Independent holiday ideas for teen DS & friends

[doistayordoigo]

Have seen a similar question asked recently, in Travel I think, but not many responses.

DS is 18 and will be finishing school this summer before heading to uni in the autumn. He and his friends had vague plans to go on holiday abroad somewhere, but obviously had not booked anything They now would like to go somewhere in the UK. Not sure exactly how many of them are hoping to go.

Does anyone have any ideas of where they could go? Only one of the group has a car so travel will be a consideration. We live in the Midlands so are pretty accessible to lots of places, but I know lots of places don't like groups of young people, especially boys!

Any ideas?

DD did a few hostel holidays at that age. I thought they’d be grim but was really surprised how lovely most of them were and cheap!

DD had a lovely youth hostel weekend after GCSEs. They stayed at the one in Beer, which has a camping field, so they camped but used the hostel facilities for cooking etc. It would be hard to get to by public transport though. There are probably similar places with better transport, and youth hostels are used to groups of teenagers.

I don't really know much about youth hostels...are they located near to places to go out? Although DS and his friends haven't had much opportunity to go to pubs etc since turning 18 I'm sure that would probably be part of their plans once they're able to.

Lovely youth hostel on the harbour in Bristol, the area around there has loads of bars etc.
Then it’s a good area for outdoor activities, kayaking etc.

They vary hugely, some are in towns, by beach, rural .. www.yha.org.uk

Needs to be a hostel - no self catering or air BnB will take a bunch of teens.

I'd suggest camping or a hostel, in a hostel they could hire the whole dorm.

You'd struggle to find somewhere that would rent accommodation to a group of 18 year olds.

Yep, youth hostels are the solution!

If they want to stay in a city, university halls of residence usually rent out rooms cheaply in the summer. It's hard to know how many of them will be doing it this year, though.

I've asked him and he says they wanted a beach holiday, I think they're still hoping they'd be able to go abroad, but I think that's going to be off the cards. If they could rely on the weather I think they'd be happy just chilling on the beach during the day and then going out at night. I'm not sure any of the youth hostels are best located for that?

Newquay is the traditional option for this...

When I was 16 we did a post GCSE holiday in the YHA in Ambleside - it’s a bit of a walk into the village for the pubs there n

Yes, I thought Newquay too, but there aren't any YHS youth hostels there. Where do the kids usually stay?

Caravan might be an option. Just consider that some pubs don’t allow large groups.

I hope he finds something and has an epic time - god knows teens need it after the last year.

www.booking.com/hostels/city/gb/newquay.en-gb.html

Thanks for that link @BigSandyBalls I didn't realise there were other hostels than the YHA ones. There's not a lot of availability left for the summer so I guess they'll need to move quickly. DS is a bit of a snob so might not like the idea of shared dorms

YHA Brighton is apparently excellent, ds and then girlfriend went a few years ago.
Ticks the beach and city boxes

In a normal double room with ensuite btw