Great holidays for your teenager

If your teenagers go away without you, is it inevitable that you've got a fortnight of sleepless nights worrying that every phone call is going to start with the words "It's the British Consul here, could we have a word?" There must be some easier options... we look into it.

Although, no matter how much they ask, you won't want to send them off around Europe with a backpack, a wallet full of Euros and a couple of Rough Guides, and you may well accept that your idea of a good time and theirs are so different that there's no way you can dovetail them together.

A good compromise can be the tailored activity holiday - they get to be independent and away from you, you have the benefit of knowing they're being monitored and looked after.

• Great holidays with your teenagers

Camp Beaumont

Inspired by the American Summer Camp experience, Camp Beaumont holidays offers a wide range of activities during the day, from traditional holiday fun such as beach games, quad biking, raft building to the likes of Uban Art.

And in the evenings there are barbecues, discos, Ibiza-style foam parties, everything a discerning teen could ask for.

PGL Adventure Holidays

PGL has 26 sites divided between this country and France. Different camps specialise in different activities, so whatever your teen is most interested in, there's almost bound to be a PGL holiday based around it.

Themes include Multi Activity, allowing you to pick from amongst 50 different activities, Adrenaline Adventure, which combines four days of Multi Activity with two days of white knuckle theme park fun, Dance, Film Making, Football, Learner Driver, Mission Spy, Music Studio and many more.

Do It 4 Real Camps

23 camps across the UK offering activities including Performing Arts, Film and Media, Action Adventure and so on.

Egypt

For the extra adventurous, the firm Memphis Tours offers adventure holidays in Egypt for teenagers, involving the Great Pyramids, a trip down the Nile and motor biking in the desert.

Horse Riding

Probably appealing more to girls (not that we want to make sweeping generalisations here at Dad.info) riding holidays offer teens the chance to ride on and look after horses, often in gorgeous rural locations

• Teenagers

Author

Steve Cochrane is a freelance journalist and scriptwriter who is married with three children, varying in age from 17 to eight . As well as writing he has worked as a full time househusband, unofficial family childminder and has spent many years trying to come up with a better word for househusband. Any good tips?

Got any good tips for good holidays for teenagers? Any good sources of fun, cheap adventures for them? Share your ideas...