Ten of the best school field trips in New York City

Make no mistake, a hop-on hop-off bus tour is 100% the smart/lazy teacher’s approach to field trips. To wit: sightseeing circuits that tick off most of the Big Apple’s major monuments and landmarks and even come with a handy pre-recorded commentary. All you, the teacher, have to do is kick back, relax and make sure Jackson doesn’t shove little Elijah off the top deck, right? Wrong! Get off your lazy butt and hop off the bus to ogle landmarks like the Met, Grand Central Terminal, Wall Street, Times Square and the Empire State Building up close with those sponge-like students of yours, all ready and eager to soak up the historic tidbits you’ve prepared for the trip. You did remember to prep, didn’t you?

Seeking ‘wow’ moments that your pupils will still be talking about this time next year? Then look no further than the mighty American Museum of Natural History, where no less than 32 million objects chart the whole history of our planet, and humankind’s place within it. Jaw droppers here include T.rex and Titanosaur skeletons, the 563-carat Star of India sapphire, and a massive life-size model of a blue whale. But there’s plenty of small stuff to ogle, too: butterflies in the vivarium, leafcutter ants in the insectarium, and nano diamonds from a meteorite that pre-dates our own solar system: literally stardust. Something, in other words, for every inquisitive young mind. There’s a reason practically every student in the greater Tri-State area goes here on a field trip at some point or other!

Monuments don’t come much more iconic – or educational – than Lady Liberty. So it stands to reason that any history field trip worth its salt should make Liberty and Ellis Islands essential ports of call. For here’s where your class can immerse themselves in the human stories that shaped America, via the millions of immigrants who arrived right here through the 19th and 20th centuries. Who knows, your students might even be able to trace their family trees in the excellent Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Then there’s the Green Goddess herself, that great icon of American democracy and freedom and – crucially – an essential selfie opportunity for any self-respecting high schooler.

The iconic Frank Llloyd Wright-designed edifice that houses the Guggenheim is every inch the masterpiece – perhaps even rivaling some of the world-class art contained within. Step inside its vast, spiraling atrium where young minds are about to be blown by a stellar collection of around 8,000 (mostly) European paintings and sculptures. It’s a veritable who’s who of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modern art in here with eye-popping pieces by – deep breath – Pissarro, Picasso and Pollock; Kandinsky, Koons, Calder and Klee; Monet, Manet, Modigliani and Miró; oh yeah, and some guy named Vincent van Gogh too. The Guggenheim holds some 150 of Vasily Kandinsky’s abstract masterpieces – pure manna for students of art and art history.

Bonus: the museum’s open-plan spiral structure makes it a) easier to plan your route than at, say, MoMA (albeit the Museum of Modern Art is also a field-trip fave) and b) harder to lose sight of any of your young charges who, kids being kids, will naturally be doing their level best to elude you at every opportunity.

If there’s a New York attraction more likely to engage schoolkids than the mighty Intrepid Museum we’ve yet to find it. Lead your unruly mob of salty sea dogs on board this absolutely enormous historic aircraft carrier, now permanently moored on the Hudson in Hell’s Kitchen and watch as the whole crew’s eyes widen. They’ll learn how the USS Intrepid survived a torpedo strike and several kamikaze attacks during WWII and get a chance to explore below deck and get a feel for what life might have been like on board back in the day. But that ain’t all. Far from it, in fact. There’s also a Cold War-era cruise missile sub that they can clamber around inside, dozens of fighter jets to ogle and – for ultimate wow factor – the space shuttle Enterprise. Best teacher ever? You betcha.

Sure, there are plenty of places to ogle European masters in NYC, but the Whitney – set in a gleaming Renzo Piano-designed building at the southern end of the High Line – is where it’s at for the very best in (mostly) American art. It’s no accident, for example, that the Whit is where you can find the largest collection of Edward Hopper works on the planet, including the cinematic masterpieces ‘A Woman in the Sun’ and ‘Second Story Sunlight’ from the early 1960s and his classic Depression-era ‘Early Sunday Morning’. Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns and Alice Neel are also all well-represented here. Need a breather? Easy: just step outside onto Piano’s eye-catching cascading terraces for fresh air and stunning vistas of the Hudson and High Line.

In a similar vein to the Big Bus tour, here’s a New York school trip idea that requires minimal effort – once there – from you, the teacher. It’s a straightforward way to make sure all the kids stay in one place, with the longest of Circle Line’s regular cruise tours lasting nearly three hours. That’s three whole hours for putting your feet up. Win! Departing from Pier 83 in Hell’s Kitchen, the Best of NYC cruise completes a full loop of Manhattan Island. A lively narrative keeps the kids engaged, answering such puzzlers as: which New York mayor’s residence used to be an ice-cream parlor? And: how many billions of dollars did construction of the Yankee Stadium run to? Meanwhile, eager eyes can clock more than 100 landmarks and 20 bridges across all five boroughs, including Lady Liberty, the One World Observatory, Brooklyn Bridge, George Washington Bridge, the Empire State Building and Yankee Stadium, to name just a few.

We love this cool little slice of NYC’s maritime history, tucked away down in Lower Manhattan on the East River. Set in a series of charming 19th-century merchant’s buildings and historic docked ships, the South Street Seaport Museum takes a deep dive into the Big Apple’s origin story, charting its growth from tiny Dutch colony to bustling global port. Schoolkids can explore a working 1800s letterpress printing shop, and ogle antique navigational instruments, intricate model ships, and artworks by marine painters of the 19th and 20th centuries, before the real treat: stepping aboard historic vessels including the Ambrose, a steam-powered lightship used as a beacon in New York Harbor’s busiest shipping canal until 1932. Ship ahoy!

Ok, so this one will require you to put up with the grumbles about tired feet and sore legs that accompany requests for any toddler, child or teen to walk anywhere. But maybe, just maybe, the lively tour guides and their punchy historic narratives will be enough to keep your group engaged for the short time they have to stay on their feet. Our New York school trip faves? Discover how money made America with a guided wander through the storied Financial District, including Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, Fraunces Tavern and the historic Trinity Church. Or dip into a darker era of New York’s past on this eye-opener focusing on colonial slavery and underground railroad. Meanwhile, any student with even a passing interest in music and/or New York’s cultural heritage is bound to get a kick out of a behind-the-scenes tour of Carnegie Hall.