The World History teacher at Manitou Springs High School, Brian Brown, travels with students to Ireland this upcoming June. Brown does an annual summer trip with students every year, giving them an action packed trip to famous destinations across the world. 

Brown has been taking kids on educational trips around the world since 1994. The trips are a part of the group EF Educational Tours. EF tours date back all the way to 1965, making them a popular organization for these tours around the world. 

Kids really enjoy going on these trips to see the world. “I went on the France trip last year and had so much fun. He showed us where to go, and he knew so much about the area,” sophomore Ben Perkins said

This year Brown is taking the kids to Ireland, making it the fourth time he takes the students on this same destination. The cost per student to go to Ireland is roughly $3,500. While the kids are in Ireland, they will watch a sheepdog demonstration, go to a horse farm to see how they breed racing horses and an immigration museum. They will visit Trinity College, among other things that are not included on the schedule. 

The trip will cover destinations across the country. “We will start and finish in Dublin. And then we do a circle of the lower part of the island, which includes the cities of Galloway, Kalani, Killarney, Cork, Blarney, and we’ll go and see a little village, which is from the Middle Ages, so it’s a working village with a castle,” Brown said. 

The trip starts June 5 and the students get back June 13. There will be 11 students going on the trip this year. The trip starts in June, making sure it’s not too cold or too hot in Ireland. The students have a lot of freedom on these trips, and they will have about 3-5 hours of free time in the middle of everyday to do what they want. They just need to go in a group of two or three. “We do a tour in the morning especially when we’re in a cool spot of town,” Brown said. 

For the tours, they make sure to hire a very talented tour guide in the area, so they don’t miss any important information about the place they are visiting that day. When students go off on their own in their groups, Brown always makes sure they have maps and know about the area they’ll be in. “We have talked about their interests: who likes museums, who likes going to churches, who likes graveyards.” Brown is a big graveyard person. He has recommendations for students “who want to do souvenir shopping, and who want to go eat at a local area,” as well.

Students love this trip because it lets them travel the world while also learning about the history of the area and learning about different cultures, all alongside their friends and classmates, making it a unique experience. Sophomore Logan Moore said, “I’m just excited to travel the world with my friends.”