Thinking DS' travel itinerary is none of our business

[WelshMeg]

DS is 18, he's going inter-railing in the summer 6 weeks or so all in, with 5 friends.
Last night he was talking about his itinerary, they have decided to pre-book all their hostels as apparently it's not uncommon in some places to be unable to get a room.
In the 48 days I think it is they are travelling they have booked for 20 different cities. They aren't doing any massive travel days but some are more complicated than others (like getting from Lake Bled to Trieste or having to get a boat across Lake Como to get to the hostel) but generally they aren't travelling more than 4 hours in a day and there are quite alot of 1/2 hour journeys like Venice - Lake Garda - Milan, Lausanne - Geneva etc.
DH thinks they will be exhausted, I think yeah they probably will be but it's not our business and leave them to figure it out?
They are staying 2-3 nights in each place (maybe one place is a one night stay but I think it's because of trains).
AIBU thinking it's not our business and we shouldn't warn him? Or should we suggest they change it up so they aren't moving so quickly all the time.

The whole point of this kind of adventure is for them to do it their way by themselves.

As someone not so far past their backpacking days, they definitely need to book ahead! Europe is so overtouristed in summer post-covid that they’ll struggle to book anything decent in the western part of it at the last minute, or get price gauged. Some hostels even have rules around minimum stays during July-August. They could be left with the total crap holes otherwise. The only places it’s simpler to rock up are the Balkans, which it doesn’t sound like they’re visiting.

Often, hostels have reasonable cancellation policies too. If they end up skipping a place, they’ll be fine.

And they’re teenagers. They’ll probably spend a lot of stops drinking/getting high and hanging out with people at the hostel, rather than really sightseeing. They actually sound very logical and responsible going off your posts.

Also, they’re probably getting advice off TikTok and Reddit on itineraries. They’ll be doing their research somewhere. Backpacking is much easier these days.

One piece of advice from a regular traveller: get him a Revolut card. Free withdrawals up to a certain amount at ATMs, and best exchange rate paying by card. And make sure he doesn’t take out loads of cash in advance and walk around with it. Nearly everywhere takes card. (Except Germany) He will end up being pickpocketed - it’s rife in Western European cities in summer now.

Wishing then the best time!

Of course leave him to it. When I went inter-railing I had no idea where I was or what I was doing (basic mobile phone then), and that was the point. I didn't even have a strict itinerary and again that was the point-I could decide to go somewhere there and then and I did!
Plus none of his plans sound that rigorous anyway.

my dd did this
what a great experience and a learning curve
she lost her mobile, as did her friend luckily there were 3 of them!

It’ll be fine. That’s pretty much what I did at 18, including a couple of nights sleeping in train corridors and on ferry decks.

I can’t imagine that that would be any trouble at all to an 18 year old. I did similar on Greyhound buses round the States at that age. And at 65 I went interralling around Europe and we did 5 cities in 10 days no trouble. We used it as a sort of ‘loved this place, will definitely come back’, or ‘seen the high spots, not bothered about the rest’ or didn’t like it here at all’ trip. Saw lots, had a great break, came back feeling like I’d had a good holiday. Was not exhausted by it even at that great age.

I see no harm in commenting they might be shattered - big deal!