Re: fun travel costs. Entertainment always fell to our kids to pay for, and that included travel while abroad. But, it can be done very cheaply over there! Mine traveled a LOT - some were to uber popular places (Barcelona, Amsterdam, Venice), but many were not (Porto, Malta, Corfu). He (and his friends) took advantage of RyanAir’s el cheapo prices. Most flights were between $25-50, maybe less. I remember he told me there was one fare for $5! But, you only get a personal item. My kid learned to live out of a backpack, even for a week. And splitting a cheap AirBNB with 2-3 others made that cheap too. It might not the way we parents want to travel, but for a college kid, it’s perfect. He had a lot of great times. I am jealous and sad my younger kid didn’t have the opportunity (covid cancelled his twice).
And we did visit during our spring break. We made that our yearly family vacation. We toured Scotland and did Iceland for one day on the way back. But nobody went with him to drop him off/pick up. He was on his own for that.