16 year olds wanting to go on holiday alone

[GrumioEstEbrius]

MY DD and three of her friends want to go on a holiday to celebrate the end of GCSEs. Just for 3 or 4 days, but alone with no adults. When I was their age lots of teens used to go inter-railing around Europe during the post-GCSE summer (DH did this and a couple of my mates from school did it too) but this no longer seems to be a thing for kids this age now.

So their options are to camp, static caravan or AirBNB in the UK.

My issue though is that do any campsites / rentals allow unsupervised 16 year olds?

Does anyone have any good suggestions as to what they could do? CentreParcs maybe?

It's not a hard and fast rule!

Who lives their life with what the media/Mumsnet coverage would be like if something goes wrong?

^
that's like saying given they are allowed to have sex at 16, it's crazy adults can't have sex with them at 14-15 when many 14-15 yos are physically developed as 16 yos.^

Jeez I'm glad I don't share your thoughts processes

Who lives their life with what the media/Mumsnet coverage would be like if something goes wrong

my point was the hypocrisy on mn as if something did happen then you can be sure mn be fill of 'what were the parents thinking'. Allowing a 15 yo child to go abroad alone with a 16 yo with no adult supervision to me is bloody bonkers and highly irresponsible.

Many of these responses are why universities are increasingly having to actively look after 18 year old first years as though they are much younger

eh no it's cos 18yos are still irresponsible and lacking boundaries but generally not near as much as 16.

Also where did you get this info? I worked in University accomm and don't ever recall reports of us ''having to actively look after 18 year old first years as though they are much younger'', what does that even mean?

The main problem was parties but that's hardly lacking maturity.

You do know that the YHA allows transgenders into female dorms?

YHA provides both single gender dormitories and private rooms for our guests; both male and female dormitories are available. Transgender guests are welcome to stay in the dormitory which corresponds to the gender with which they identify

I think when I was 16 I went away with two friends - we rented a tiny (cheapest we could find) cottage at the seaside and merrily spent the week on the beach, drinking alcopops, and reading Mills and Boon novels. We had the nicest time, my dad dropped us off and picked us up, and we took our own food. Relied on buses to get about. It seems v idyllic looking back now, this must've been 1999 ish?

.....and I'd much rather support my child doing something like the experience I had than waving them off to Reading or Leeds festival 😱

Eggplant that's why I would YH at any age tbh. Males sharing with females.

@RampantIvy not when you qualify for top rate PIP no. You can learn to drive at 16.

I didn't know that @Libertybear80.

I think youth hostelling sounds a good idea. I remember going youth hostelling in the lake district with a friend when I was 16 or 17 and we had a great time. A lot of people let their kids go to Reading festival at this age but I would rather my DCs did youth hostelling than that. I would also trust sensible teenagers to camp for a few days if they had been used to doing it for D of E or had been in the guides/scouts. Check if the campsites will accept under 18 groups. I assume that those saying 16 yr olds aren't old enough to look after themselves never sent their kids on a french/german exchange or d of e trip.

i think i would be more hesitant about teenagers going abroad alone at the current time as covid adds an extra level of stress and there were stories last year of young people catching covid and being trapped abroad for weeks.

if it is hard to find accommodation that will take 16 yr olds I would suggest a parent or two camping on the same site.

My DS and his friends went camping for a couple of nights in the summer following GCSEs - campsite about 45 mins away .

One of his friends parents who had a van dropped them all off - and also camped themselves fairly close .

They also went to Leeds festival by coach - but didn't camp overnight .

All these tales of 16 year olds staying in hotels/campsites/B & Bs upwards of 15 years ago are totally irrelevant because most hotels/campsites/B & Bs just won't accept anyone under 18 without someone over 18 accompanying them.

For the record, at 17 I went camping on the Isle of Wight with a load of 17 year old girls, but I bet the campsite we stayed at would accept 8 x 17 year olds now. I also went youth hostelling at 15 with another 15 year old. Unlike some posters I accept that things have changed these days.

DD went camping 5 years ago at 16 with another 16 year old and two 17 year olds. They had quite a job finding a campsite that would accept them.

There are some places they can stay so you just have to google them.

My 21 year old DS & a group of friends have just been refused rental of holiday accommodation , as PPs have said, it's not about what parents might think, but about the policies of the individual holiday sites.

Doubt air bnb would allow it but they could camp on certain campsites. My dd went camping with her mates at 16, they had a great time!

@RampantIvy that is true and I agree that few campsites will be happy with a group of 16yo with no adult.
Same with hotels, I’ve found that they all want at least one 18yo there.

Having said that, YHA are still happy to welcome 16yo in their own. Dc2 did that last year with another 2 teens (also 16yo).
YHA is a great way for 16yo to travel on their own.

Last summer, DD1 and four friends went camping Monday - Friday. The girls did the research themselves and found out that the campsite owner was happy for the five 16-yr-olds to be there without an adult provided psrent phone numbers were given to the owner. One parent dropped them off and another collected them. In the middle of the first night, they ended up moving their bell tent and repitching it so it was less exposed to the strong winds. They had a lovely week in the middle of nowhere!

A couple of weeks after that, a group of 7 of them stayed in an AirBnB on the south coast. DD1 had contacted the owners of a number of places and asked if they'd be willing to host a group of 16-yr-old girls. A couple of them were happy to do so and the one they stayed at left a lovely review for DD to say how much they'd appreciated the group's honesty about their ages but also that they'd left the house in an immaculate state.

My 16 year old son went away to our holiday home.with 4 mates. They had a whale of a.time-no parents on site, but I live 30 minutes away so could get there fairly quickly if anything serious had happened.

OP @GrumioEstEbrius Campsites and holiday parks that accept U 18s
https://www.campsites.co.uk/search/campsites-for-under-18s

Did you sleep or did you spend the entire weekend worrying?

(I would love to be a laid back non-worrier but alas, that's not the case)

@NormalForNuneaton I worried more about them getting there than I did about what would happen once they were there, as another girl who had only recently passed her test was driving them. That really did worry me. I didn't really think about it once I knew she had got there in one piece - but that might also partly because she's my youngest, so I've become accustomed to DC being at university etc. I'm congenitally a worrier, so I think she just struck lucky by virtue of birth order (as she's also my least sensible child, and shouldn't really be let out in the wild until she's about 45).

that's like saying given they are allowed to have sex at 16, it's crazy adults can't have sex with them at 14-15 when many 14-15 yos are physically developed as 16 yos

@SurfBox Let's just assume for a minute that you're serious with the analogy between 16 yr olds going camping for a few nights and adults having sex with children.

It would also, possibly, be true that most young people don't go straight from being completely pre-pubescent to being 16 and having an adult sexual relationship. There's mostly some degree of exploration and puzzling things out before you actually have sex with someone. By the same token, young people increasingly need to be able to work out how to solve practical problems and keep themselves safe in a variety of situations in the years before they turn 18, rather than be treated as entirely dependent children until that point. I work with young people aged 18-23ish, and the degree to which so many of them have learned helplessness is incredible. I don't think it does them any favours.