New York City Discovery Camp for Teens

This is a city discovery trip rather than a language course. Zigotours, a French youth-travel operator, runs a seven-day programme in New York for young people aged fourteen to seventeen, travelling as a group of between twelve and twenty-four with a qualified director and activity leaders at a ratio of one adult to every eight participants. The week is organised around the three parts of Manhattan. Downtown means a boat trip at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, the trading floors and streets around Wall Street, the memorial site at Ground Zero and the immigration museum on Ellis Island. Midtown brings Greenwich Village and SoHo, the observation deck of the district's tallest skyscraper, Chinatown and Little Italy, and Times Square after dark. Museums are chosen together with the group, so a week can lean towards the Met, MoMA or the Museum of Natural History depending on what the participants want. Uptown covers Central Park and a Broadway musical. The group is based in a youth hostel in Queens, about three hundred metres from the Queensboro Plaza subway station and four stops from Times Square. Rooms are single-sex and sleep two to four people, each with its own shower and toilet, and there is a shared common room. Getting around is by public transport with an unlimited weekly pass; the airport transfer is by private coach. Meals follow the rhythm of a city trip. Breakfast is taken at the hostel, lunch is a packed picnic eaten during the day's programme, and the evening meal is in small restaurants around the neighbourhoods the group has been exploring. Return flights from Paris with a stopover are included. Families outside the Paris region can add a departure from one of twenty-five French regional cities as a paid supplement, listed among the optional services on this page. Travel documents are the parents' responsibility: a passport valid beyond the return date, a signed exit-of-territory authorisation, a health record and an approved ESTA, which has to be in hand at the latest seventy-two hours before departure. The programme suits a teenager who is curious about a big city and ready to spend a week on foot and underground rather than at a desk. Supervision is close, the group is small, and the itinerary leaves room for the participants to steer part of the museum programme themselves. Availability, dates and prices may change quickly. Please always confirm details directly with the camp provider before making travel arrangements.