Roger says the holidays are fun but warns parents against expecting too much on the educational front despite what some adventure holiday companies promise. "I’ve taken my son all over the world but his knowledge of geography is abysmal. When I asked him to write a diary on our last holiday he just wrote about the food," says Roger, who may have the new Jamie Oliver on his hands.

He also warns against a tendency for parents to leave discipline at home when they go on holiday with their teens. Roger experienced this first hand during a recent flotilla holiday (it was not organised by Footloose) when a boatload of teens got drunk and had to be disciplined by the flotilla leader. "Parents have to put the kids first when choosing the holiday and when they’re on holiday. That means they may have to slow down a bit - and some people don’t like that."

Picking the right holiday in the first place needs to press all the right buttons and at Tell Tale Travel one of the family holidays is an eco trip including a chance to care for elephants: how could any teenager resist that?

Dee Edwards managing director of Tell Tale Travel, the company she co-founded two years ago, takes special care with the teen family market: "The teens who go on our holidays often fit into the 14-16 bracket. That time after the family have been going on more ‘normal’ holidays in France or wherever and then want to have adventures as a family (and probably have a bit more money to spend). The parents also want to do it before the children get a bit older and want to go off with their friends. "We haven’t had any ‘discipline problems’ as such, all the teenagers who’ve been on our holidays are absolutely lovely, but sometimes we’ve had cultural issues. Teenagers on the whole are very open to other cultures but can make assumptions that everyone’s got the same basis of behaviour. For example in Thailand, respect for elders is ingrained in society and has an impact on everyone’s behaviour, the way they speak etc. Something like that is too much of a fundamental difference for them to take on board in two weeks (it’s hard enough for adults!) so they may unwittingly cause offence to locals. Or perhaps they may dress inappropriately, in short skirts for instance."

Dee puts the lack of discipline problems down to the fact that Tell Tale Travel does tailor made trips rather than making up groups of families to go on holiday together. "Perhaps the teens are more likely to behave themselves than if they were in a large group with other British teenagers. They also get to meet local teenagers of similar ages so I think they are too busy finding out about each other to get up to anything too naughty!"

And the key to these holidays being a good experience for everyone is, according to Dee, doing things together: "Like a family all doing an 'introductory rock climbing lesson' because one of the kids does it at school and they want to share the experience.’

For those who want to do less sharing and more relaxing-while-the-kids-do-their-own-thing Virgin holidays has a few hotel-based holidays designed for teen and parents. At the other extreme, Cape Adventure does holidays in Scotland which, in my reckoning, would be perfect for rugged fathers and sons but less so for mother and daughters, like me and mine, who like sunshine and pretty clothes.

Maybe the best of both worlds can be found on a London to Paris bike ride to raise money for the Big Issue . How cool is that? To get even cooler you can sleep in ice hotels or go husky sledging with Arctic Experience .

For an eye-popping range of destinations and activities Exodus has teen-friendly holidays from Zanzibar to the Loire with activities from gentle cycling to safaris. One of their African adventures promises Victoria Falls, a boat trip through waterways of the Okavango Delta and glimpses of endangered game, including elephant, leopard, wild dog and lion. Then there’s an adventure around the Amazon and into the Inca interior of Peru or, nearer home, rafting canoeing and walking in Finland.However near or far from home, most of these holidays are expensive. But they may just stock your family with some lovely memories of family life before your babies start making their own way in the world.

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