A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of associated peers, such as coworkers or school students, to a place away from their normal environment for the purpose of education or leisure, either within their country or abroad.

When arranged by a school administration for students, it is also known as school trip in the United Kingdom, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand and Bangladesh, and school tour in Ireland.

A 2022 study, which used randomized controlled trial data, found that culturally enriching field trips led students to show a greater interest in arts, greater tolerance for people with different views, and boosted their educational outcomes.

The purpose of the field trip is usually observation for education, non-experimental research or to provide students with experiences outside their everyday activities, such as going camping with teachers and their classmates. The aim of this research is to observe the subject in its natural state and possibly collect samples. It is seen that more-advantaged children may have already experienced cultural institutions outside of school, and field trips provide common ground between more-advantaged and less-advantaged children to share the same cultural experiences.

Field trips often involve three steps: preparation, activities and follow-up activity. Preparation applies to both the students and the teachers. Teachers often take the time to learn about the destination and the subject before the trip. Activities on the field trips often include: lectures, tours, worksheets, videos and demonstrations. Follow-up activities are generally discussions in the classroom once the field trip is completed.

In Western culture people first come across this method during school years when classes are taken on school trips to visit a geological or geographical feature of the landscape, for example. Much of the early research into the natural sciences was of this form. Charles Darwin is an important example of someone who has contributed to science through the use of field trips.^{[citation needed]}

Popular field trip sites include zoos, nature centers, community agencies such as fire stations and hospitals, government agencies, local businesses, amusement parks, science museums and factories. Field trips provide alternative educational opportunities for children and can benefit the community if they include some type of community service. Field trips also let students take a break from their normal routine and experience more hands-on learning. Places like zoos and nature centers often have an interactive display that allows children to touch plants or animals.

Today, culturally enriching field trips are in decline. Museums across the United States report a steep drop in school tours. For example, the Field Museum in Chicago at one time welcomed more than 300,000 students every year. Recently, the number is below 200,000. Between 2002 and 2007, Cincinnati arts organizations saw a 30 percent decrease in student attendance. A survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that more than half of schools eliminated planned field trips in 2010–11.