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?

[Abraxan]

@mirrorballer

Can't they go to a festival as others have suggested? Boardmasters, NASS, Reading?

Most festivals will be sold out now. They go on sale several months prior to the event, and usually sell out quickly.

[Abraxan]

@redskyatnight

DoE involves camping for 4 days on your own (with occasional adult check ins).

Not sure why wanting to do the same thing outside the auspices of the award is so bad tbh.

DofE Bronze (the ones most do at 15/16 pre GCSEs) is one night, with staff onsite overnight. They do the walk parts themselves but with check in points along the routes, and having handed in their planned routes to staff beforehand.

It's not really unsupervised overall.

[Clymene]

@SausageAndCash

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

People keep posting that link but you can't search unless at least one adult is in the party

Hotels are not allowed to take bookings from under 18s. Nor are campsites which are part of CCC or CMC. So I think the best thing is to ring round places. Do you know anyone with a field??

[tobee]

@SurfBox

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.

My point still stands. I'm not bothered about the hypocrisy on Mumsnet. I'm not being hypocritical in rl.

[Abraxan]

If going with a YHA hostel I would go for a private room, and one with private facilities of possible, for this age group. Most have private rooms for groups of 4-8. And select one with good public transport routes and also decent mobile data range. It means they aren't out of contact then incase if any issues or for checking in.

I think at 16y you should set some ground rules, but with some flexibility and in the knowledge some b]may be broken/boundaries pushed. Even the most sensible teen can act silly when unsupervised and excited by being away from home without adults for the first times.

I think going away at 16y in your own with friends was a bit more common in the past, though tbh no one I knew did but then they didn't have the money to do so either, but nowadays it is a lot less common in my experience and many places simply won't allow unsupervised under 18s. Year 12 seems to be more common ime.

[SleepingStandingUp]

Given the no of unaccompanied by an adult teens go to festivals, where there's heavy pushing of alcohol and drugs, easy access to easy teenage boys or older, etc I'd happily send them off to an air bnb or campsite instead.

At that age we simply wouldn't have let the other one go off alone so no one would have been pulling and going back to the tent with Tom alone. Phones and extra battery packs. Mandated check ins. We'd have complied with that too.

[TizerorFizz]

So no alcohol at campsites or boys??? Not in my day. Festivals are not the only places where you can indulge. If they seek this out, they will! Best to know your DC are well brought up before they go.

[TizerorFizz]

My girl friends were always looking for boys at 16. It was a well developed sixth sense! Parents knew very little. Some DC would not have been interested but even school trips were not beyond a bit of fun for some.

[DistrictCommissioner]

You can join the army at 16!

when I was 15 I went away to celebrate the end of GCSEs with my friends (who were 16), we stayed in a private room in a YHA. I think this is a really good option as there is the hostel warden & some structure around it.

[darcyesque]

Eggplant that's why I would NOT YH at any age tbh. Males sharing with females.

[SantiMakesMeLaugh]

@darcyesque

Eggplant that's why I would NOT YH at any age tbh. Males sharing with females.

I’ve never seen a dorm with male and female sharing in a YHA.

But they also have many so called family room which are perfect when travelling in a small group of 4~6. Then you dint have to share with ANYONE!

[GrumioEstEbrius]

There have been some good suggestions. We've booked a youth hostel with a private room for them to share. The girls have all agreed to have Life 360 on their phones, no alcohol (and we just have to trust them on that) and to be back at the hostel by 10pm each night.

[4am]

What about something like this ...

www.essentialsurrey.co.uk/kids-schools/best-summer-camps-for-kids/#page=1

[fyn]

@Clymene if you look at the website it classes child as 3-15 and adult as 16+ in the search function.

[Lottsbiffandsmudge]

@GrumioEstEbrius

There have been some good suggestions. We've booked a youth hostel with a private room for them to share. The girls have all agreed to have Life 360 on their phones, no alcohol (and we just have to trust them on that) and to be back at the hostel by 10pm each night.

My DS did exactly this with 4 mates last summer the day he and his best mate turned 16 (late August). They got the train across the length of the country, a bus to the YHA, shared an ensuite room alone, hiked, went wild swimming, ate a lot of crap and navigated local buses etc.
They had an absolute ball and all survived. All we as parents did was book the hostel and organise the outward and return train journeys. And I helped him work out bus times and where to catch it from to get to the YHA.
It's a great experience.and YHAs are used to dealing with teens alone. I made sure DS knew to tell the manager where they were going each day and when they shoukd be expected to be back. We got a few photos over the 5 days but mostly no contact at all.
It was all fine.

[FamousFrivolities]

In my schooldays it was often those with the strictest parents who rebelled the most. And often those parents absolutely didn't know!

My parents were relatively relaxed so myself and my siblings never felt a particular need to rebel.

If they're sensible I would absolutely allow a short holiday. Small steps to independence.

[TizerorFizz]

It’s often the quiet ones……

[maeveiscurious]

@GrumioEstEbrius

There have been some good suggestions. We've booked a youth hostel with a private room for them to share. The girls have all agreed to have Life 360 on their phones, no alcohol (and we just have to trust them on that) and to be back at the hostel by 10pm each night.

They will have a great time. Perhaps book them a restaurant on the last night?

[SleepingStandingUp]

@TizerorFizz

So no alcohol at campsites or boys??? Not in my day. Festivals are not the only places where you can indulge. If they seek this out, they will! Best to know your DC are well brought up before they go.

Of course there is, but there's aren't thousands of them, mostly all pissed or high, with the expectation that boozing starts Wednesday and ends Monday. And alcohol and boys tents aren't only the preserve of the poorly brought up teen. Plenty of nice, well mannered, middle class kids do stupid things too.

[YellowMonday]

17 for me for parent free holidays/trips, luckily in my friendship group lots of parents had holiday homes/shacks we could stay at.

We were absolutely not sensible, but luckily nothing untoward happened (not sure how!).

[SurfBox]

it was often those with the strictest parents who rebelled the most. And often those parents absolutely didn't know!

If they're sensible I would absolutely allow a short holiday

But that's exactly the issue-many parents have no idea how 'sensible' their kids actually are away from adult supervision.Ofcourse on mn everybody knows their child and knows they wouldn't lie to them...

Then on the next thread they'll criticize today's parents for being stupid enough to believe their kids lies and behaviour in schools getting worse...

[Monty27]

@GrumioEstEbrius

Such a wide range of opinions on this thread. Very interesting. I know that what she'd really like to do is go to Reading / Boardmasters but for me I'd be too anxious about that. I think I'd worry about the issue of booze and drugs and randy teen boys 😂. So for me a small group of girls staying together is the least lairy option, whilst giving them some freedom at the same time.

Interesting debate though.

And what if the young girls feel randy
or they all feel randy?
It's a kind of randy age and they've never been let loose. And do you think they'd not have organised a party?
I hope they behave 🤣

[Moodycow78]

16! No-one went inter railing until they were 18 as far as I remember. I had really liberal parents but 16 to go away alone no way, they're far too young.

[Augend23]

I don't think I went away the summer I was 16 (though I am glad you've found a YHA place for the girls, I think that sounds lovely).

I did go the summer I was 17 - found and booked a campsite which was probably only an hour away but it felt like a Big Deal. Packed the car up, picked up a friend, went to the supermarket for food and off we went.

Went wild swimming, had a barbecue. Some difficulty fitting a new gas cannister for a camping stove. Drank a small amount of booze. It was a bit chaotic (there was no hot water at the place so no showers. I took a solar shower but that was still probably a bit grim), but I sort of think that's mostly the point.

It was certainly a much safer and more low key trip than the two weeks training/flying round Europe that I did the following summer. I went with a couple of friends and we were Very Sensible, but there were still things that were a bit scary/hard to deal with - and it was made better and easier by already having a small basis of moderately difficult things which we had already maanged. My other friends went off to some hotel in Greece and spent an entire week getting sunburt then plastered and going out clubbing, so I think my parents got off quite lightly tbh.

[SausageAndCash]

@Clymene

People keep posting that link but you can't search unless at least one adult is in the party

Hotels are not allowed to take bookings from under 18s. Nor are campsites which are part of CCC or CMC. So I think the best thing is to ring round places. Do you know anyone with a field??

But if you look at individual sites you can book direct. I looked at at least 2 campsites that said explicitly they took unaccompanied minors… haha good heads up for me as to which sites to avoid 😂