There's been many a sausage sizzled and chocolate sold to ensure the group of students from Warrnambool College (and one from Brauer College) could embark on the trek across Vietnam.

The year 10 and 11 students yesterday had their last day of school after a busy year fund-raising, planning and training for the month-long World Challenge Expedition.

Year 11 student Georgia Miller, 15, was looking forward to experiencing life in the mountain villages.

"It will just be so good to see how other people live, people who are less fortunate, and to see how we take things for granted," she said.

Group leader and Warrnambool College teacher Kathy Stacey said the trip would tests the limits of students in the southern mountainous Dalat region while encouraging leadership roles.

The six girls and one boy will then head north for another trek and a village home-stay experience, where they will help refurbish an orphanage with materials they purchased.

Year 10 student Hannah Oates said other students didn't understand how demanding the trip would be. "It's not just fun and games," she said.

But the group knows that after nearly a month in the one set of clothes and plenty of tough days, they will relax in spectacular Halong Bay before returning home on December 19.