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This paper addresses the value of fieldwork compared with desk-based teaching using student questionnaire and focus group approaches applied to two contrasting field trips in the Geography programme at Massey University. Student views on the relative value of an 8-day residential alpine physical geography field trip to Fox Glacier and a day's ‘tour’ of Manawatu fluvial and coastal landforms indicated in both instances that the fieldwork was highly valued. The value of fieldwork lies particularly in providing students with a better sense of real-world environments and processes, an enhanced understanding of their subject and affords opportunities for social interaction that cannot be duplicated in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]