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In the Longman Dictionary, "Excursion" is defined as:
a short journey made for pleasure, usually by several people together
This is similar to "to go on a trip". Is there any difference in meaning between "to go on an excursion" and "to go on a trip"?
We can talk of a school trip to the Science Museum. Is "excursion" also an option in this case or does "excursion" always involve going as a group to another city rather than to a museum?
Using dictionary.reference.com:
Excursion - a short trip or outing to some place, usually for a special purpose and with the intention of a prompt return
Trip - 1. a journey or voyage: to win a trip to Paris. 2. a journey, voyage, or run made by a boat, train, bus, or the like, between two points: It's a short trip from Baltimore to Philadelphia.
Hence where "excursion" is used for an outing, "trip" is also an acceptable word.
For "trip" definition 1, "excursion" could also be used, provided the trip is short enough. Although it's not explicitly stated in the definitions, I'd suggest that if it is up to a day long then it can be either a trip or an excursion, but if it is longer then it would be a trip. For example, a 3 day visit to Paris might be a trip, but a day's outing to see the Palace of Versailles could be described as either a trip or an excursion.
For "trip" definition 2, "excursion" would not be a valid alternative word. i.e. where you are only talking about the journey in terms of transport, and not in terms of actually "doing anything" at the destination, then "excursion" is not valid.
As noted by @Mrstupid in comments, "trip" is more commonly used than "excursion" in India; in my experience this is true in the UK too; and in JR's experience it is true in the US.
From Wiki:
An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes.
Public transportation companies issue reduced price excursion tickets to attract business of this type. Often these tickets are restricted to off-peak days or times for the destination concerned.
Short excursions for education or for observations of natural phenomena are called field trips. One-day educational field studies are often made by classes as extracurricular exercises, e.g. to visit a natural or geographical feature.
The term is also used for short military movements into foreign territory, without a formal announcement of war
Tour means travelling from one place to another with the purpose of visiting various places and in the end coming back to where you started.
Expedition is a journey undertaken by a group of people (organized company) with a definite objective (accomplishing a specific purpose).
Outing is a short pleasure trip usually lasting no more than a day. Trip is a journey for some purpose, usually including the return.
Excursion is a day trip made for pleasure, usually by a group of people.
Journey may indicate a long distance or a short one travelled regularly (daily journey to work, for example).
One has to understand what a trip means. While mostly will not agree to this, but all of the above terms comes in the definition of trip.
In the context of a school visit to a science museum, both words are possible. Neither would violate any grammar rules, but excursion may sound a little unnatural and forced.
Consider:
Bobby's class is taking a trip to the science museum on Friday.
Bobby's class is taking an excursion to the science museum on Friday.
In my mind, the first sentence sounds more natural – possibly because, in schools, such events are often called field trips. Plus, excusion simply seems like too fancy a word to use for an ordinary field trip.
However, let's say I volunteer to be a chaperone on the trip, and I'm talking to a coworker about it the following Monday. I might say:
I chaperoned Bobby's field trip to the museum last Friday. It was a nice little trip.
I chaperoned Bobby's field trip to the museum last Friday. It was a nice little excursion.
In this case, I like the second one better. For one, it avoids reusing the word "trip" (by the way, such repetition isn't always bad, although it can play a factor in word selection). More importantly, though, excursion seems to fit better in the context of "nice little" – particularly if I'm trying to emphasize that part of my enjoyment stemmed from the fact that I got out of my workplace for a day.
In short, when choosing between two synonyms, context often plays a major part in choosing which word to use. Oftentimes, the simpler, more common word is the better one to use, because the fancier word sounds pretentious or unnatural. However, at other times, the synonym might carry some small nuance that makes it a better choice. Going back to the comment you made, excursion might also be a better word if the class is taking a four-day trip to the national capital. In that case trip seems like too ordinary a word for such an elaborate undertaking – one that involves hotel stays and multiple destinations.
Avoid using less common words like excursion just for the sake of sounding erudite. As often than not, such efforts will backfire. Only time and experience can help you decide if a fancy synonym would improve your sentence, or seem like an unnatual force-fit.
