Please help me make a checklist for a 20-year-old’s first flight & holiday to Spain

[Herbace]

’my 20 year old is going on first holiday alone with friend to youth hostel in Spain beginning of July. As a family we have only had one holiday out of the uk (unfortunately covid and health problems meant no flying ) this was when he was toddler so he has no experience at all of finding his way in an airport, being in a plane , checking in and so on . I’ve advised him to check with airline for what can go in bags etc but he’s reluctant to find out more . Please help me to make an essential checklist, it’s been many years since I have been in a plane and I’m feeling pretty useless right now as a parent.

Your adult child really needs to find this stuff out for himself

Get to the airport at least 3 hours early. Go through security as soon as your luggage has been checked in (if checking any in). Keep an eye on the departure boards for gate no. etc, don't rely on announcements. Give yourself plenty of time to get to the boarding gate. GET INSURANCE.

Which airport is he flying from and which airline?

He’s 20 not 12. Don’t worry about it. He’s not going to get lost in an airport. Loads of kids are back packing round the world at that age, he’s going to Spain on one flight. All he needs to know is what baggage he’s booked for his flight ie has he paid for checked in luggage.
Print off his boarding pass and have it on his phone.
Thats it!
(and yes as above make sure he has insurance! And his GHIC card if he’s got one, if not apply asap)

Look at the airport he’s travelling from
it will tell you -
if his just doing a under the seat bag what is allowed from that airport to be put in it
if he’s taking a suitcase - then it doesn’t matter

He just had to ask - He looks for his airline/flight number and goes to that check in desk
from there , they will give him a boarding card
tk say what gate he needs to go to
He then goes through passport control to the departure side of the airport
waits there till his flight is called / ir keeps an eye on the flight board to say
proceed to gate …,,,

important things to remember: passport, boarding pass (once he’s checked in), charger for phone, portable charger for extra hours using phone, EU plug adaptor, some euros in cash, liquids must be in bottles less than 100 mls (or checked into hold luggage).

Check in is now an on-line process for many airlines. You do it from home 24 hours before your flight.
It will be fine ; he’ll figure it out. Especially if his friend has some recent experience.

Your adult child can figure this out for themselves. By that age my daughter was living in Africa doing project work

You are honestly not helping

Stop babying your son. You are doing him no favors whatsoever!

Good tips above, also remind him to buy bottled water too drink, minerals can buy high and cause diarrhoea. My friends adult child was v ill when abroad, only when they got back did my friends adult child work out why, she just thought her child would know and forgot to mention it.

OP when you last took him overseas when he was a toddler, did someone write you a checklist? Or did you figure it out for yourself?

Insurance is the only advice I would offer, as novices often overlook that.

Use co-pilot gemini or any of the AIs and they will generate a complete timeline of steps to do and a checklist for your daughter. They need to know how to do these things for themselves and helecoptering will not help. Young people are far more resourceful than their parents give them credit for. By age 20 I had travelled to Morocco which was not then a tourist destination.

Em he's 20 not 2.

You're not useless at all so don't think it. You are possibly overthinking things on his behalf but I don't think that's so unreasonable given the circumstances - Covid etc. I'm sure you just want to ease his way. I think some of this cohort of twenty year olds are understandably less well travelled than their peers would have been a decade or two ago.
INSURANCE - as others have said it's so easily overlooked and it is so essential. Needn't cost an arm and a leg either. Travelsupermarket do quotes.

Be good to have a GHIC card if he could get one in time. If not, make sure he's got a photocopy of his passport in his wallet just in case (worst case scenario obviously) he ended up at the doctors/clinic. Have pics of the key pages of his passport on his phone too. Plus a pic of the travel ins details/numbers.
If he's going Ryanair then they only have digital boarding passes these days. Think Easyjet might still allow paper ones. He'll need to get into security using the QRcode on the digi boarding pass. Similarly at the gate which is when they check the passports. Make sure he has a charged up powerbank.
With Ryanair hand luggage only, the free check-in is available 24 hours before the flight and it closes (2 or maybe 3 hours?) before the flight is due to take off.

I fly short haul budget airlines to Spain at least once a month and am not at all a nervous flyer but there's something about airports especially when you're not used to them that is, I don't know, off putting?... intimidating? There are just so many people milling around and they're usually quite stressed. Allow much more time than you think you might need to travel there and to process through bag drop and security. It'll help if his pal has travelled before.

I think this is one of those times when actually AI could be quite useful for organising the trip. But do get him to do it for himself :)
I'm sure he'll be grand once he's there😄.

Passport, phone, charger. Bank card
5 x t-shirt
3 x shorts
1x swim shorts
1x hoodie
1x slides
1x runners
2 x towels
Pick up shower gel deodorant & sunscreen after security
Condoms
Stick it all in a backpack
Check in 3 hrs before flight & get a pint in the bar and watch for gate number.

I don't think that women baying adult men, is a good idea

Predictably enough the competitive “My child was backpacking alone through war zones before they were out of nappies” brigade are here. Do you not understand that people are different? That what one 20 year old breezes through another might struggle with? My 20 year old with autism would find it almost impossible to “just ask someone”. He hates new situations where he feels out of control and needs a good idea of what’s going to happen beforehand. And plenty of older adults who have never travelled on planes or internationally are nervous and unsure, and want to understand how it all works and what to do/not do.

What is actually wrong with OP wanting to assist her young adult child with this? Why would it be acceptable for him to ask Google or AI for help but not his mother?

AI are brilliant at producing time lines and "to do" lists. They will think of things you had not considered. Type in a load of stuff off the top of your head. You dont have to worry about the grammar, spelling or punctuation. The AI will turn it into a neat list. You can add any important considerations as they come up and the AI will simply incorporate them into the plan. Just think of the AI as your secret assistant who is always there, always patient and non judgemental.

From my reading of the OP

• he does not have autism
• he did not ask for advice

He'll work it out. Let him learn for himself, just make sure he has insurance and knows what will invalidate it!

I’m always bemused by keyboard warriors who dash in to leave useless comments “he’s 20 not 2” - utterly useless and malignant. Airport travel isn’t straightforward and this is an advice board after all!

OP, my one advice would be to NEVER underestimate how long it takes to get to the gate in an airport. Leave plenty of time for security; more so if you want to do some shopping and grab a meal; but keep a sharp eye on the boards and start walking straight to your gate.

Some gates can feel miles away when you’ve taken your eye off the board - easily done.

I didn’t say he did. I said MY son did. It’s just an illustration of how everyone needs different levels of support, neurodiversity or not, and I guess a criticism of all the smug keyboard warriors making OP feel bad because her son perhaps needs or wants more than theirs.

And in my experience of raising 4 now young adults they are very quick to let you know in no uncertain terms if they don’t want your help.

The lack of empathy and ability to check privilege from the responses here 🙄

I may be wrong but I’ll guess that those doing impressive global travel at the same age had likely been through an airport at some point between ages 2 and 20.

Anyway:
Passport - check its validity with the latest regulations!
Charged phone with boarding pass
charger with adapter for Europe
Check if hold or hand luggage. Remember nothing with a li-ion battery can go in the hold. And if using hand luggage have toiletries of less than 100ml.

Despite my comment at the top it isn’t rocket science - he will have a fab time!

If he doesn’t want help then leave him to it. He should be coming to you and asking for help/support. There is very little to be gained from doing it all for him, he won’t learn that way. Everything you need to know is online now and since YP have their faces in their phones 24/7 it’s not difficult to find stuff out!

Taking a refillable water bottle is useful. It must be empty when you go through security but you can usually fill it for free before boarding.

When I was 21 I flew to Australia backpacking on my own, changing at Tokyo, having only flown to Spain once before. Let him figure it out. With DD1 I just verbally ran through things she may have forgotten when she had packed her case. Any more than that and I'd have been told to butt out anyway!

I imagine him being 'reluctant to find out more,' is him not wanting his mum fussing over this or being involved at all. I would only mention insurance and the need to go through security promptly and then keep an eye on the gate and go there promptly when it comes up too. But a lot depends on if his friend has flown more recently. If they have they will just take the lead and that will be that. If not, they'll figure it out together and be fine. I wouldn't be getting involved with packing at all - he's 20 and going to Spain - he knows what he needs surely and anything he forgets will be readily available there.