The exams are over, most people are still stuck at school, and GCSE and AS students have the longest, sunniest school holiday stretching ahead. They want to celebrate the end of their hard slog and the last thing most of them want is spend time with their families.

This is a moment when many parents will have to take a deep breath, possibly followed by a stiff drink, to decide how to manage the rite of passage. Truth is that if the teens are determined to go, they will. So it’s up to parents to arm their children with health and safety advice and, if possible, guide them towards some of the less alarming options for solo travel.

Parentline Plus is one of several organisations which has surveyed parents and teens about this issue. The resulting advice can be found on the Parentline Plus site.This is what one of their spokespeople had to say on the subject:

‘"One of the main worries is that, however mature and responsible the teen, they may not be so streetwise and aware of the risks out there. They may feel they know it all and so parents want to talk to their teens before they go away. Our Time to Talk advice can help.

"Alcohol is one of the big concerns with binge drinking culture associated with young people. And low-budget holidays are often booze fuelled. Another worry is having drinks spiked. Groups of girls can fall out and then they don’t stick together – or one of them falls in love and leaves the group. Unprotected sex is a big worry because they can get carried away with holiday romance and not be as sensible as they are at home. One survey showed that girls more likely pack a hairdryer than condoms."

Getting all those warnings across to teens can be tricky. One way to reduce risk is to guide them towards holidays that are tailor made for them.

One brilliant offering comes from Keycamp, the continental holiday camp company, which gives post-GCSE students a free tent to share with a mate or five when their family books a mobile home holiday. So teens get independence and parents will still know where they are. The offer is available between June 9 and July 7, 2007, call 0870 4289450.

For completely independent holidays in the UK the Youth Hostel Association is a good bet and will take teens without parents from 14. It has cool places to stay, such as tipis and barns (for £5 per person). The YHA also runs active teen camps for £199 a week.

For a more expensive and exotic option, but one which mixes worthiness with fun, Hands up Holidays arranges holidays all over the world where travellers help with a local building or teaching projects as well as sightseeing the rest of the time. The holidays are based in places like Fiji, China, South Africa and Mexico, and they could be regarded as gap-year tasters with a lot of luxury thrown in.

In the UK some organisations, like Camp Beaumont has special holiday programmes designed solely for teens. The House - as Camp Beaumont's teen camp is known - includes fashions shows, haunted house visits, house parties and magical mystery tours.

More adventurous (and expensive - about £3,000 without airfares compared to Camp Beaumont which costs about £500) options include a Costa Rican summer camp, which aims to be educational as well as fun with night-time white water rafting; trips to areas packed with monkeys and a day spent flying through the jungle on zip wires.

These deliciously hedonistic holidays will leave some heady memories but, unlike a Royal Yachting Association registered sailing course, it won’t give the student a neat money-earning skill for gap year and university. The RYA itself runs courses and so do various sailing schools like the Adrenaline Sailing School in Gosport. From about £200 (without accommodation) anyone over the age of 16 can learn to sail, independently of their parents, and get all the right certification to, eventually, get a yachtmaster certificate. Parents simply have to sign the relevant forms (and pay). Accommodation can be booked as part of the course.

Another useful, but expensive, option comes from Action Quest, which offers diving, sailing, white water rafting and more around the world from the Galapagos to Australia to the Med.

Tennis holidays in Spain and the UK can be found on the Travel-Quest website although you need to sift through the listings to find courses aimed specifically at teens. Some of these courses will give you the skills to be a tennis coach – another great way to earn during a gap year and at university.

STA or the good old Student Travel Association has plenty of trips in Europe, the UK and around the world all aimed at gap year and university students and they are ideal for some post-GCSE/AS.

No one can make this or any other holiday safe and risk free even if a teen is travelling with his or her parents. But a bit of forethought, preparation and communication with the teen can go a long way to reducing risk, even if it makes little difference to parental anxiety level.

Forward thinking

Jabs: Check the NHS website at least three months before your teen is due to travel.

Insurance: This is a particularly sobering page from the Foreign Office advice on travel. Try to get your teens to read it if they are travelling beyond the UK.

Culture shock: However well travelled they may still suffer from culture shock or simply fail to grasp the importance of local culture and customs until it is too late. This is especially so for girls faced with cultures where bare flesh is unacceptable.

Tips: This is handy list of tips for parents with teens heading off by themselves.

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