06 May 2020
If we can't travel the world let's bring the world to us, says luxury tour operator Original Travel, which is setting a challenge for families to recreate holidays at home during lockdown.
Pick a destination of your choosing – somewhere you were due to go before Covid-19 struck perhaps, or somewhere you've always wanted to go – and use your imagination and creativity to bring it life: Cook its national dish, build a replica monument out of lego, dress up in its national costume, recreate photos with drawings and collages and use your imagination to replicate tours, experiences and days out. Make it a project that the whole family can get involved in, ticking off all the core homeschooling elements from geography to history, art, languages, music and more. The family with the best idea will win access to ten live learning modules of choice from Oppidan Education, worth £200.
Oppidan Education is the leading London-based mentoring firm which creates live and interactive lessons, led by professional mentors. They have partnered with Original Travel on the #HomeHolidays challenge, offering not only the prize, but creating ten new modules to learn all about popular family-friendly destinations. The online modules are aimed at children aged 8-13 and will really bring a destination to life and help spark the imagination for the offline projects.
The ten lessons will be hosted on consecutive Saturdays and Sundays from 9 May to 7th June, covering the May half-term, and include:
Tanzania – Online: Saunter the Serengeti in the footsteps of the great 5, or brave the climb up Kilimanjaro; Offline: Why not set up a stuffed toy safari
Egypt – Online: Prowling the pyramids, tip-toe with Tutan-K and get savvy with a sphinx; Offline: Write a secret message in hieroglyphics
Sri Lanka – Online: Pile into your tuk-tuk - surfs up in Sri Lanka; Offline: Take a blindfolded smell test of Sri Lankan spices
Eastern Cape – Online: Mingle with Mandela and master the music of the magical Eastern Cape; Offline: Give a speech on something you believe in
Argentina – Online: Steak, Spanish, Mountains, Gaucho riding and more; Offline: Learn how to cook the perfect steak - and dance it off Flamenco-style!
Romania – Online: Travel-mania in old Transylvania, uncover the coup's and gorgeous green land; Offline: Learn about the healing properties of plants
Sicily – Online: Stroll the streets, sorbet in hand, marvel at Mt Etna on Persephone's Island; Offline: Experiment with flavours of homemade sorbet
New Zealand – Online: Extreme sports and sprawling magic landscape ... It's time to begin your kiwi-tastic exploration of famous New Zealand; Offline: Create your own teddy bear zipline adventure!
Jordan – Online: Peruse Petra, and dabble in the dead sea on a brilliant bedouin EDventure; Offline: Make a lego version of the “Rose City”
Borneo – Online: Monkey around in Asia's Vibrant and exotic island rainforest; Offline: Make a sock puppet monkey
Antarctica – Online: Paddle with the penguins and waddle in the waves of coldest Place on Earth; Offline: Make your own Antarctic scene
To enter: Upload photos or videos of ways you recreated a destination at home to create an Instagram story to wow us with. Record each 'scene' as an Instagram story, using the hashtag #HomeHoliday and tagging @originaltravel and @oppidaneducation, save them and you can then create a Highlight (one of the circles below your bio) and call it #HomeHoliday.
When you've finished filming/editing/tagging/saving your Hollywood-worthy movie you can click 'More' in the bottom corner of the Highlight (remembering to call it #HomeHoliday) and send to @originaltravel by 8 June. We will let you know when we receive that, and if you are the lucky winner.
Tom Barber, Co-Founder and Director of Original Travel says: 'Like many other families, our Easter holiday plans were cancelled. Instead of travelling to Mexico we were in lockdown at home, but we decided to bring the Yucatan Peninsula to Norfolk instead. We made guacamole, designed Day of the Dead masks and channeled our inner Frida Kahlo. We all had a great time doing it and when we do eventually visit in real life, the children will have a much better understanding and appreciation of the country and its culture. It was so successful that we'd love to encourage other families to do the same – parents can thank us later.'
Here's Tom's #HomeHoliday
Walter Kerr, Co-founder and Director of Oppidan Education says: “You always tell yourself you'll read up on the place before you visit (and then never do…) This is the children's equivalent. “I wish I went digital backpacking with Oppidan, you'll hear them say as they wander round Petra…”
The Oppidan Education modules are run by professional mentors who are each specialists in their respective fields. The one-hour modules cost £20 each and take place via Zoom. To sign up, simply follow click here: https://www.oppidaneducation.com/events
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For more information contact Rebecca Lowe:
020 3582 4990
