<p>Field trips play an important role in Geography teaching and learning. During the pandemic, all forms of physical field trips were suspended. While students needed to fulfil curriculum requirements, the switch to virtual field trips was the only option. However, without proper use of technology and pedagogical design for field trips, the teaching and learning experiences of both teachers and students were largely curtailed. This study constructed a virtual platform for field trips in Thailand and Hong Kong. Coupled with important elements of field trip learning, a pedagogical strategy was particularly designed by two geography departments in two universities in Thailand and Hong Kong. The two departments co-organized two field trips, i.e. one virtual and one physical using the same sites in Thailand. To understand the differences in the physical and virtual learning environment from learners’ perspectives, two separate groups of students were asked to evaluate the learning environments from 13 attributes based on the modification of “What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC)” Questionnaire. This study focussed on the assessment of the differences between students’ perceptions of preferred and actual learning environment as well as between physical and virtual field trips. The results help (1) identify important learning environment attributes of a meaningful field trip, (2) explore the potential of developing a more effective pedagogy in conducting field trips, and (3) seek synergy between virtual and physical forms of learning environments.</p>