How To Entertain Students on a Long Bus Journey

Prepare entertainment

Load your mp3 or tablet up with some new music or films and remember to bring your headphones.

Also, make sure that these – and any other technical equipment like your phone or games console – are fully charged before you set off. You’ll be on the coach for a good few hours and you don’t want to run out of battery half way round!

Pack snacks

Remember to pack snacks and drinks. No doubt your teachers will have arranged stops on the way to pick up food, but a snack will help you stave off hunger if you feel a bit peckish.

We’d recommend that you take water or fruit juice as your drink as this will be the best thing to keep you hydrated if you’re thirsty. We’d also advise that you take healthy snacks like cereal bars and fruit – but we also know it’s much more likely everyone will want sweets and chocolate!

Whatever you decide, make sure your classmates take some too so you can all share. It’s not fair if one or two people end up giving their sweets away to everyone.

Get the dress code right

It’s great getting out of school uniform. However, before you get glammed up for the coach trip, think about whether those new jeans are going to be comfortable for sitting in for the best part of a day.

Ideally, soft trackies with a comfortable t-shirt and hoodie will be the most comfy choice – and there’ll be plenty of time to wear your better stuff during the trip.

Try and bag a window seat

We’re not saying all rush on the coach bashing each other out of the way for a window seat. But perhaps if you know who you’re going to sit with, you could agree to go half and half and switch seats midway through the journey. 

It’s always exciting visiting and new country and watching the changing landscape can be a great way to pass the time. Make sure you’ve got your Instagram account set up on your phone to take some really cool pictures of everything you see.

Get some rest

So that you’re not sleepy when you actually reach your destination, try to rest as much as you can on the coach (in between gaming and snacking, obviously).

This won’t be easy, but there are a couple of things you could pack to help you get yourself comfy: An eye mask: the light outside and passing traffic can be distracting even with your eyes closed. An eye mask might help you to block these things out.

Ear plugs: as mentioned before, you’ll need your ear plugs for watching films and playing games anyway, but they can also help block out noise when you’re trying to get to sleep. Alternatively playing some calming music might help you to drop off.

A travel pillow: unless you want to scrunch up your hoodie or jumper and use this to rest on, you might want to pack an inflatable travel pillow. This can easily be scrunched up in the bottom of your bag until you need it.

A really long coach trip can be tiring so it’s advisable to try and get a little bit of sleep, even though it’s difficult when you’re cramped into a tiny seat with a lot of people around you. 

Swat up

Finally, if you’re lucky enough to be one of those people who can read on the road, prepare yourself for when you reach your destination by bringing along some travel guides or material about your trip. Just taking a bit of time to read up about where you’re going can mean that you get much more from your trip because you’ll look out for things and notice more of what’s around you. 

Alternatively, you could download the ‘Field Trips’ app and get snippets of information about where you are straight to your mobile.

Over to you

WST school trips are action-packed from the minute you reach your destination to the moment you set off home. However, there’s no doubt that long coach journeys can be dull. For the best possible trip, try to include some of these top boredom-busters in your planning.