Our Field Trip to New York City

 

Today we are going to create a travel itinerary and budget for our upcoming trip to New York City.  We may use your finished itinerary for our trip next month so take your time and do a good job!  We are going to research and learn about different sights to see in New York and schedule our visits.   You may arrange visits to tourist sights in any order you wish. 

 

Your itinerary will show departure and arrival times as well as descriptions of sights to visit.  Please plan the order of the sights individually after researching the visiting hours of each sight and allotting time to visit.  While you are investigating the sights, make sure you also note the cost for your Excel Spreadsheet.  Remember to print out these instructions before you begin so you can refer back to them. 

 

How to get Started on our Journey:

We will meet at Tarrytown train station at 8am and must get home no later than 5pm.  When we arrive at Grand Central Station in New York, we will travel by subway to each sight.

 

  1. Click on the links below to investigate the sights.  Find the costs of each sight as well as the hours they are open.  You may need to take notes so you can decide which sights you want to include, what hours they are open and how much the entrance fee is.  Or you may want to Cut and Paste information into a word document to refer to later.

 

  1. Remember that we will be taking the Metro North HUDSON line train from Tarrytown to Grand Central Station in New York City.

 

  1. We will use the subways to get from place to place.

 

  1. Open the Word document named New York City.  You will see a 2-column table.  Type the estimated arrival and departure times in the left column and the description of what we are doing in the right column.  You must write at least a two-sentence description of each sight in your own words.

 

Sample Itinerary:

Times

Event

8::10-9:10

Board the bus at the White Plains bus station to Poughkeepsie.

9:30 – 11:30

Visit Vassar College.  Vassar College is a private girls school located in upstate New York.  The campus is very beautiful because of the very old buildings.

12:00-1:00

Lunch

1:00-3:00

Visit the Culinary Institute.  The Culinary Institute is one of the most famous restaurant schools for chefs.  See how they train chefs for all over the world.  Enjoy a special dessert treat while we are visiting.

3:20-4:20

Board the bus to return to White Plains.

 

  1. Open the Excel Spreadsheet named New York.  Enter the costs as you develop your itinerary.  Remember that you should already have these costs in your Word notes.  To help you get started, I’ve filled in the train fare for you.

 

Sample Spreadsheet

Bus Fare

$4.50

Admission to Vassar

Free

Lunch

$5.00

Culinary Tour

$6.00

Bus Fare Home

$4.50

TOTAL COST

$20.00

 

  1. Print out your final itinerary and your final spreadsheet.

 

 

Hints:

 

We only have time to visit 2 or 3 sights since we need time to get to New York, eat lunch and come home again.    Remember to leave extra time for souvenir shopping and lunchtime. 

 

            

 

 

Links to the Internet

 

Tourist Map of New York         

 

Metro North Train Schedule     

 

Subway Costs        

 

New York Public Library(Humanities and Social Sciences Library)

 

Empire State Building Observatory     

 

Statue of Liberty           

 

American Museum of Natural History

 

The United Nations 

 

 

Evaluation:

You will be graded on your ability to put together a detailed itinerary and the real costs of the trip.  The following chart is how I will grade you.

 

 

5 points

3 points

1 point

Organization

You created your itinerary in the order you want us to visit the sights

Left out some times or some sights

Did not finish

Content

Descriptions of sights are in your own words

Did not put in all descriptions

Used Cut and Paste

Neatness

Finished product follows template layout

Finished product is good but 1 or 2 items do not line up

Finished product does not follow template

Calculations

Costs are accurate

1 or 2 costs are left out

Costs are made-up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things you should think about when planning your next itinerary:

Travel itineraries rarely go as scheduled.  Weather and mechanical delays can change the sequence of an itinerary as well as the costs involved.  When planning itineraries, leave plenty of extra time to get to each place.  Can you think of any reasons why your itinerary might have to be revised?

What if one of the sights are closed when we arrive?  Can you think of a good back-up plan?