With ski trips increasing in popularity in Irish schools, Olivia Kelly went to Austria to find out what your teenagers get out of the experience and to ask the questions every parent wants answered before parting wwith their hard-earned cash - is it safe, and is it worth it?

Leaving behind the fluorescent glare and roar of Salzburg airport, the tour bus full of tired but good-tempered teenagers wound its way into the cool blue silence of night falling on the Austrian Alps. With the impossible height of the peaks still visible in the moonlight, the awestruck young travellers surveyed what was to be their domain for a whole week.

"Look!" gasped one young man, "it's a Spar!" The bus nearly careered off the side of the mountain pass as all rushed to his side. "No, wait," said another, "it's a Euro Spar." A reverential silence filled the bus as they contemplated this marvel of pan-European convenience. And that was it. We had reached a summit. That was the height of culture for the week.

Skiing isn't a particularly common pastime for Irish kids for all sorts of obvious reasons, and ski trips abroad were once the preserve of only a handful of Irish schools. However, in recent years that's begun to change, most agencies specialising in school travel now offer ski packages and the increase in popularity prompted one travel company, Topflight, to specialise in ski trips for schools two years ago.

"The growth in schools opting for ski tours would have started to become noticeable about five or six years ago," says Marco Piccoli, managing director of Topflight Ski and Soccer for Schools. "In our first year specialising in ski trips, we had 60 schools in the Republic skiing, that went up to 90 this year and we already have 10 booking for 2003."

Phil Fortune, managing director of Budget School and Group Tours, which includes ski trips amongst its packages, says ski bookings account for a small but increasing proportion of overall business. "I'd have about six or seven schools skiing each year, so it's still a slow market, but it is growing."

More schools are heading off for the slopes and it is a fun holiday, but how does it benefit children and is it really an appropriate activity for a school tour?

Safety is an obvious concern. Skiing is after all an adventure sport, a big part of the thrill is that you travel down mountains at considerable speed. Most Irish children won't have had previous experience, so will they be safe?

"Inevitably there are accidents and a small percentage of people do have injuries. The worst you'd ever see would be a broken arm or leg and I'd say as low as 2 per cent of kids ever suffer breaks," Piccoli says.

Serious injury is rare, he says, because of the level of tutoring and supervision given. Ski instruction comes as part of the package and, Fortune says, "foolery on the slopes is just not tolerated." The students are with their instructor for about two hours a day. Schools wanting extra tuition time have to pay a supplement, generally around €40 per child.

Veterans of the slopes are generally very satisfied with the level of instruction. "The kids are split into groups of about 10 and the instructors make sure they know what they're doing. You get the odd twisted ankle - the worst we've had is a pulled ligament," says Geraldine Waldron, a teacher in Coláiste Lorcáin, Castledermot, Co Kildare.

Piccoli says that for teachers skiing is the easiest, most hassle-free school trip. Students are with the ski instructors all morning and are in the same hotel all week. The teachers, however, don't necessarily agree.

"It's very demanding trip for teachers," says Nuala Cunningham, principal of St Malachy's High School, Castlewellan, Co Down. She took 39 of her students skiing in Austria in January. "You have to work on getting them to a degree of physical fitness before you go, to decrease the chances of injury and sore muscles. You might not be putting them to bed until 1 a.m. and then you're getting them up again at six," she says.

There's also the problem of what to do with them when they're not on the slopes. Skiing usually ends by and 3.30 p.m. so there's a huge stretch of evening to fill. Getting them out of their boots and skis and back to the hotel to change and eat takes up a bit of time, but what then? Well what happens then is called "après-ski".

The notion of mixing après-ski and teenagers may cause a pang of concern. In traditional skiing parlance, aprés-ski tends to come down to lots of drinking, followed by naked rolling in the snow, and we wouldn't want any of the poor lambs coming home with a nasty cold. Fortunately, school trip "après-ski possiblities", as the travel agents like to call them, are really just the activities suitable for teenagers in the evening. Usually it's things like ice skating, bowling, swimming, video games and discos, some of which will be included in the package, while others are available for a small charge.

It's reasonable to expect a school tour to have some educational value and that students should reap a cultural benefit from their time away. Culture really isn't the point of a ski trip - it's a thrills and spills holiday. However, those who take their schools skiing say it has an educational value.

"Education is not just of the mind. If we're to have that attitude, we'd take PE off the curriculum," says Gerry McFadden of Malahide Community College, Co Dublin. "Travel is an education in itself. With skiing they're facing different challenges and learning about themselves," he says.

Many advocates argue that students get to experience a different language and different food. However, all the instructors and hotel reps speak English and chips are a strong favourite with most kids in evenings. "It's not a cultural tour," says Waldron, "but it opens them up to something they wouldn't normally do and it builds their confidence."

The accusation levelled at the traditional cultural capital tour is that kids have no interest in traipsing around museums, "looking at ancient ruins is not most kids' cup of tea," Piccoli says. This would seem a little unfair, both to the kids and to what's on offer in these tours. It's not a case of spooning culture down them like castor oil - just because it's good for them. Kids get a big kick out of climbing the Eiffel Tower or the Sagrada Famillia.

These trips have also evolved. There is a recognition that you need to break up a trip with things that are purely "fun" and many packages will include the option of a day trip to a theme park or a famous sports stadium. "To keep second-level students happy you need a cross between education, culture and enjoyment. Getting the mix right is the success of any school tour," says Fortune.

The cost of ski trips has reduced in the last number of years, making them more accessible to a greater number of schools, however they are still quite expensive and at prices starting from about €650 (see panel), they are out of the reach of many students. Students with physical or mobility difficulties may also find this type of trip beyond their capabilities. All of the schools I spoke to felt it was important to have alternative tours in the school. "Personally, I think skiing is the best value for the kids," says Cunningham, "but I would absolutely not advocate just having ski trips in the school."

To be fair, students are learning a skill they'd never get an opportunity to acquire. They're surrounded by fantastic scenery, the freshest air possible and, let's face it, they don't really see much in the way of mountains or snow at home.

When I asked the students at St Malachy's what they thought of their trip, the most common response was "brilliant", so they definitely have a good time. However, skiing really is more of a holiday than an educational tour and you have to decide where to draw the line before a week in Ibiza with a cultural outing to the Ministry of Sound starts sounding like a reasonable idea.

Olivia Kelly travelled to Austria and Italy on an outing for journalists organised and paid for by Topflight