Travel-initiation road trip across Malta and Gozo

The operator calls this a project of initiation into travel. With a rucksack and good shoes, teenagers aged 14 to 17 learn the basics of itinerancy: finding a place to sleep, working out which bus to take, getting by in a country whose language they do not speak — skills the operator says will serve them on their next trip round the world. Once the group is formed it meets before departure to prepare the stay together and to choose the visits and activities collectively, so the itinerary is the group's own.

The price quoted per child covers the travel from the departure town, the flight to Malta, the accommodation on both islands and the programme chosen by the group. Travel insurance is charged separately and is not part of the quoted figure. Meals are not a fixed board arrangement: they are taken as the trip goes — at the market, in a restaurant, or cooked by the group. Departure is from Clermont-Ferrand by public transport, then by plane; on the islands the group moves by public transport.

To make the most of both islands, the accommodation is split across two sites, one on Malta and one on Gozo. The group sleeps in youth hostels or in apartments, as the itinerary requires. The operator does not publish the room arrangement for either site.

There is no fixed board arrangement, and that is part of the programme: meals are taken as the adventure goes — at the market, in a restaurant, or cooked by the group itself. Shopping and cooking for the group is one of the practical skills the stay sets out to teach.

The group chooses its own programme before departure, from ideas the operator publishes: Valletta, the capital listed as a UNESCO world heritage site; the fortified cities of Birgu, Bormla and Senglea; the former capital Mdina; turquoise beaches such as the Blue Lagoon and Golden Bay, good for snorkelling; sea caves; the islands of Saint Paul; and the Blue Grotto, reached by boat. Walking and public transport between them is the method as much as the means.

The programme has no single base: the group is housed on two sites, one on Malta and one on Gozo, in youth hostels or apartments, and moves between them by public transport. The operator publishes no list of facilities at either site.

The Maltese archipelago was chosen for spectacular natural sites, a dense history, a Mediterranean climate — and because English is an official language, which the bilingual team turns into a set of challenges for the group. What a teenager takes home from this one is not a set of photographs of monuments but the discovery that they can arrive somewhere unfamiliar and work out how to get around it.