Educational field trips for schools and universities
Curriculum-anchored day trips from Metro Manila for nursery through university, run at conservation sites with learning objectives attached. We are an accredited travel partner of Masungi Georeserve, so a class can visit a UNESCO-model conservation area with its own park rangers, its own teaching modules and a written safety plan your school head can put straight into a proposal.
An accredited travel partner of Masungi Georeserve
Masungi Georeserve is a conservation area in Baras, Rizal protecting limestone karst around sixty million years old and more than five hundred species of plant and animal. It admits a deliberately small number of guests, by advance request only, through the UNESCO Geopark model. Its Young Explorers Program exists specifically for schools, and its educational content is guided by leading Filipino naturalists and geologists with support from the National Geographic Society. Accreditation is how we can request slots for a class on your date.
Which trip suits which year level?
Age limits at conservation sites are safety rules, not preferences, and they cannot be waived. This is the honest mapping: what each year level can actually do, and what they get out of it.
Ages 3 to 6
Masungi Garden Picnic. No hiking, no minimum age, flat walkways and a private picnic space the class keeps for the day.
- Guided nature walk with a park ranger
- Tea tasting with native leaves and flowers
- Playground, mini rope courses and a mini floating hut
- Sensory and colouring activities, living and non-living things
- Tuesday to Friday only
Grades 1 to 6
Garden Picnic through Grade 3. From Grade 4 and age 10 upward, the Legacy Trail opens up and the trip becomes hands-on restoration work.
- Tree nurturing or planting with the rangers
- Educational demonstration of forest restoration
- Minalot lunch prepared by a community partner
- Biodiversity bingo and trail puzzles
- Anchors to plant growth, nutrient cycling and earth science
Grades 7 to 12
Both the Legacy Trail and, from age 13, the full Discovery Trail through the karst. This is where the earth science curriculum meets the actual rock.
- Rope courses, caves, rock peaks and viewing decks
- Sixty-million-year-old limestone, up close
- Biodiversity scavenger hunt and trail crossword
- Anchors to plate tectonics, rock formation, fossils and ecology
- A shortened Pocket Discovery Trail exists for tighter schedules
Ages 18 and up
Course blocks, student orgs, thesis fieldwork and department retreats. Adults, own budgets, decisions in weeks rather than months.
- Any of the three Masungi experiences
- Fieldwork and data-gathering visits by arrangement
- Org outings and department team building
- Multi-site itineraries across Rizal, Batangas and Pampanga
- No DepEd approval chain to work through
Age limits, plainly
| Experience | Minimum age | Year levels | Time on site | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Picnic | None | Nursery to Grade 3 | 40 min guided, then the day | Tue to Fri |
| Legacy Trail | 10 years | Grade 4 to Grade 12 | 4 to 6 hours | Tue to Sun |
| Discovery Trail | 13 years | Grade 7 to Grade 12 | 3 to 4 hours | Tue to Sun |
| Pocket Discovery Trail | 13 years | Grade 7 to Grade 12 | 1.5 to 2 hours | Tue to Sun |
The georeserve’s conservation fee is one line in your written quote, alongside transport, meals, coordination and insurance, and we itemise it rather than roll it in. Masungi also sponsors one adult companion for every ten students, and that saving is passed straight through to your school.
What the students actually come home with
A field trip that is only a day out will not survive a proposal review, and it should not. Masungi’s school programme is built around learning objectives, and every visit comes with pre-visit, visit proper and post-visit modules for teachers, so the trip connects to what was taught before it and what is taught after.
What we handle so your teachers do not have to
Included in every school trip
- Slot request and confirmation with the reserve, in our name as accredited partner
- Chartered coach or van, door to door from campus
- A Trouvaille Diaro coordinator per bus, with the group all day
- Masungi park ranger, provided by the reserve, one per group
- Meals as specified by the experience, plus snacks and water
- Waiver collection and health forms, gathered before the day
- Written safety and security plan for your proposal
- Itemised cost breakdown your school head can paste into the submission
- Teacher briefing pack and the reserve’s pre-visit and post-visit modules
- Photographs of the day, delivered the same week
Quoted separately
- Additional pickup points
- Overnight accommodation on multi-day trips
- Personal travel insurance beyond our operator cover
- Merchandise from the reserve shop
- Custom shirts, printed worksheets and signage
What DepEd requires, and how we fit it
Field trips in basic education are governed by DepEd Order No. 56, s. 2001, and the rules shape the trip more than the price does. We would rather set this out plainly than have a proposal come back for revision.
Kickbacks are common in this market and they are explicitly prohibited: students may be charged actual costs only, and no fee may profit school officials. Our quote goes to the school as an institution, itemised, with nothing built in for an individual. This costs us some bookings and we would still rather be the supplier a division office is comfortable approving.
Safety, and what happens if something goes wrong
- Preventive design. Unlike an open mountain, Masungi’s trails are built with railings, steps and alternate routes, maintained on a schedule.
- Trained rangers. Park rangers hold first aid training and are drilled on the Masungi emergency protocol, with radio communication at points along the trail.
- Load-tested structures. The Duyan and Sapot have been load tested by a third-party laboratory to establish maximum loads.
- Our own coordinator per bus. Carrying a first aid kit, holding the manifest, and running the head count at every transition.
- Honest about the residual risk. It is a natural garden with sharp rocks, heights and wildlife. Every guest signs a fitness and safety waiver, and we collect them before the day rather than at the gate.
- A nurse on request. Quoted per trip, and we recommend it for full year-level groups.
How to request a proposal
Send us six things and we come back with a written proposal and an itemised cost breakdown your school head can submit.
- School or institution name, and your name and position.
- Year level and the number of students, plus expected teacher and parent companions.
- Two or three possible dates, and whether weekdays are open to you.
- Your learning objectives, or the subject the trip needs to serve.
- Any budget ceiling per student you have been given.
- Pickup point on campus, and whether you need more than one bus.
Masungi offers interested schools a complimentary ocular and familiarisation visit, including a Pocket Trail Experience of up to two hours, on a formal request letter from the school. If your teachers want to walk the site before committing a year level to it, ask us and we will arrange it.
If Masungi is new to your school, run one class or one org first. It gives your division office a completed trip to look at, it gives your teachers a walked route, and it is a far smaller thing to get approved. Full year-level trips of eighty to a hundred and twenty students are much easier to approve in year two.
Questions teachers and coordinators ask
How far ahead do we need to book a school field trip?
For basic education, plan a term ahead. DepEd requires the school head to submit a proposal to the Schools Division Superintendent at least fifteen days before, but the real work of getting consent forms, a safety plan and a cost breakdown approved happens months earlier. University groups move much faster, often in a few weeks, because they sit outside the DepEd approval chain.
Can nursery and kindergarten children visit Masungi Georeserve?
Yes, on the Garden Picnic, which has no minimum age, no hiking and flat walkways. Children up to three years old pay no conservation fee provided they are not counted toward the minimum group size. The Legacy Trail starts at ten and the Discovery Trail at thirteen, and those limits are safety rules that cannot be waived.
How many students can you take at once?
A single class of about thirty is the straightforward case. Full year-level trips of eighty to a hundred and twenty students run on two or three buses with a coordinator on each, staggered across trail slots. Above that we split the group across days or sites, because the constraint is the reserve’s own visitor cap, which exists on purpose.
Who actually guides the students?
At Masungi, the reserve’s own park rangers, one per group. They are the site’s staff, trained in its content and its emergency protocol, and no outside guide may lead a group there. Our coordinator travels with each bus and runs the logistics, the head counts and the schedule so the ranger can teach.
Will you give us a cost breakdown we can submit?
Yes, itemised, because DepEd requires one and because students may only be charged actual costs. Transport, conservation fees, meals, coordination and any optional line such as a nurse are shown separately rather than rolled into a single per-head figure.
What happens if a typhoon is forecast on our date?
We move the date. If a signal is raised over the destination or the route, or classes are suspended, or the site closes, you reschedule at no charge from us. Note that the reserve’s own deposits are non-refundable and date changes there are limited, so we will always tell you what is recoverable before you commit.
Do you handle universities and student organisations too?
Yes, and they are often the easier place to start. Course blocks, student councils, org outings, department retreats and thesis fieldwork all have their own budgets and decide in weeks. Any of the three Masungi experiences is open to them, and we can build multi-site itineraries across Rizal, Batangas and Pampanga.
Talk to a person
Year level, headcount, target month. Message us and a human answers.
Get a proposal your school head can submit
Send us the year level, the headcount and two or three possible dates. We return a written proposal with an itemised cost breakdown and a safety plan.
Accredited Travel Partner of Masungi Georeserve 2026-002 · DTI Business Name No. 5023408 · Mayor’s Permit No. 24-909584 · TIN 428-443-796.