Pre-College Road Trip

jrcsmom
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 14:35:49 +0000

Back when I was a college freshman, during spring break I bought a train ticket (didn’t have a car) and met up with a friend and stayed in a CHEAP hotel in a city for the week. But we were only a couple hundred miles away from our respective homes in case an emergency did arise.

For many of the reasons in the early posts, I wouldn’t approve of such a trip. One of the things I’ve learned throughout my years is plan A NEVER works. NEVER. I’ve taught my son that whenever you plan something you need to have your plan A, then your backup plan B, then your backup, backup plan C, then when none of them work out, you’ve got to be able to ‘wing it’. The problem with your trip is you are too young to ‘wing it’. Not because of maturity, but because of legality.

As others have noted, if you have a car problem, you are too young to rent a car and even if you find someone else who is willing to rent one, you are too young to drive a rental car. What happens if you have car trouble? Sure you can take a plane or train or bus back home, but in the midst of a drive across the country there may not be other transportation nearby. What is your plan then?

As others have noted, many hotels won’t rent to a group of teenagers. Now some do and if you have an itenerary and your parents or other relatives agree, they could book some places in advance, but that’s plan A. Don’t count on that working out. What if there is a major storm on one of the nights you plan to camp out? What if you arrive to stay with friends/relatives as planned, but they are not home due to an unexpected family emergency, what if it takes you longer to drive than you anticipated because of traffic or you get lost because of a detour and then you get too tired to drive farther? What if you need a place to stay that you hadn’t planned on?

As others have noted, if you travel with a friend that is 17 and she is injured, she won’t be able to get treatment without parental consent. What happens if there is a car accident and she has a non-life threatening issue while you are 1000s of miles from home? She also will have trouble if there is any type of legal issue. If you get stopped for speeding and can’t produce the registration and proof of insurance you can be arrested, even if they’ve just been misplaced. Then you’ll all wind up sitting in a police station somewhere, while her parents figure out how to get there.

Do you have the funds for emergency situations? If you budget your trip out and have enough funds what happens when you have a flat tire that can’t be repaired and you have to buy a new tire or when your windshield gets broken somehow - does your insurance cover that? What if your wallet/purse get stolen? I’ve always taught my son when travelling always keep at least a little cash in your shoe (not many muggers are going to make your take your shoes off and they’re also kind of hard to lose).

I am in agreement with others who have suggested that a shorter trip (both in duration and distance) might be more appropriate. Plan someplace that will allow you to travel on your own, but still be close enough to home that if something unexpected happens you will be able to handle it.