Field trips, defined as trips organized for educational purposes, are embedded in curricula from primary to tertiary level to give students a sense of connection, first-hand experience, and thereby, engagement with the subject matter. In Vietnam, field trips are increasingly of common practice among undergraduate programs, especially engineering and tourism. Interestingly, more and more undergraduate English courses, both General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), also employ field trips as a compulsory activity. This present paper aims to shed light on the issues concerning the objectives and design of such trips in undergraduate English courses. To be more specific, it attempts to answer two questions: (1) why field trips are adopted in English courses at tertiary level; (2) how field trips are planned, monitored and evaluated in the GE and ESP courses. The study involves interviews with GE and ESP lecturers from five universities in Hanoi to explore the practice relating field trips in the English courses in their universities. The findings reveal practical differences in the exercise of the field trips in the GE and ESP courses, provoking further discussion on the desirable outcomes of such educational trips.