Daughter travelling at 18

[Hulahoopingmum]

Does anyone have experience of DC travelling alone straight from school?

DD wants to travel which I'm broadly ok with but today's idea is to go to the Philippines for two months and work in hotels for board and lodgings, no actual salary.

That's after the first trip which is hopping round the Greek islands then on to the canaries and Italy.

I know she wants to be independent but her ideas seem pretty extreme and not always sensible, much of this she wants to do alone.

She's strong willed so if I say no to anything it'll push her further in to doing it (I was similar and went to America straight after a-levels but I didn't go alone and I stayed with people we already knew).

Any ideas or experience with this would be gratefully received!!

That was in agreement with @NeverApologiseNeverExplain ’s post.

Loads do it. Be delighted she is confident enough

I travelled alone to work in France (all summer hols) while still at school; and after. One son did a whole gap year at 18 (caribbean, working) and another did 3 months work on remote farm in Norway before starting university. They'd both travelled abroad without us while still at school (Scouts, and orchestra). All the above was before mobile phones and the internet; so the only contact home was by postcard.

Your daughter will have easy contact with you online, to send money etc if she needs it.

She can get working holiday visas for places like Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Fairly cheap to buy the visa, then she'll need her flight ticket. Could easily find temporary work once there. Good money to be warned

Makes more sense than the Philippines

Thank you for all the brilliant replies. I'm feeling a lot more positive! I'll share your responses with her and definitely the workaway info. Thanks all 😀😀 really appreciate reading everything xx

My 18 year old daughter wouldn't have the nerve to do this so I think we'll done to you and her that she has the confidence to do it. I would also be very scared though. I guess I would encourage her to go with a friend or on a organised venture where they travel around together but if she won't listen there's not much you can do. I really feel for you

It's Colombia. That sounds like an ad

I left to go travelling at 18 and I think it’s the best thing young adults can do. If she’s responsible enough she’ll be fine in the Philippines. It’s a lovely country and I’m assuming she’ll be in a relatively touristy area? There’s tonnes of backpackers there. I felt very safe and it was my favourite country in Asia.

Forgot to say, I was mid 20’s when travelling the Philippines so a bit older, but I did travel alone (very petite lady!) and had no troubles at all.

Good money to be warned

^^

Earned!!!

Dp worked in Australia for 6 months at 18, so did his siblings including his sister - it's a right of passage

Really interested to know what made the Philippines your favourite over all the other Asian countries you visited?

I love scuba diving and the diving in the Philippines is incredible and very varied, so that was a huge part of it.
But I also found the country very beautiful (above water too!), the people very friendly, things were good value, and one of my favourite things (that I was quite surprised to see in the Philippines) was that it was very clean - no rubbish on the streets, and everywhere had drinking water to refill your bottles, so not once did I have to buy plastic bottles. I went for a month but extended my visa to spend a second month there.

Mine has travelled to South Africa, she saw some of my family, went for 3 weeks then to Europe ( Italy, France and Portugal) the whomsoever of February, she came back 2 weeks ago and is saving up to travel again in June
Start off with Europe, quite close for starters and don't forget good insurance. I paid for dds insurance after she said " nothing will happen why do I have to pay for insurance? ) Loooool
She is 18 years 4 months.
Good luck to her.

Thanks for your reply @WaltzingWaters . That’s not my experience of the Philippines at all. I wouldn’t drink tap water anywhere in Asia except HK or Singapore.

Oh really? Did you not like it there? When were you in the Philippines? I was there 2019.
Just to clarify, I don’t mean I actually drank the water straight from the tap (definitely wouldn’t advise that!) but that everywhere (hostels, restaurants, etc) seemed to have filtered water dispensers available free of charge. Enough so that I never once had to buy bottled water.

Also for OP’s daughter - this is a really good travel insurance company for backpackers. Easy to add in extra countries, start it from anywhere (not just home country) etc. I’ve made a couple claims over my years of travel and got the money back no problem.

https://www.worldnomads.com/

@WaltzingWaters I lived in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2016 and visited most countries in SE Asia during that time. The Phils was fine, especially for diving, as you say. But I thought the food was awful compared to Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia. There wasn’t much in the way of cultural landmarks or interesting architecture (Cambodia, Japan, Myanmar much more interesting in that respect), and it had several horrific natural disasters while I was in Asia. I knew several sleazy men via my work who would go there as sex tourists. And I guess I was very influenced by what the Filipino people in HK would tell me about how miserable life there was. So many people leave behind their families in the Phils to work abroad as they can’t make enough money there.

So while I’m sure it is not all bad, and the people are just lovely, I was baffled by it being your favourite in the whole of SE Asia.

My own top 3 are Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia.

@WaltzingWaters I think you were simply v. lucky! I can only relay BIL and his wife’s experiences, but they never drink tap water, especially in restaurants. I think they did the first year or so but suffered for it. They’ve both ended up on IV’s a few times in the last decade. 🤢

It certainly wasn’t tap water they provided/ we drank - it was filtered water from water coolers. All filtered and safe for us to refill reusable bottles to avoid plastic waste. Definitely DO NOT recommend drinking tap water there!

I was assuming that restaurants served tap water, perhaps it’s not. All I really know is that my BIL says that they don’t drink water or eat/drink anything that’s had contact with ice.

Despite this, they do get food poisoning more regularly than we do, but luckily, it’s possibly to be treated at home in Manila so they can get anti-emetic shots and be hooked up to IV’s at home. It doesn’t seem to bother them much or put them off living there!😂

I'd feel much happier about the Greek islands.

@WaltzingWaters thank you for the insurance info!