London

London gives a school group direct access to the buildings, archives and stages where much of English literature and music was actually made, from Shakespeare's Bankside to the Abbey Road studios. For groups departing Dubai, the roughly seven-hour direct flight into Heathrow or Gatwick makes it one of the most straightforward long-haul curriculum destinations to organise.

The city functions as a working classroom: Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside runs practical workshops in its reconstructed open-air playhouse, while the British Library at St Pancras holds Shakespeare's First Folio, Jane Austen's writing desk and handwritten Beatles lyrics in its free Treasures Gallery. Musically, groups can attend rehearsals and concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, Southbank Centre and Barbican, and visit the Handel Hendrix House in Mayfair, where the two musicians lived two centuries apart in adjoining buildings. Charles Dickens Museum on Doughty Street, Keats House in Hampstead and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey add depth to any literature itinerary.