18 year old solo traveler. Would you allow this?

[Pippyls67]

My Ds wants to travel. I’ve never traveled with him. Budget constraints and I’m a very nervous person who has chronic depression and avoids new things . All rather sad for him but I’m glad to say he wants to break out and do it anyway. I have some money saved now and can afford to finance him. AI B U tho to let him go alone. He doesn’t have friends who want to travel at all. Would you say yes or do you think I should insist he goes on an organised young persons type thing instead. I don’t know if any at all though. Does anyone out there have any suggestions? He wants to see and experience things as he’s been terribly sheltered and constrained by me I’m ashamed to say. I’m proud and pleased he wants to grow in confidence himself and live a lot more. What do people think? Any and all advice and suggestions welcome. He loves the idea of Scandinavian countries and also really wants to go to Rome.

Agreed

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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, 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.

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

@Pippyls67

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

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?

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

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