Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the others, but I'm also wondering why you are saying no to hostels? My daughter and her friends traveled last summer and many of the hostels have really improved from what I stayed in. Gone are the long rows of bunkbeds and bathrooms down the hall. They could book rooms with 4, 6, or 8 beds and they usually had a bathroom in each room. If you have a group of 4 you can book the whole room. You can also book single sex rooms. Many of the hostels had rooftop patios with daily happy hours. I was shocked at how nice many of them are.

Group of three and my understanding is it's typically 4 or more. Not really comfortable with strangers in the same room at night.

You can pay for the whole room and keep the 4th bed open. May still be cheaper than a hotel room, especially since most European hotel rooms are small and don't accommodate 3 people.

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the others, but I'm also wondering why you are saying no to hostels? My daughter and her friends traveled last summer and many of the hostels have really improved from what I stayed in. Gone are the long rows of bunkbeds and bathrooms down the hall. They could book rooms with 4, 6, or 8 beds and they usually had a bathroom in each room. If you have a group of 4 you can book the whole room. You can also book single sex rooms. Many of the hostels had rooftop patios with daily happy hours. I was shocked at how nice many of them are.

Group of three and my understanding is it's typically 4 or more. Not really comfortable with strangers in the same room at night.

It depends. We discovered that some hotels in Scandinavia would not let our 18-year check-in (we need a hotel, not a hostel because of the type of trip). In a few cases we could provide a letter of approval from a parent and in other hotels it was a hard no. When we asked for clarification they said it was because of human trafficking. I would check the hotel's policy - in some cases, the rules only applied to certain cities not the chain as a whole. It was eye-opening for us as we assumed they could check-in at 18. If I remember correctly once they reach 21 its not an issue anymore. Maybe if we hadn't asked it would have been fine - but we were glad we didn't leave it up to chance.

Yes since you are an adult.

Agree with the others, but I'm also wondering why you are saying no to hostels? My daughter and her friends traveled last summer and many of the hostels have really improved from what I stayed in. Gone are the long rows of bunkbeds and bathrooms down the hall. They could book rooms with 4, 6, or 8 beds and they usually had a bathroom in each room. If you have a group of 4 you can book the whole room. You can also book single sex rooms. Many of the hostels had rooftop patios with daily happy hours. I was shocked at how nice many of them are.

Thank you all! That's good to know.

yes, my son just did so in a Balkan country.

Anonymous wrote:Any experience with this? My ds wants to do this with friends and I am not sure if that's possible everywhere given it isn't always in the US.

All of my nieces and nephews have travelled around Europe when they were 18 and had no trouble. DH did many years ago too. Pretty sure people go younger too – there was a fuss in the British newspapers last year when social services called up a well-known TV presenter who let her 15-year-old son go travelling with some friends.

I went to Europe at 19 with my boyfriend and stayed in hotels, no problem.

My son has never had any problem. He and a friend traveled in Europe the summer before last when he was 18 and his friend was 19.

Any experience with this? My ds wants to do this with friends and I am not sure if that's possible everywhere given it isn't always in the US.