18 year old solo traveler. Would you allow this?

At 18? Why? It's Europe not outer Mongolia. Many many 18 year olds travel solo in SE Asia.

I went travelling round Europe on my own at 19, booked hostels and longer distance trains in advance, this was before smart phones though.

I'd say he's quite young to travel abroad alone

Could he build up to it eg overnight in uk first? Or extreme day trip to Europe but nit overnight?

@Pippyls67

I am going to guess that he didn’t pursue this?

Completely agree. The only places I would possibly suggest group tours is where the local infrastructure is maybe more difficult to navigate around. So the only group tour I did was in East Africa - it took 2 months and travelling/camping in many different countries. The local infrastructure at that time would have meant very difficult and time consuming travel between each country/stop point whereas if you go on an overland tour, you’re travelling in a vehicle equipped for local road conditions that can get you to places that local transport (or hiring your own) just wouldn’t

Well, or a cramped, timid 20something who has absorbed his mother’s dictum that new things are scary and the world is a bad place. I grew up with a mother like this, and took the first option of running off to see the world, but fighting your way out of the learned scripts of childhood is tiring.

A group tour in Europe? Unnecessary and expensive. There's very few countries id recommend tours for and neither Italy or Scandinavia come under that

Well yes, but by your own admission, you've also held him back by never travelling with him and rejecting new things or experiences.

If you try and control him because 'it's my money', what you could end up with is a 20-22 year old disappearing off into the distance once he's saved up enough and never looking back.

I’d encourage him to do a group tour with a company that specialises in the younger age group. Intrepid Travel are excellent, I have used them myself and they do trips specifically aimed at 18-35 year olds. G Adventures and Contiki also do trips aimed at that age group. For his very first time travelling, I think a group would be the safest option.

And that was just before the smart phone and ubiquitous internet access!
Sorry I will stop ranting now

Yep! And also, allowing them to plan the whole thing for themselves and do a budget and not be tracked on their phone the whole time is a big part of the whole experience

When I went, I sorted the flights, the vaccinations, the visas - first few nights accommodation etc etc
I am happy to say that I didn’t run in to any trouble the whole time apart from when I was in Sydney… and that was because of a pissed up English man. Go figure.

Oh OP you really need to cut the apron strings and stop holding him back. I moved (alone) to a different country at 19 so I'm quite sure he can manage a holiday at 18. At 22 I went to New York alone and then at 25 I did New Zealand alone. He's a adult and I think you need to wake up to that.

Agreed

Agreed, and going on an organised tour is probably micro managing.

One issue with an organised thing is your stuck with the same people which is an issue if they aren't your type. Where travelling alone he'll meet different people in different places

Some people are falling just short of suggesting the OP micro manage his whole trip!

The whole point in a young, naive adult going travelling is so that they are far less naive when they get back. You can’t teach life experience.

It is a good exercise in budgeting as some countries are more expensive than others. Sometimes organised tours are really overpriced by the big companies. Find a local travel agent to work with.

Good for him! Please don’t try to burden him with your anxieties -poor kid. Let him fly.

Advise him not to carry any package/parcel for anyone under any circumstances and not to listen to any sob story. Obviously be very careful with his money.

"Nothing is more confidence boosting than travelling independently". I have an 18 year old and while he has travelled independently, by far the most genuinely confidence boosting thing he has done is get a job by himself and do well at it, to have earned the respect and trust of men in their 40s with life experience. Travel is great, don't get me wrong but at the end of the day it's light and superficial and low stakes. To have done a tough 8 hour shift and done well, that builds real confidence and self-esteem. I have gone on some very nice trips, where things went wrong or where things were occasionally tough but at the end of the day, it's a fecking holiday. I take no pride in my ability to have gone on one and 'survived' 🙄. Much of this discussion is underpinned by vast levels of privilege and entitlement.

I think there is a line between helping him plan the trip, ie making sure he has accommodation booked and some idea of how he's getting from one place to another.

And completely controlling his trip by insisting he goes with some sort of organisation.

He's obviously been planning the trip as he's learning the language. He must have ideas of where he wants to see.

We live in the days of mobile phones and WiFi. So much information at his fingertips. And they are fairly safe countries.

We all want our kids to grow into confident young adults. And nothing is more confidence boosting than by travelling independently.
At the end of summer he could easily be living semi-independently at Uni.

What are people actually worried about that could go wrong?

A lot of the comments are from people who can remember what it was like to be 18 and/or whose children are older than that @ChorusOfDisapproval. it’s relatively recently that infantilisation of teenagers has happened. It’s not a good thing, it’s one of the reasons so many are afraid to leave their bedrooms.

I think a lot of the comments on here are from parents with younger children, who imagine that at 18 you're a fully fledged adult.

In my experience, boys in particular can be quite immature and inexperienced.

I'd try to plan an itinerary with him, possibly using hostels that have individual rooms for a start. As he progresses he may meet others to travel with or become more confident in sharing. In fact booking accommodation for the first few days might be a sensible move.

A tracker on his phone may also help to give him confidence (for his benefit obviously).

Joining social media groups for young travellers may be helpful in advance.

Make him aware of the types of scams that can befall him (particularly offering cheap accommodation).

I hope he has a great time - and try not to worry!

Agreed. I feel like I'm on another planet here. 18 is exactly the age when my children's holidays/travel become theirs to pay for, not mine. I may throw them a few bob to pay for a specific thing but some of the suggestions here would run to many many thousands. In what sense has a young person 'earned' any entitlement to travel? If I were spending that amount of MY money on travel, I'd want to be there! OK, the OP feels she has perhaps underspent as such in so far as she hasn't spent much money on holidays over the years but she was never under any obligation to do so. I think some people have lost the plot when it comes to holidays and put them almost at a level of feeding and clothing their children. But holidays are entirely discretionary.