Happy New York — New Year City Camp in New York for Teenagers

A guided city discovery week rather than a language course: there are no classroom lessons. The group is French-speaking and travels with a qualified director and activity leaders, at a ratio of one adult for every eight young people, and it stays small — between ten and sixteen participants. Days are spent walking and riding the subway through Uptown and Downtown Manhattan, and the museums visited are chosen together with the group, so the week is shaped in part by the participants themselves.

The stay covers direct return flights from Paris, accommodation in the youth hostel, the meals described below, the guided programme in the city and the supervision team. Departure from a number of French regional cities can be arranged instead of Paris; those departures are listed as extras. Travel documents remain the family's responsibility: a valid passport, an approved ESTA, a signed exit-of-territory authorisation, a signed health form, parental consent for activities and image rights, and a copy of the vaccination record.

The group stays in a youth hostel with a subway station close by. Rooms are single-sex dormitories of four to six beds; sanitary facilities are shared and the showers are inside the rooms. A communal kitchen is available to guests, and there is a common room that also serves as the group's activity room.

Breakfast is served at the hostel, lunch is a picnic taken during the day's visits, and dinner is eaten in small local restaurants.

The programme is built from guided walks and visits. Uptown days take in Central Park, the vintage shops of China Town and Little Italy and the streets of Greenwich and Soho. Downtown days bring the Staten Island ferry and its view of the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial; a Broadway musical is suggested as an option. On the final evening of the year the group gathers in Central Park for the fireworks and then walks the celebrating streets, and the first morning of the new year is spent on Fifth Avenue and at the top of the Empire State Building.

The facilities the group uses are those of the hostel: single-sex multi-bed rooms with showers inside, shared sanitary facilities, a communal kitchen and a common room that doubles as an activity room. A subway station is within walking distance, and the programme relies on the subway to move around the city.

A supervised group stay for teenagers who want to see New York at the turn of the year rather than sit in a classroom. The team is a qualified director with activity leaders, one adult for every eight participants, and the group is capped in the mid-teens, so the pace stays close to what the participants themselves choose. Everything is done together: the flight from Paris, the daily route through the city, the museums picked as a group and the countdown itself.