That sounds like way too much fun for school.

The trips were actually marketing research for the students at the high school's Academy of Hospitality and Tourism as they worked to create eight downloadable audio walking tours within the city, including a Mission District cafe tour, a 2-mile dessert tour and a Hayes Street hidden gems tour.

Each tour includes instructions, the audio file and a map.

The students spent nearly two months researching current tours within the city and investigating what kinds of niche tour opportunities there might be.

They brainstormed ideas for new tours and wrote proposals, which they took to the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau for feedback.

The students then set out to create each tour, selecting stops and interviewing business owners - all on homework time.

"At the start, I was a bit shy," said junior Rabia Shaikh, 17, who helped create the Family Fun Tour. "It was a good skill, to learn how to talk to people."

The eight tours feature between seven and 18 minutes of audio with directions to each stop and a description of the location, including historical anecdotes or recommended specialties.

After more edits, the students made their final presentation this week to the bureau.

"They did it right," said their teacher Karen Field.

The tours take visitors to locals' hangouts or historically interesting businesses.

The dessert tour, for example, begins at North Beach's Z. Cioccolato - which the audio tour notes has 37 flavors of fudge - and then travels about 2 miles of city sidewalks with stops including a fortune cookie shop and Chinatown's oldest bakery, where listeners get a history lesson on Chinese moon cakes.

The project allowed the students to be creative while producing something real and usable, said Peter Van Court, assistant principal of curriculum.

"Now the rest of the world is going to see that," he said. "These students are the young San Francisco. They know what's out there."

The academy is following a relatively new trend in education, one that brings back the old concept of job-focused vocational education with a career track that still can include higher education.

"It prepares them either for college or a career in the hospitality industry," Field said.

Other Galileo academies include biotechnology, health, environmental science and information technology.

As at any high school, some of the students have their sights set on college. Others don't.

Rabia wants to be an international airline pilot.

Senior Cindy Estevez wants to be a pastry chef, one who owns her own business, a goal that will include not only culinary school but a college degree.

The 17-year-old loved the audio tours project, calling it "very, very fun" and "challenging."

"I am so proud of what I did and the work that we put out with our group," she said. "I'm so glad the people are going to actually see that, even though we're only high school students."

E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle