affortable place for teens to stay for winter break at school

Some hostels have twin bedded rooms so would not rule them out. How about a YMCA? Not sure if you would be able to rent an apartment for teenagers.

A lot of hostels will limit the amount of time you can stay (some you can't stay at for more than 7-10 nights), so check their policy before you book if you decide to go that route. If there is no specific reason that they must stay in Lancashire those 3 weeks, you could always send them over to London. London School of Economics rents out their empty dorm rooms to travelers during school breaks so they'd have access to laundry facilities, Wi-Fi, kitchenettes to cook a very basic meal. All rooms are ensuite so they won't need to share a bathroom like they might if they stay in a hostel. And plenty to do and see in London during the holidays plus easy to get around for them as LSE's properties are scattered all around central London. The LSE website often shows they are fully booked, so recommend you pick up the phone and call or at least send an email to ask about availability for the weeks you need.

Kings College London also rents out dorm rooms during vacations, to tourists and others. I don't know if they have an age limit, though. Can't their school help or have any suggestions? How old are they and what do they want to do and are they boys or girls? There are places in the country in Austria and Southern Germany that rent out apartments to tourists during the winter season, where they might be included in some activities with other guests and the host families. I think mostly these are places that cater to skiers and who knows if they would accept unaccompanied teenagers. It would be much less expensive to fly to the continent on a cheap airline than to North America, though. Also, can't a parent or guardian fly over and rent an apartment with them?

They might make friends with a fellow student who will invite them to stay in their home. This seems to happen a lot in the US.

I think your teens are in a better position to find rooms once they are there. They are unlikely to be the only international students, and often they can find such accommodation offers through their own university. It might be a good opportunity for them to travel, however. Hostels in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal - for instance - are rather cheap, and they might be interested in travelling one week per city during that period. Are you sure their university doesn't offer a stayover option for them?

If they can swing a cheap flight, I can personally recommend Academy Hostel in Florence. They have 2 private twin two-beds rooms, one with ensuite. Between London and Florence, they could do worse ;-) www.academyhostel.eu

Karen ,I will state the obvious to me, since its too expensive to fly two of them back here, why don't you fly out and spend the three weeks with them! Only one airfare, and a holiday built in,, I bet you could find a cheap place to stay, you wouldn't have to be as picky if you were with them. This assumes that the "teens" are young enough to be really teens and would want that as opposed to perhaps just letting them go around hostelling on their own. If they are 18 or older that what I would suggest they do . They will befriend others at school, and they get lots of great ideas. There are two of them, not solo travel so they will be fine. Girl from my work went with her friend to Europe when she was 18, and my own nephew, who literally had only just turned 18 went to London by himself for the 10 days before he joined a youth tour. BTW that is another option, there are tours for 18-35 yr olds that they could just join for spring break. Contiki, look them up

Some things to consider before you bother looking into Contiki Tours: You'd be spending about $4,000 USD for just 1 person for a 3 week tour and you've got 2 teens and a limited budget. I'm sure if you had an extra 8 grand laying around in your bank account to send them on a Contiki excursion, you would have just flown them home for Xmas break for far less than $8,000. Contiki also has a rep as a bit of a party bus, not that everyone is encouraged to drink 24/7, but there are a significant number of people who travel with Contiki who like to sleep their way through most of the daytime sightseeing only to wake up in the early evening to get ready for the next pub crawl. If your teens have the itch to use the 3 weeks to travel around a little, they could do it on their own for far less than Contiki by picking 3-4 cities that are easily accessible by public transit since they are too young to rent a car and staying in hostels or university dorms so they have the ability to prepare some meals. Pick something that you can easily cancel at the last minute if your teens snag an invite to a classmates home during the holidays. Unless you purchased some sort of trip cancellation insurance, I don't know that Contiki would be willing to refund any of your money after you bought a tour package with them.

er I found three week tours starting at 2800, but agree that a ticket back home would be cheaper. Hope you find something,, I hope some new local friends invite them home. If not it looks like a Airtransat ticket may be the cheapest option.