Hi there,
I'm trying to come up with an easy travel itinerary for 2 teenage boys to London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.
This will be there first time overseas and I wanted to make things easy (English language) and fun. I planed for arrival into London and staying a youth hostel for 7-8 day, then take the train to Edinburgh for 3-4 days, then a flight to Dublin for 3- 4 days and fly out of Dublin.
I just wanted an advice on the choices and time to stay.
Thanks!
When is this trip going to happen? This year or next?
What are the 2 teens interests? What is the budget?
Given the mention of a hostel figuring “the back packer see Europe after graduation and before college scenario.”
I’d stay in London for 7 nights, 3 nights Edinburgh and 3 nights Dublin.
Are the teens traveling alone, or are you or another adult accompanying them? If they're alone, their age may make a big difference in their ability to be admitted to lodging or even to enter the countries (UK and Republic of Ireland). See, for example,
https://traveltips.usatoday.com/travel-documents-needed-minors-traveling-england-106395.html
When it comes to lodging, "Youth hostels in the UK will accept those aged 16 and over, and there are hostels all over the UK. Another option for a first teenage holiday without parents is one of the many music festivals that happen every summer up and down the UK. Over-16s can get into Reading and Leeds festivals, V Festival and Glastonbury without an adult...." https://www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-insurance/teenage-holiday-without-parents
Both boys will be 18 and going after graduation in 2020. Sometime in the Summer.
They both will be traveling alone.
I'm not sure of their interest yet (until we start planning together). The music festivals are a great idea!
I want them to be on a reasonable budget, parents and grandparents will probably help out a bit but I expect both to work and pay for some of the trip.
I'm the Godmother of one of the boys so I'm setting up the travel plans.
I’m not sure what advice we can offer at this stage.
Nothing wrong with the destinations if that’s where they want to go. But what 18 year olds want to do might be rather different from what 30 year olds, or 50 year olds want to do. More likely to go clubbing in Manchester than visit the Cotswolds but who knows.
Staying in hostels is good as they can meet other young travellers. Yes use the train from London to Edinburgh and flying to Dublin makes sense.
Music festivals aren’t cheap and take place over 2 or 3 days. Often camping in a sea of mud.
Have they traveled alone in the U.S.? Two of my children took independent trips to Europe after college graduation but I can't imagine that they would have managed it after high school. But they did not travel without carefully arranged travel by me until they were in college.
Personally, I think the teenage boys should plan it (with some assistance) or else they may not be prepared to manage traveling on their own.
A few thoughts and costs to focus on for 18 year olds trying to visit 2 UK and Ireland’s capital city.
Transport costs; London to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Dublin.
Train travel if left to day of travel in the U.K. will be costly. Teens need to understand this in advance.
Best to research all the train travel posts in the search engine on the forum and figure what will best work for the teens itinerary. What tickets offer flexibility and what fares don’t.
Same with airfare so research flight costs from Edinburgh to Dublin.
https://londoncheapo.com/travel/getting-from-london-to-edinburgh/
If, as you say, they will have saved up for this trip hopefully they will have a debit card to access their funds while on the trip and not have to use a credit card. However, having a CC as an emergency backup makes complete sense.
Like seasoned travelers they should use bank ATM’s to obtain cash when they arrive. Pounds for both London and Edinburgh and in Dublin to get Euros.
Not making any assumptions but practical intel regarding the cost of pints can be found here:
London:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/go/london/bars/cheapest-pint-beer-london-pubs-a4004121.html%3famp
Edinburgh:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/pint-beer-cost-uk/amp/
Dublin:
https://spoketravel.com/drink-prices-in-dublin/
It is so nice of you to help plan the trip. I did the same for my god daughter when she graduated from high school. She went for a month with her cousin and they traveled throughout Europe and had a great time. Here are some of the tips that she found most valuable in the advice I provided her.
You have awhile until the trip, so getting the boys interests, timeframes to visit etc. will help you plan some of the specifics with them.
Sandy
Personally, I would have planned less travel and not picked these three cities only.
There is a lot more to see in England than London; a lot more to see in Scotland than Edinburgh and for Ireland than Dublin.
Still, these are great places to visit. If you don't have the airline tickets, suggest that as a minimum, you eliminate Dublin (go back to Ireland later), and spend more time in Britain. The boys can do some day trips from London to Windsor Castle, Winchester, Canterbury, Cambridge, Oxford, Salisbury, Bath and Stonehenge.
There are some great places to see outside of Edinburgh, if they have time, like St. Andrews the western highlands, Loch Ness in the north.
Dublin is a great city, but it can be done in fewer days. The main site not to miss is Trinity College and the Book of Kells. The HoHo bus in Dublin is a good choice as well.
Are they going to college? Have they done any independent travel yet? I’d certainly want them to have some travel experience and perhaps college visits with an overnight stay might be a way to start.
Speaking of colleges, once they picked the ones they’re going to, I’d have them reach out to the study abroad program and talk with some of the student ambassadors. Yes, they won’t be students yet, but students that have studied abroad LOVE to talk about it and will have recent advice, far better than adults who last did the hostel scene in 1994. They may even be able to meet up with the current group of students.
YouTube and social media will be their friends to figure out what they want to do. As mentioned above, they might have more interest in nightclubs and meeting people of their preferred gender than in quaint villages.
You know them better than anyone else, so help them plan an itinerary that matches their personalities. At that age, you needed a cold bucket of water to get my brother up before noon, so an 8 am train wouldn’t work. Also, don’t force them to do anything they don’t want to and leave some flexibility. There’s no point in having them go to a site they’re not eager to see and have them take a couple of selfies and then head for the pub after 10 minutes.
