and itineraries to ensure that they are always up to date with what you are teaching
- In our conversations with you, one of our questions is about the innovation or change that is occurring in the school, so that we can support these with what’s included in the itinerary
- We are constantly reading and tapping in to educational resources to maintain currency of knowledge of the latest trends, approaches and innovations, both in general and in relation to a specific subject
- Our network of partner teacher associations also assist us with keeping up to date with what’s happening in education and teaching. This is one of the great benefits of working with a tour operator that has been selected by and is in partnership with these organisations
- We are one of the 20 STEM education initiatives chosen by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as part of their 21st C Minds Accelerator Program, because of the quality and innovation of our STEM tours
- This quality and innovation is applied to tours for all subjects
- Our unique approach to educational school tours and higher ed tours, their link to the curriculum you are teaching and the inclusion of a vast range of experiential learning activities, makes us world class and the leader in our field by a very long way.
- Compare the inclusions, experiences, experiential learning activities, the links to the curriculum and the innovations in our itineraries with anyone else and you’ll see the difference
- Our extensive list of inclusions for your tour means that you don’t have to think about what to do while you’re away. Every activity is included in the price and there are relevant activities to fill every day away (unless you specifically ask for free time, time for shopping, or time for a particular fun activity). We do not, by choice, leave you with “free days” where you have to organise yourselves and pay for what you want to do
- You can include as many or as few meals as you wish. Of course all breakfasts are included by default
- You approve the itinerary that we provide and can make changes up until about 3 months before departure. Anything that you want to see or do is included and if we have made suggestions that you prefer to change, we are delighted to ensure that your itinerary is perfect – for you
- Compare what you get in our tours with those from other companies. You won’t be comparing apples with apples! We do ask you to carefully look at our inclusions list in comparison with others so you can see the difference. Note well the days that you will have to fill in and pay for yourself, compared to a full itinerary which is all pre-paid and included
- It matters to us that your students will learn during their tour and, as much as possible, we want to expose them to experiences they will treasure forever
- By exposing students to experts in their field, they can (and have) found their passion and what they want to do in life. This can lead them towards a really exciting and productive life in their chosen career
- Equally, we have had students who thought they knew what their career would be, but after a tour with us, they realised that their choice did not suit them. They had learned so much about this career, that it gave them the chance to reevaluate. We think this is just as much of a gift as finding a career
- We do what we do because WE are passionate about it and so is our team
- We want to make a difference to/for all the stakeholders – students, teachers, parents and the school
- It is important to us to deliver
- a meaningful experience that can change lives
- innovative programs of which the school can be proud
- tours that are tightly costed so that they are as affordable as possible
- real educational outcomes of value to all concerned
- the experience of a lifetime
