Student fieldwork is an essential part of the curriculum in many disciplines. In geography it is seen as a most powerful learning invitation where supervised learning can take place via first-hand experience, outside the constraints of the four-walls classroom setting (Arnold et al. 2022). Supposedly the intercultural experiences and insights into other environments when doing field courses abroad are another benefit. With this in mind the authors organized a two weeks’ study project bringing together masters and bachelor students of geography from a German and an Indonesian university in a rural area in West-Java for joint data collection. The presentation will give insights into the experiences of the project carried out under (retreating) COVID-conditions. The encountered barriers are mainly on the administrative and organizational side with changing requirements due to COVID being a mayor issue. The intercultural experience while at times demanding was ultimately a great learning experience.

Keywords: field work, geography education, learning outcomes