Hi all,
My DD and DS are at the same school. DD is in Y9 going into Y10 and DS is going into Y11 in September.
At the beginning of July (when DD was in Y9) her school took some students doing French to Nice. At the meetings, in the booklets and from speaking to the teachers on the trip, the students were allowed to go off by themselves in their friend groups and get dinner, explore, get lunch, go shopping etc. In the mornings the teachers took them from the hotel into the central areas and they were allowed to go anywhere they wanted except the beach which was a group activity. However, even on the beach the teachers sunbathed and chatted and let the teens swim, go and get ice cream, walk down the beach etc and they had a meeting time again. They had a couple of set activities but other than that it was a bit of a jolly!
I think part of that was because the four teachers on the France trio are very relaxed characters and have good relationships with the students and respect is given both ways etc, it worked well and DD and friends came back with unknown gushing of their French teacher who has shown herself to be a human, not too different from them! Oh and don’t get me started on how all of a sudden DD is excited for the head of geography to teach her next year after that trip 
Now DS is going to Barcelona with most of the Y11 Spanish students in early September. We’ve had meetings on the trip and it all looks good so far but we’ve just received a booklet in the post with extra details and the teachers taking them on this trip have specified a plan for each day, down to the minute! They are to be split into actual groups with each teacher instead of walking in a clump and going off and they won’t be allowed to go anywhere a teacher can’t see them. Dinner will be together, as will lunch, they won’t be allowed to go shopping or exploring, it’s structured activities to improve their Spanish I presume. Rooms in the hotel have been assigned alphabetically, rather than they get to choose like on DDs trip.
I’ve tried to explain to DS (who’s visibly disappointed ,and it doesn’t help that DD is rubbing it in, that it will still be very fun and he will learn more than DD did etc) But he’s still unhappy.
So AIBU to ask:
a) Which trip is more normal in secondary schools as I thought they were all like DDs until now 
I’m genuinely interested in this but it’s not as important as b
b) How should I go about getting DS to understand that his trip will be lovely and he will learn so much and enjoy himself etc?
Thank you all so much! 