Summer Schools

Summer School classes for mature and senior travellers
Odyssey’s school program is a learning program of week-long teaching sessions offered each January in Hobart, Tasmania. Courses are refreshed for each year’s programs. Each class is limited to 15 people.
For more than twenty-five years, Odyssey’s small group Summer School Program has given countless travellers an unforgettable educational and travel experience. Each summer, we prepare and offer fun and challenging special interest courses and programs designed to give travellers the options and opportunity to learn about literature, history, religion, Australian culture, and the arts, among many other topics. These courses are designed in such a way that enthusiasts can deepen their knowledge of a particular topic or be initiated into new understandings on a subject.
Summer school classes
Limited places

7 days
JanTasmanian Wilderness | Summer School in Hobart, Tasmania
Visiting Tasmania
The Tasmania Wilderness summer school is held annually in Hobart in early January. This summer school allows you to experience the great western wilderness of Tasmania, while staying at a comfortable ‘base camp’ in a Hobart hotel!
From A$2,795 AUD
View Tour
days
JanSir John Monash | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
This lecture series examines the ANZAC story throughout the Great War from Gallipoli (1915) to the Western Front (1918) through the life of Australia’s greatest wartime military leader Lt General Sir John Monash.
From A$2,615 AUD
View Tour
days
JanUncovering Ancient Greece | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
The Glory of Greece course examines the history of the Ancient Greeks from Mycenaean, Minoan and Homeric times until the commencement of the Peloponnesian War in 431BC. We discover the development of a classical, ancient people and culture.
From A$2,615 AUD
View Tour
days
JanConvicts and Emigrants in Early Tasmania | Summer School in Hobart, Tasmania
Visiting Tasmania
The course focuses on Tasmania and its similarities and differences from the ‘mainland’ as a convict colony, with a particular focus on women's experiences.
From A$2,795 AUD
View Tour
days
JanTasmanian Colonial homes, centring on Hobart and Launceston | Summer School in Hobart, Tasmania
Visiting Tasmania
Summer School tour that examines the Historic homes and the history of their occupiers.

days
Jan, MarHouses and Gardens of Southern Tasmania | Summer School in Hobart, Tasmania
Visiting Tasmania
Houses and gardens of Southern Tasmania runs for five days and takes in ten different gardens and three heritage-listed houses. We will step back into the past and experience life as it was two centuries ago.

days
JanI always wanted to be an archaeologist | Summer School course
Visiting New South Wales
This course examines the world and role of the Archaeologist in the study of ancient and contemporary history. Our small group will explore in tutorial environment the influences of Archaeology beyond the walls of the museum.

days
JanConvicts and Colonials in NSW | Summer School in Blue Mountains
Visiting New South Wales
The course focuses on the early years of white settlement in NSW. The subject is vast and, obviously, impossible to cover in just one week. This course will, however, serve to whet the appetite for further study, and will also provide the opportunity for an interest filled week in pleasant surroundings with congenial company.

days
JanMasterpieces of French Cinema | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
Discover five masterpieces of French cinema in this new Summer School tour.

days
JanExtraordinary Women from Medieval and Renaissance Europe | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
This Summer school course will examine the life and deeds of a number of strong women living in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Women seldom wrote the history books in the period between 1050 and 1650.

days
JanThe Great Philosophers and Us | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
This course takes you back to the birthplace of western philosophy and the basis for our inner growth as individuals, as communities and a civilisation that continues to question its values and our very being ever since. Our small group will explore these origins of thought, the masterpieces of literature and drama that reach far beyond their initial time and place and let them speak again to us today.

days
JanCharlie Chaplin and the making of Hollywood | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
Spend a week in Leura, Blue Mountains, attending this summer school course which traces the early life and development of the comic genius of the twentieth century through to the end of the silent era. It is set against the phenomenal growth of the American film industry and lasting impact of Chaplin’s life and art upon the world. It goes deeper than the knock about comedian, pantomime artist and Little Tramp that we see in his early short films.

days
JanItalian Renaissance | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
This Summer school course looks at the influence and contribution five key families in shaping today's Italy. In the 15th and 16th centuries the principalities that became Italy were alive with new ideas. The boundaries of art, architecture, music, science, politics, religion and literature were pushed. It was also riven by bitter rivalry and even open warfare between the numerous independent city states.

days
JanRomans settling Britain & Gaul | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
This course will investigate contemporary accounts of Roman of the path to occupation and then settlement in Britain and Gaul. This class will endeavour to consider and discuss the contribution Rome and the Romans had on the places controlled by these invaders.

days
JanVictorian Britain | Summer School course
Visiting Tasmania
This course will look at the life and times of Queen Victoria who reigned over the British Empire between 1837 and 1901. During that period Britain underwent what amounted to a revolution in industry, agriculture, transport, politics, science, medicine and the arts.
We don’t quite live on campus, but we will be staying in a comfortable hotel in central Hobart or Leura. We will enjoy welcome and farewell dinners in between our seminars, as well as daily morning tea and lunch.
These programs offered are tailor-made for mature-aged and senior travellers who are eager to explore in-depth a particular topic. Summer school learning programs for mature and senior travellers who are and remain curious about the world. Read more about our philosophy of the Odyssey Summer Schools.
Articles

Bronze age civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean Islands
Bronze age civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean Islands As you explore these islands and learn about the cradle of Western civilisation, ancient cultures and history will come to life. Visit magical Santorini, which contains a…

Crete history; a guide for small group tours
Crete, the largest of the Greek islands, stands as the southernmost border of Greece. Its position sees it as acting as something of a communication bridge between the African continent and Europe.

Dawn of Greek Civilization: The Definitive Guide for Travellers
The Beginning of Human Civilisation Ancient Greece is well-known as one of the earliest civilizations that contributed significantly to human advancement. “Greece reached heights in almost every area of human learning” (Mark 2013). Generally speaking, Ancient,…

Exploring Ancient Cities
Exploring Ancient Cities What can we learn from exploring the ancient world? What do we take away from the wealth of knowledge uncovered as archaeologists investigate the ruins of past societies, while social scientists speculate…

Capability Brown: The English Garden Genius
Article for senior couples and mature solo travellers interested in gardens and design in England and Europe with small group tours of interest.. Brown is regarded as a genius.

Exploring Jane Austen’s England
Exploring Jane Austen’s England Jane Austen The reach and magnitude of Jane Austen’s influence on modern readers may make one forget that she only had six novels to her name (three of which were published…

Industrial Revolution. Britain's contribution to the world
Britain and the industrial revolution. A progressive period that spanned Queen Victoria's period. Small group package tours for mature and senior travellers explore this fascinating period of history across England and Scotland and key cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow.

London's Victorian Architecture: The Definitive Guide for Travellers
Small group educational tours for senior couples and mature solo travelers with History tours including those examining the Industrial revolution, Victorian Britain the Gilbert and Sullivan era via the D'Oyle Carte family and the cities such as Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester.

Personalities from Queen Victoria's Britain
Article for senior couples and mature solo travellers exploring Queen Victoria's Empire including Britain and the personalities. Supports small group educational tour about the monarch and the industrial revolution.

Personalities from Queen Victoria’s Britain
Article for senior couples and mature solo travellers exploring Queen Victoria's Empire including Britain and the personalities. Supports small group educational tour about the monarch and the industrial revolution.

Queen Victoria's Britain part 2: The Definitive Guide for Travellers
Queen Victoria’s Britain (Part 2 of 2) This two-part article on Queen Victoria’s Britain was prepared by one of our Odyssey Program Leaders, Mal Bock. She will be leading this small group tour especially designed for…

Queen Victoria's Britain: The Definitive Guide for Travellers
Article for educational small group tours of England for senior couples and mature single travellers. Queen Victoria, Britain's longest serving monarch through most of the Industrial revolution and rural life and the Empire is discussed in this article.