The questions worth asking a student tour company fall into five groups: who the company is and what you can independently verify, what is in the price and what is not, who travels with your group, what happens when something goes wrong, and what the contract says about money. Most teachers ask the first two and sign before reaching the last three.
Here is the part that makes a question list actually useful, and that most of them skip. A question is only worth asking if you know what a good answer sounds like. “Are you insured?” gets a yes from everybody. “Can you send a certificate of insurance naming our district as additional insured?” gets a yes from the companies that have done it before and a pause from the ones that have not. Every question below comes with what you should expect to hear.
The Five Groups, in the Order to Ask Them
- The company — who they are, and what you can check without taking their word for it
- The money — what the price covers, who holds the deposits, and what happens if a family withdraws
- The people — who travels with your group and who they work for
- The failures — what happens on the day something goes wrong
- The contract — cancellation, refunds, and what you are signing on behalf of families
Questions to Ask at a Glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| How many to ask | Five groups. Most teachers stop after two |
| The one most skipped | Who holds the money between deposit and departure |
| What makes a question useful | Knowing what a good answer sounds like before you ask it |
| Get it in writing | Inclusions, exclusions, cancellation terms and the itinerary. All of it |
| Cost of a quote | Nothing. Planning and a written quote should be free |
| Typical cost | $300 to $400+ per traveler per day, fully inclusive |
| Verify independently | Membership numbers, not adjectives. Ours are published below |
| When to ask | Before the deposit. Afterwards you are negotiating from behind |
Questions About the Company
Start here, because the answers are checkable and the checking takes about ten minutes.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| Which accreditations do you hold, with numbers? | Named bodies and membership numbers you can verify yourself. “Fully accredited” with nothing to check is not an answer |
| How long have you operated, and under this name? | A straight answer. Rebrands are not disqualifying, but you want to know the trading history you are relying on |
| Which districts have approved you as a vendor? | Names you can call. Districts run their own procurement and insurance checks, so an approval is somebody else’s due diligence you get for free. Ours include Broward County Public Schools and the New York City Department of Education |
| Can I speak to a teacher who traveled with you? | Yes, and a name within a few days. Testimonials on a website are not references |
| Will our group travel alone or combined with others? | A definite answer now, not “it depends on the season.” It changes who is on your coach |
| Who will I actually be dealing with? | A named person for planning and a named contact during travel, ideally the same company rather than a subcontractor |
Questions About the Money
This is the group teachers skip, and it is the one with the most at stake. A trip that costs $2,000 a head moves eighty thousand dollars of forty families’ money before anybody boards a coach. Whether the teacher ever touches any of it is one of the questions below, and the right answer is that they do not.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| What exactly is included, line by line? | An itemized written list. Without it you cannot compare two quotes or answer a parent |
| What is deliberately not included? | Gratuities, airfare on international trips, spending money, travel protection. A company that lists its exclusions plainly is easier to trust than one that does not mention them |
| Who holds the money between deposit and departure? | A specific mechanism, not a reassurance. Ours: families pay individually through Landmark’s own portal, each traveler with their own login, processed by Stripe, or the school can pay by check instead. If an operator cannot describe the mechanism, keep asking |
| How do families pay? | An individual payment portal, so families pay on their own schedule and no teacher is handling cash and checks |
| What happens if a family withdraws? | A written refund schedule tied to dates, and a clear statement of whether the group price changes if numbers fall |
| Does the per-student price change if fewer students enroll? | Honesty. Fixed costs divide across fewer travelers, so it usually does. You want the threshold in writing |
| Is there any cost to get a quote? | No. Planning and a written quote should cost nothing at all |
Our breakdown of what actually drives a student trip price and our guide to what is in a school trip package both exist so you can hold a quote up against something.
Questions About the People
The single largest difference between a good trip and a bad one is who is standing with your group at eight in the morning, and whose payroll they are on.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| Is the Tour Director your employee or a contractor? | A direct answer either way. Ours are our own employees and background-checked, which matters because it decides who they answer to |
| Is that person assigned only to our group? | Yes. One adult who learns every student’s name is worth more than anything on the itinerary |
| Are they with us the whole trip or only on site? | Start to finish, including travel days, which is when most things go wrong |
| What is the chaperone ratio? | That your district sets it, not the company. Any operator telling you your ratio is answering the wrong question |
| Who is reachable at two in the morning? | A named round-the-clock contact, not a general inbox |
Our guide to how many chaperones you need covers the adult side of that ratio, which is a school decision rather than a vendor one.
Questions About What Goes Wrong
Every trip has a bad hour. It rains, a site runs late, a student is unwell, a coach does not arrive. What you are buying is how that hour is handled, and you can only find out by asking before you sign.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| What happens if a student is ill or injured? | A described process: who goes with the student, who stays with the group, who calls the family and when |
| What is the wet-weather plan? | Named alternatives for this itinerary, not “we are flexible” |
| What if a site closes or an entry is canceled? | Who rebooks it, whether a replacement is found, and whether anything is refunded |
| Can you give me a certificate of insurance naming our district? | Yes, with a timeframe. Most districts require it, so hesitation here is a problem you will meet again later |
| What is your process if a student breaks a rule? | That discipline stays with the school. The company supports the teacher’s decision rather than making it |
| Has a trip ever gone badly, and what happened? | A real example. An operator that has never had anything go wrong has either not run many trips or is not telling you about them |
That last question is the most revealing one on this page. Ask it late in a conversation and listen to how quickly the answer arrives. Our safety and support page sets out how we handle the on-the-road side.
Questions About the Contract
You are signing on behalf of families who are not in the room. Read it as though one of them will eventually ask you to explain a clause, because eventually one will.
| Question | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| What is the cancellation schedule, by date? | Specific dates and specific percentages, in writing, before any deposit |
| What happens if the school cancels the whole trip? | A clear and separate answer from what happens when one family withdraws. These are different events |
| What is and is not covered by travel protection? | That it is optional, bought separately, and underwritten by a named insurer whose policy you can read before buying |
| Is the itinerary contractual or indicative? | Honesty about what can move. Times and order change on every trip; which sites are guaranteed should be in writing |
| When is the final payment due, and what if a family is late? | A date and a stated consequence, so you can tell families before they commit rather than after |
Travel protection is the one most often misunderstood. It is optional coverage bought separately rather than something folded into a trip price, and our guide to student travel protection plans explains what it does and does not do.
Credentials You Can Check Without Asking Us
Do not take any operator’s word for this, including ours. Adjectives cannot be verified; membership numbers can.
| Body | Number |
|---|---|
| Student & Youth Travel Association | Member #13443 |
| American Bus Association | Member #84360 |
| IATA | Code 22576046 |
| Better Business Bureau | Business ID 544197 |
| California Seller of Travel | 2168995-50, searchable on the state registry |
| ETOA | Member, European Tourism Association |
Ask every operator on your shortlist for the same list. The ones who send it the same day are telling you something, and so are the ones who need a week.
What a Trip Costs, So You Can Judge a Quote
A question list is only half of it. You also need a sense of what normal looks like, so that an unusually low quote prompts a question rather than a signature.
| Item | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Per traveler, per day | $300 to $400+, fully inclusive |
| All in, domestic | About $1,200 to $3,500+ depending on length and inclusions |
| Deposit | $150 per traveler on trips involving airfare, $50 on land transportation |
| Group threshold | Ten travelers is the usual point at which group rates apply |
| Default rooming | Students in quads, adult chaperones in singles |
| Quoted separately | Airfare on international trips, gratuities, spending money, travel protection |
| Lead time | Six to twelve months domestically, twelve or more where passports are involved |
A quote well under that range is not automatically wrong, but it is a question: what has been left out, how many students share a room, and is the group traveling alone? Our post on why booking early makes school travel easier covers the timing side.
Where Landmark Is Not the Right Fit
A buyer’s guide that recommends its author for everything is not a buyer’s guide, so here is the honest boundary.
We run private group trips built for one school at a time, which is the right model for a group that wants its own itinerary and its own Tour Director, and the wrong model for a family wanting to join a scheduled departure with students from other schools. We are also not the cheapest quote you will receive, because a dedicated Tour Director and a group that travels alone are real costs rather than marketing. If the lowest number is the deciding factor, you will find lower ones.
If your group is a small private school, our guide for small private schools goes further. If you are specifically choosing for an 8th grade trip, the age-specific questions for thirteen-year-olds matter more than anything on this page. And if you are comparing us against the large national operators, we have written that comparison here.
Who Is Landmark Educational Tours?
Landmark Educational Tours is a 100% employee-owned educational travel company at 1 Central Street, Suite 205, Middleton, Massachusetts, planning custom trips for school groups across the United States and abroad. We are a member of the Student & Youth Travel Association, SYTA, member number 13443.
Being employee-owned is relevant to one question on this page in particular: who you are actually dealing with. The person planning your trip is an owner of the company that will run it. You can read more about Landmark or work through our frequently asked questions.
Asking Us
The short version: ask about the money and the contract with the same energy you bring to asking about the itinerary, get the answers in writing, and verify the credentials yourself rather than accepting adjectives. Any operator worth booking will expect all of it.
If you would like to put these questions to us, our guide to how to start planning a student trip covers what happens first. Request a quote and we will answer them in writing, at no cost and with no hold on your dates.
