For Teens With Means, Camp Isn't a Cabin -- It's the Caribbean

And schools have begun taking students on far-flung class trips at much younger ages. "It used to be you went abroad as a high school graduation present," said Carey Rivers, a D.C. consultant with Tips on Trips and Camps, a referral service. "Now for spring break, the sixth grade goes to Honduras."

Actually it was Costa Rica in June for middle-schoolers from the Calverton School in Calvert County. Fifth-grade language students at Potomac Elementary School in Montgomery County take spring trips to China. And some schools have developed travel services. Through Sidwell Friends School in the District, for example, a 13-year-old can book a bike tour of the Netherlands or a marine study on the California coast.

Although many youth travel programs provide basic accommodations, others are surprisingly extravagant. One $6,500, four-week tour of U.S. golf courses includes a stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. When Binjal Patel, a 16-year-old from Salisbury, Md., took a Weissman Teen Tour to several European countries last summer, she said, the food was rich and the hotels fantastic.

"Some of them were, like, huge," Patel said. "The only one that was small was London, but their rooms are usually small anyway."

Some companies make sure prospective travelers know they won't ever be without cable TV and Jacuzzis. Weissman advertises on its Web site that all its European hotels are "SUPERIOR 4 and 5 STAR."

Founder Ronee Weissman said she chooses hotels primarily based on security, and besides, she said, "I find that the kids are very appreciative." When the teenagers visit an "unbelievable" villa in Tuscany where vineyards can be seen for miles and the owner proudly brings out six courses for dinner, "they go over to the manager and say, 'This is a wonderful meal. Thank you,' " Weissman said.

Whether the kids fully appreciate the opportunities -- whether the camaraderie is more memorable than the setting -- is perhaps an unanswerable question. A testimonial on one teen tour Web site reflects the theme of many others: "This summer was amazing because I was with my friends 24/7." One seventh-grader raved in her instant-message profile after a middle school trip to Italy, "HOTT guys rode on buses. HOTTER guys were in the army. HOTTEST guys drive the mopeds!!"

Travis Yates, operational director for the Florida-based tour company ActionQuest, said "the vast majority of students know how lucky they are" to be traveling on the best boats that can be chartered. He loves to see teenagers grow independent over the summer, from the first time they struggle to make dinner and he tells them, "There's one item in that galley that opens the can."

"They get away from Instant Messenger now, and they're almost useless," Yates said. "I have shipmates who turn their cell phones on, even though they don't work."

But then they are left to sail the boat; Yates said he almost never touches the helm.

Rob Woods, 16, of McLean is going on an ActionQuest sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands, as his brother did; he has also taken a teen bike trip in New England and gone to basketball camp in Spain. "We both traveled extensively in our careers," his mother, Kathryn, said of herself and her husband. "It's important to see some of the world and enjoy themselves."

Rob has sailed with his family, off Maine and New York's Fire Island. "But I never really wanted my dad to teach me," he said.

Independence is a big reason Crowlie has urged teen trips on her children. "Certainly, as your economic status grows, you see it as an opportunity to learn skills and experiences you can't get in Bethesda for 16 years, with your parents doing everything for you," she said.

At a camp information fair in the winter, her 15-year-old daughter, Alison Bunnen, said: "I was so amazed by all the activities you could choose to do -- the Caribbean or Hawaii or the Fiji Islands or Ireland. I have never been to Ireland. It's such a pretty place."

But still, "I think Ireland is too much for a first time," she said. She's off to Puerto Rico instead.