Frequently Asked Questions

How do I book?

Either telephone or email us with your preferred dates and group size and we will send you an itinerary and booking pack. If you wish to promote the tour please call us and we will make a provisional booking while you send a letter to parents/your group. Once you have collected deposits from the students, simply send us the Booking Form and a cheque for the deposit. Don't forget you will need permission to run the trip from your school and possibly your LEA as well - so leave plenty of time. You may like to use the tour planning schedule in the table below (under Planning).

How much is the deposit?

You pay £50 per paying person at the time of booking - the balance is due 10 weeks before departure. We do not ask you for multiple stage payments. If your Finance Department needs a Proforma Invoice please ask - this shows the total cost of the tour and the deposit amount so they can raise a cheque.

Is our money safe with you?

Rhapsody Tours is a member of AITO (member 1152) and all customer monies are protected by the AITO Trust Bonding scheme which is approved by the Department of Trade and Industry. You can read more about the financial protection afforded by the AITO scheme at www.aito.com. It is a criminal offence for a tour operator not to protect their customer monies.

Is there a minimum number of people?

Most touring coaches have 49 seats so our tours are great value for 30+ passengers. The most economic number is 44 students with 5 free places for staff. If you travel with less than 44 students a Low Number Supplement will apply. This means it is important to give a price range to parents or add a contingency onto the price we quote you, just in case you get a lower uptake than expected.

What is a Collective Passport?

If most of the students do not have a Passport of their own you can arrange a Group or Collective Passport. Each student will need a passport size photograph and you will need to collect information on their date and place of birth etc. The application for a Collective Passport is made online direct with the Passport Office. You need to allow 3 to 4 months for the Passport Office  to process the application. The fee is currently £39 which we will refund you.

Can I take students who are non EU citizens and have no Visa?

Yes, thanks to the Visa Waiver system. Normally non EU citizens need a Visa to visit EU countries. However the British Council operate a website where a school can enter a 'List of Travellers'. This avoids the parents having to obtain a Visa. Only schools can produce the list. Call the British Council 0161 957 7755 and press option 2. Their website explains how to complete the list.

See www.britishcouncil.org/listoftravellers

Do you provide Risk Assessments?

We can provide generic risk assessments on all elements of each tour. Risk Assessments are a document that identifies possible risks and the ways to prevent or reduce the risk of accidents occurring. The process of producing a risk assessment is useful as it makes you think laterally about each stage of your tour.

When do we decide who shares rooms?

We need you to produce a Room List at least 8 weeks before the tour departure date. This allows us to confirm the right mix of room types. After you have supplied your Room List to us you can still change it as long as the room types do not change. It is therefore best to get your Room List sent to us as early as possible - you can then have a separate list you use on the day.

How do I book the Eiffel Tower?

Visit their website at www.tour-eiffel.fr. To book school groups on the Eiffel Tower website click on "Buying Your Tickets". You can normally book groups 2 months before your visit. Click on the words "Business rates and ticketing" on the next page. Then click on the words "School Group Rates" on the bottom right. Then click on "Groups & Professionals Ticketing". Under "Structure" at the top choose "Educational Establishment" and then the type of school ie "Secondary school". Next select which level you want to visit - the Second Floor or the Summit. The orange colour indicates which level. The Second Floor is the best as there is usually a long queue to take the lift from the Second Floor to the summit. There is a café on the second floor. The orange colour shows you which you have selected. Next click on the date you want. Add the number of children (by ages) and extra adults (it automatically gives you 1 in 10 adults free). The total and individual price is then shown. If you want to book, click on CONFIRM. The available times for visits are shown. Click on the time you want. The screen then shows your booking. If you want to pay click on the Checkout. If you want to book another group click on "Add to Cart" so you can pay for all your bookings in one go.

NB. Although you can select more than 44 students per booking it seems to cause a problem with their system so we recommend you book each coach (44 +5) separately.

If you have not organised a trip before you may like to use our template letters and forms on this page. Check first with your school office as they may have their own templates. You can easily download these letters to your own PC as Microsoft Word files and then amend them to suit your own itinerary, school policy and students.

The Booking Process

It is important to allow enough time for parents to plan for the cost of the tour. You also need to allow time for your Department Head, Head teacher and Governors to approve your dates and tour. We have added aTour Planning Schedule (MS EXCEL) which shows the critical dates for your tour planning. You should add the dates to your diary. You can download the Planner as an Excel file. Simply enter your proposed departure date and the planner will set the dates for each of the key steps in planning your trip. You can easily change the schedule to suit your own timescales. As you complete each task you can update the schedule. Please note the lead time for a Collective Passport varies so it is best to check with the Passport Office as early as possible.

Our Booking Conditons set out the role and responsibilities for you and ourselves so do take time to read them. You can download and print a copy here.

Standard Letters and Forms

The letters and forms below are designed to make it easier for you to administer the tour. They need to be amended to suit your own tour/students/school policy.

These documents have been produced in Microsoft Word. Just click the link to start downloading the file to your computer.

Learning Outcomes

As a school travel specialist we aim  to provide your students with a valuable learning experience that compliments and reinforces National Curriculum Key Stages. We work with you to make all our programmes educationally rich and we will be happy to tailor the visits to meet the specific needs of your group. Our educational tours are designed to assist learning outside the classroom, develop life skills and also encourage pupils to learn more about the culture and language of their destination country.

You are much more likely to obtain permission for your tour if you produce a Learning Outcomes proposal. As with a normal Lesson Plan, the Tour Learning Outcomes Plan should demonstrate how the various vists and experiences that make up the tour will reinforce the Learning Outcomes you have planned in lessons in the classroom both before and after the tour. It is important to share with us your Learning Outcomes so that we can work together to achieve them. After the tour we recommend you evaluate how many of the Learning Outcomes have been achieved. It is important to involve the students themselves in this process.

How to complete your Room List

Filling out your Room List is the final stage of the tour documentation process - when you book we can normally confirm to you the number and type of rooms your group has been allocated by the hotel (usually twins and triples). You then need to type the names of the students and staff into our Room List template which can be emailed back to us at info@rtours.co.uk. You decide who is sharing each room. Start on room 1 and fill in the names of the students who are sharing the room working across to the right. When you have finished, save the file to your PC and then email it back to us. By emailing us your Room List on our template we can automatically upload your room list into our computer which avoids any spelling errors  (not everyone's handwriting is easy to read). Where you have more than one hotel and the room allocation varies you can enter the hotel number at the end of each row.

For Overseas tours it is important the SURNAMES and FIRST NAMES are exactly as per their Passports as we use the Room List names to produce the Shipping List (a list of every one on the coach which is handed over to immigration control at the border).

As anyone over 16yrs is an adult for the ferry companies, we need to know age at the date of travel (in years) for each student and their gender (male or female) . For staff you can put their age at 21!

If you have more than one coach we also need to know which coach (1, 2, 3 or 4 etc) each person has been allocated - there is a column on the Room List Template where you enter this number.

The Room List names are also used to produce the Insurance Cover Note - a list of everyone who is insured.

Below is the Room List template which you can download to your own PC. Simply click on your right mouse button and choose 'Save as' and save it into a folder on your computer.