16 year old post GCSE adventure/holiday ideas

[bettybottersbetterbutter]

My ds and his mates are wanting to go away on their own post GCSE's next summer but not sure what is sensible (or allowed if abroad) at this age. Initially they were talking about getting a train down to the coast and camping which I'm fine with but nowhere seems to allow groups of this age unaccompanied plus camping tends to be more remote than the local train station so no good for more than a few days. Lots of their friends are doing festivals which I'm not wild about (terrifying experience myself age 18 no doubt influencing my thoughts on this) but he wants to 'go on holiday'. One rich friend suggested a fantastic sounding organised adventure trek to Nepal but £3.5k for 2 weeks this isn't going to happen so wondering if there is similar out there but less ambitious/expensive. Anyone's 16 year old done anything exciting & adventurous you would recommend.

Have you thought about NCS.
It's three weeks long. The young people are away during the week but back at weekends.
First week is activities. Mine went camping in Devon and did, white water rafting, cliff jumping, abseiling and loads of other activities.
Second week is spent at a residential centre learning life skills.
Third week is spent doing charity work in the community ( ds designed and planted a garden at an old folks home with his group)

Total cost was £50 and that included all travel and food.

Sorry NCS stands for National Citizenship Service and is open to all school leavers.

PGL do a summer adventure camp for 16-17 year olds that Includes a trip to thorpe park or alton towers, depending on what centre you choose
www.pgl.co.uk/en-gb/adventure-holidays/individual-holidays/adrenaline-adventure

The summer after Y12, DS and his friends went to Brighton and stayed in a youth hostel. Most of them had turned 17 but not all.

Thank you both a not heard of NCS so will definitely look into that and hadn't considered PGL so again will look into it / pass it on. Great ideas thank you

Youth hostels allow 16yos to stay without any adults. Not many other places do.

My dd had a great time doing this with her friends post GCSE.

The only thing about NCS and PGL etc is they are all very "organised activities". Fantastic in and of themselves, but I'm not sure whether or not they would tick the box for an independent trip. I know that that aspect was really important for dd this summer.

Ok well PGL not well received (he went with school in year 6 and definitely too organised/Young apparently!). Youth hostels are a great idea just need to get them to make a travel plan

@bettybottersbetterbutter

Ok well PGL not well received (he went with school in year 6 and definitely too organised/Young apparently!). Youth hostels are a great idea just need to get them to make a travel plan

DD and her friends actually learned quite a lot from doing all of the planning, booking trains, rooms etc. I think that was half the fun!

@AlexaShutUp did they did it in this country or venture into Europe ?

In this country. I wouldn't have been comfortable with them going abroad on a first trip tbh. Though they're very sensible and capable so I'm sure they'd have been fine, but it was reassuring to know that we could have driven to go and get them if it had all gone pear-shaped for some reason.

Think they knew we wouldn't agree to going abroad so they didn't even ask, but now they've proved themselves, they're definitely plotting something more adventurous this summer.

Fair enough tbh. I was flying off to the other side of the world at 18, so they might as well get in a bit of practice!

Would agree yha is a good choice. Great mix of locations too

I think that YHA allow 16+ to stay unaccompanied on their camp sites, with use of a kitchen facility etc, and they have various locations around the UK

A campsite near Telscombe, East Sussex definitely allows groups of 16-yr-olds to stay without adults. DC1 and a few friends went after their GCSEs and weren't the only ones of that age on site. It's quite a way from anywhere so they needed to catch a bus to top up on food shopping. Some AirBnB hosts will allow 16-yr-olds to book too.

My son went to Cyprus with 3 other boys.

Something like Kayantics?
An independent camping and organised activity centre in the lowlands of Scotland. That way they can be independent getting there and back by train. Pick up at the station and free choice of what and for how long they want to do stuff. Plus treated as individual group not en mass like NCS(where you might not be with your close friends) or PGL.
My son went this year in a group of five and had a great time. Seemed to mature overnight, as hadn't had the chance to do anything independent due to Covid and I was really wary of festivals.