Get Outside. We’ll Help Get You There.
A great field trip can change the way students see what they’re learning.
North Carolina’s GO Outside Grant helps make those experiences possible by providing funding for educational field trips that connect students with the outdoors.
Even better, grant funding can help cover the cost of getting there.
For qualifying single-day field trips, applicants can request up to $3,000 in total funding, including up to $1,000 toward charter bus transportation. Funding for qualifying overnight field trips can reach $5,000.
Holiday Tours can help you turn that opportunity into a trip your students will remember.
WHAT IS THE NC GO OUTSIDE GRANT?
The GO Outside Grant is offered through the North Carolina Youth Outdoor Engagement Commission to help North Carolina’s young people experience and learn from the outdoors.
Funding can support qualifying field trips that combine outdoor activities with meaningful educational experiences.
That could mean studying ecosystems while hiking through a state park, learning about wildlife and conservation, exploring North Carolina’s coastal environment, paddling a river, examining stream ecology or experiencing another outdoor adventure connected to what students are learning in the classroom.
HOW MUCH FUNDING IS AVAILABLE?
SINGLE-DAY FIELD TRIPS
Up to $3,000
For qualifying single-day field trips, up to $1,000 may be used toward charter bus transportation.
2-DAY / 1-NIGHT FIELD TRIPS
Up to $4,000
Turn a field trip into an immersive overnight educational experience.
3-DAY / 2-NIGHT FIELD TRIPS
Up to $5,000
Create an extended outdoor learning experience with additional time for activities, exploration and education.
Grant awards and eligible expenses are determined by the North Carolina Youth Outdoor Engagement Commission. Applicants should review the current program guidelines before applying.
WHO CAN APPLY?
The grant is designed to help eligible North Carolina organizations provide outdoor educational opportunities for youth.
Eligible applicants can include:
- North Carolina public K-12 schools
- North Carolina private K-12 schools
- North Carolina charter schools
- Qualifying homeschool organizations
- Qualifying nonprofit organizations
Visit the official GO Outside Grant website for complete eligibility requirements.
WHAT TYPES OF FIELD TRIPS QUALIFY?
The key is getting students outside and actively engaged.
Qualifying trips must include an outdoor learning component or activity.
The strongest grant applications won’t simply identify a destination. They’ll explain what students will do there, what they will learn and how the experience connects to their curriculum.
Depending on the trip, students might:
- Hike
- Camp
- Canoe or Kayak
- Fish
- Observe wildlife
- Study plants and ecosystems
- Explore streams and waterways
- Learn outdoor skills
- Visit parks, outdoor recreation areas, historical sites or outdoor education centers
- Participate in environmental education
- Participate in other qualifying outdoor recreational activities.
WHERE COULD THE GRANT TAKE YOUR STUDENTS?
Your Field Trip Doesn’t Have to Stop at the State Line.
The GO Outside Grant is available to eligible North Carolina schools and organizations, but your field trip destination is not required to be in North Carolina.
That opens the door to an incredible range of educational experiences, both close to home and farther away.
Students could explore wildlife at the North Carolina Zoo, hike through a state or national park, study marine ecosystems along the coast, experience outdoor living history at Colonial Williamsburg, walk the grounds of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, or discover American history through an outdoor-focused experience in Washington, DC.
The destination is only part of the equation. Qualifying field trips must incorporate outdoor activities and meaningful learning experiences, so consider what your students will do, experience and learn while they’re there.
From North Carolina’s mountains and coast to Virginia, Washington, DC and beyond, the GO Outside Grant could help take learning far beyond the classroom.
A Note About These Field Trip Ideas
The destinations and experiences featured below are provided for inspiration and planning purposes only. Holiday Tours is not affiliated with the NC GO Outside Grant, and these trip ideas have not been reviewed, pre-approved or endorsed by the North Carolina Youth Outdoor Engagement Commission. Grant eligibility and funding decisions are determined solely by the Commission based on each applicant’s proposed trip and current program requirements.
Have an idea for a trip? We’re happy to help you explore the possibilities. Holiday can assist with transportation planning, itinerary considerations and a charter quote to support your grant application.
Field Trip Ideas
Theme: Wildlife, habitats & conservation
The Zoo offers K-12 educational experiences focused on animals, healthy habitats, conservation and natural resources.
GO Grant Connection: Build the application around outdoor wildlife observation, habitat study and conservation rather than simply “visit the zoo.”
Theme: Mountain ecology & wildlife
Programs can be tailored to NC curriculum standards, with opportunities involving ecology, animal adaptations, biodiversity and stream ecology.
GO Grant Connection: Ecology + hiking + wildlife observation + outdoor science.
Theme: Nature’s classroom
NC State Parks offers dozens of field-trip programs covering science, history, social studies and math across 41 parks and recreation areas. Many programs are free.
GO Grant Connection: Very strong because outdoor learning is inherent to the trip.
Theme: Marine life & coastal ecosystems
Students can explore aquatic habitats and add outdoor adventures or educational programs to their visit.
GO Grant Connection: Consider pairing the Aquarium with an outdoor coastal activity rather than relying solely on the indoor galleries.
Theme: Coastal ecology
Combine an Aquarium educational program with an outdoor coastal component such as shoreline ecology, wildlife observation or another structured environmental activity. The Aquarium accepts NC school field trips.
GO Grant Connection: The outdoor component is critical.
Theme: Outdoor recreation, STEM & teamwork
Build a program around qualifying activities such as rafting, paddling, climbing or outdoor skills.
GO Grant Connection: Rafting, canoeing, kayaking and climbing are specifically among the activities contemplated by the grant.
Theme: Water quality & environmental science
Students collect or observe aquatic organisms, examine water quality and learn how streams function as ecosystems. NC State Parks already offers programs of this type.
GO Grant Connection: Excellent curriculum connection for life science and earth science.
Theme: Geology, ecology & physical activity
Choose an appropriate NC park or outdoor education center and build the day around a guided hike, geology, plant identification, habitats and conservation.
GO Grant Connection: Hiking is specifically contemplated by the program.
Theme: Outdoor skills, ecology & independence
An overnight experience could incorporate camping, navigation, Leave No Trace principles, wildlife observation, astronomy and environmental science.
GO Grant Connection: Particularly interesting because qualifying overnight field trips have higher overall award caps than single-day trips.
Theme: Coastal science
Make this a true experiential trip: dunes, estuaries, maritime forests, shoreline processes, wildlife and human impacts on coastal environments. Pair an educational center or aquarium with significant outdoor field study.
GO Grant Connection: This could become a 2-day/1-night or 3-day/2-night trip, making it potentially relevant to the $4,000 or $5,000 grant caps.
Theme: American history, colonial life & outdoor living history
Step into 18th-century America through Colonial Williamsburg’s historic streets, gardens, trades and public spaces. Students can explore how people lived and worked, experience demonstrations of historic trades and agriculture, and connect classroom lessons about colonial America and the Revolutionary era with the places where that history comes to life.
GO Grant Connection: Historical sites are specifically contemplated by the GO Grant guidelines. Build the application around Williamsburg’s outdoor living-history experiences, historic landscape, gardens, agriculture and hands-on educational activities rather than primarily indoor museum visits. An overnight itinerary could also take advantage of the grant’s higher funding limits for multi-day trips.
Theme: American history, agriculture, conservation & the environment
Explore George Washington’s estate beyond the mansion. Students can experience the grounds, gardens, farm and Potomac River landscape while learning about Washington’s life, 18th-century agriculture, land use, natural resources and the lives of the people who lived and worked at Mount Vernon.
GO Grant Connection: Mount Vernon combines a qualifying historical-site experience with substantial opportunities for outdoor learning. An application could emphasize the estate’s working landscape, gardens, farming practices, natural environment and outdoor historical interpretation, creating connections across history, science and environmental education.
Theme: American history, civics, national parks & outdoor exploration
Turn the nation’s capital into an outdoor classroom. Students can walk the National Mall, explore monuments and memorials, learn about the people and events that shaped the United States, and experience National Park Service sites firsthand. An itinerary could also incorporate outdoor experiences along the Potomac River or in Rock Creek Park to add environmental science, ecology or recreation to the trip.
GO Grant Connection: The strongest GO Grant itinerary would be intentionally designed around outdoor historical and educational experiences, rather than primarily indoor museums. National Park Service sites, monuments, memorials, outdoor historical interpretation and park-based activities provide a stronger connection to the grant’s outdoor-learning objectives. As an overnight trip, DC could also potentially qualify for the program’s higher multi-day funding limits.
Have Another Destination in Mind?
These are only a few possibilities. Tell us where you’d like to take your students and we’ll help you start working through the transportation details.
HOW HOLIDAY CAN HELP
You’ve Planned the Experience. We’ll Help Get You There.
Once you have a destination in mind, Holiday can help with one of the most important parts of your grant application: transportation.
Our Charter Department can provide a transportation quote based on your anticipated date, destination, group size and itinerary.
That gives you documentation you can use when developing the budget for your grant application.
And when field trip day arrives, your students, teachers and chaperones can travel together aboard a modern motorcoach operated by a professional Holiday driver.
What we need to prepare your quote:
- School or organization
- Anticipated travel date
- Approximate number of passengers
- Pickup location
- Destination
- Approximate departure and return times
Don’t have every detail figured out yet? That’s okay. Contact us and we’ll help you determine what information we need to get started.
YOUR NEXT FIELD TRIP MAY BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.
A lack of funding shouldn’t be the reason students miss an opportunity to experience something extraordinary.
The NC GO Outside Grant may help make your next outdoor educational experience possible, and Holiday is ready to help you get there.
Find the opportunity. Plan the experience. We’ll help get you there.