Students take flight to party away the stress

What will your teenage daughter get up to tonight? Will she knock back a glass of tequila she has grappled from between the thighs…

What will your teenage daughter get up to tonight? Will she knock back a glass of tequila she has grappled from between the thighs of a lusty young Englishman? Will she then, to squeals of encouragement from her drunken pals, lick a line of salt from his navel to his neck before snatching a slice of lemon from his lips?

Chances are, if she's joining the growing numbers of Irish students heading abroad for a post-Leaving Cert bash, this is exactly the type of "getting to know you" activity awaiting her in the 24-hour party resorts of Ayia Napa and Ibiza.

So, are scenes from television documentaries such as Ibiza Uncovered staged to frighten parents, or do these shows merely hold a mirror up to the antics of young people abroad?

"That's quite the norm," says Elaine Hurley, of Blackrock Travel, who has visited these resorts herself. "It's what you see on TV."

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Irish travel agencies are reporting a boom in post-Leaving Cert holiday bookings, with many offering cost-cutting deals to cash-strapped students.

Some companies are asking for initial deposit payments of as little as £25, bearing in mind that young people may have been forced to drop part-time jobs to study longer and harder as the Leaving loomed.

The holidays cost, on average, around £400 or £500, and teenagers are recommended to bring roughly the same amount for spending money.

In the weeks before their children go away, travel agents are inundated with frantic phone calls from parents.

"They're asking, `Do you know what they're going to be getting up to over there?' They're very, very anxious," Elaine says.

Parents should rest assured that their daughters are generally well behaved, according to Stephen O'Hagan, manager of Sunway Travel, Duke Street.

"You'd very rarely see Irish girls putting themselves about like you see in Ibiza Uncovered," he says.

While meeting boys is "top of their list", the girls will tend to party in a group and not go to clubs with men they don't know well.

"Irish girls tend to stick with the same lad if they meet a nice one early on. They wouldn't want a reputation for going off with different guys all the time."

Things are different for boys, Stephen says. "Irish lads are different. They would move on if the opportunity arose."

The ready availability of drugs is another big worry for parents. However, authorities are toughening their stance on drug-pushers in pubs and clubs, he says.

"That reputation is kind of gone and going. The clubs have the best DJs, all the top UK DJs, so they really come down heavy.

"If Ibiza didn't change the way it was going I wouldn't have people still travelling there."

Stephen says a "large portion" of his clients' parents are paying for the post-Leaving Cert holidays as a "reward" for their children.

"Banter" with people of other nationalities can sometimes create problems, he says, but generally Irish teenagers know how to stay out of trouble.

"Very rarely do I hear of an Irish client in a fight or trashing an apartment," he says.

For many teenagers, although by no means all, it's the first time away without parents, and there's the delicious taste of liberty to savour. Inevitably, things can get out of hand sometimes.

Stephen says a gang of youths were thrown out of their apartment in Corfu a few summers ago. "They were only young lads and it was the first time away. The sun hit them, the beer hit them and they lost the run of themselves."

The night-life in these resorts is very different from what young people are used to in Ireland, Stephen says.

Town centres tend to get going around midnight, and clubbers can party until 10 in the morning, usually following the crowd from venue to venue.

Twenty-four-hour drinking is an option, but Stephen says his clients are "bright, astute, mature people".

"Many of them are seasoned clubbers in Dublin, and if you can survive in Dublin, you can survive anywhere."

Family counsellor Gail Grossman Freyne, of the Family Therapy and Counselling Centre in Ranelagh, says parents should try to trust their teenagers.

Her own 18-year-old daughter, Sarah, is going to Gran Canaria to celebrate completing her Leaving Cert this year.

"You put the first 18 years into helping them come to terms with the values you think are important. Some time you have to let go, and I think this is often the first moment," she says.

Parents should bear in mind that all young people go through a period of experimentation during which they, like their parents, will make mistakes.

"All you can do now is sit back, hold on to the arms of the chair and hope for the best."