<p>My DD and I attended a informational meeting at her HS last week. Two of the teachers will be taking a group of kids to Europe next summer. One of the teachers has been taking kids for 15 years. She takes a group using EF Educational tours. My DD is a Junior, and we initially had though about letting her go to Europe after graduation as her gift. DD had an idea about going with a few friends, traveling via trains, staying at Youth/student Hostels, etc. I was a little leary, so I thought a supervised group might be a better idea. And maybe even this coming summer.</p>
<p>Initially, the trip sounded really wonderful, and affordable. It was advertised as $2500 inclusive for 18 days in Italy, Greece and Turkey. At the meeting, the fees (airport security and gas surchages, membership, additional 3 day cruise in Greek islands) brought the cost to $3550, The last questions asked was about spending money, and we were advised that the kids should bring $800-1000 in spending money for lunches and incidentals, etc. Suddenly, $4500 was not afforable. </p>
<p>What European trips have your kids made, what were the costs (total–real costs), and how was the experience? I am guessing students can spend 2-3 weeks and not spend almost $5000–but maybe I am wrong? My daughter will have had only Spanish as a language. How much can teens get out of Europe without an organized group, with multilingual guides, etc? Thanks for any info you can share</p>
<p>My son went to Egypt on one of the EF trips. One of the reasons it is so expensive is that the chaperones generally don’t pay for their own trip…so basically the kids are sharing the cost of the adults. They gave us the same information about spending money. We did not send ours with that much money. He did this during his Spring break senior year and he had his own money for spending money and had to pay for half the trip himself.<br>
I do feel that travelling via trains, at hostels, particularly for a girl that age might not be advisable. That said, the particular teacher who chaperoned my son’s trip did a lousy job. He came home with tales of “babysitting” girls who drank too much. I did not worry much about him, he is 6’ 250 lbs. and has travelled a lot.<br>
ALSO, keep in mind that things are different in other countries…some of the girls on his trip had trouble with being approached by older, native, men. Again, I would not send my daughter on her own…but you know your own child.
Is it feasable to drop the 3 day cruise, and ask her to raise some of the money herself?</p>
<p>My kids have NOT gone to Europe thus far but have only taken a few family trips. My S did take a trip with his HS marching band in his senior year. It was a week in Australia–can’t remember the exact cost, but somehow think it as about $2000-2500 for the week, including airfare, nice hotels, food & spending money.
I did not allow my D to go to Europe last year for summer school with her HS because I believe it was about the price you quote & felt it was $$$ we didn’t have to spend with S starting college & her graduating HS in 2 years to start college thereafter. (The HS ended up not having enough folks sign up & dropped the trip entirely.)
My kids have only had Mandarin, so wouldn’t really be able to speak any european languages anyway. We MAY try to go to China this summer with my parents, depending on the timing of the trip & conflicting plans. Such a trip would make more sense to me, in light of what my kids have studied. Might be willing to pay for the kids to have a term or year abroad when in college if they have a pretty good idea of what they’re studying & why.</p>
<p>All four of us went to Europe last summer for 16 days for $12,000. That included EVERYTHING. Airfare, very nice apartment rentals in Paris and Rome, very nice meals, two expensive day tours, airport transfers, and lots of wine. </p>
<p>My advice – if you can possibly swing it – go as a family. It’s likely to be your last vacation together and you will never forget it.</p>
<p>By the way – not all kids enjoy the organized bus tour thing. My kids would hate it. They are used to traveling more independently, staying much more centrally located than tours usually do, and having a much more open itinerary (or lack thereof).</p>
<p>All 4 of us went to Europe about 5 years ago for about $4,000. We stayed in one star hotels, and did things like got breakfast from local bakeries. We had a great time, and made memories we’ll keep for a lifetime.</p>
<p>That to me was far better than sending a teen on a packaged tour where they are likely to spend most of their time with American teens anyway.</p>
<p>I went to Costa Rica for 8 days for 2100, and East Coast trip (Philly, NYC, DC, etc) for 9 days for 2200. If I saw a trip advertised as 2500 for 18 days overseas, I would assume that was not the whole story.</p>
<p>Our band has been invited to London this year (by the government no less), to the opening ceremonies for the 2000 Olympics in Australia, and to Germany. We’ve always had to turn down those trips because of cost. =/. Our Jazz Band was invited to South Korea and we actually got to go because it was all expenses paid.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that the exchange rate is not favorable, the cost of fuel has escalated and new airport fees have been introduced to cover new security measures. </p>
<p>But if you can go as a family, that would be great. As others have pointed out members of a group cover the expenses of the chaperones, but these chaperones are useful in keeping the group together, maintaining discipline (some kids do drink to excess away from home) and also protecting naive kids from wily locals and aggressive romeos.</p>
<p>I ditto weenie. My family did a ‘European family vacation’ in the summer when my older D was between HS and college. It was really great. I can’t remember how much we spent and tried not to pay too much attention to it but we did save money in many ways - staying 4 to a room at the hotels (Novotel was a reasonable chain that usually allowed 4 per room), not eating elaborate meals every day, etc. We rented a car and drove everywhere (not necessarily the cheapest way but it’s the most flexible and gets you places tours miss). We even found the housing area I lived in as a kid in Germany (Air Force kid). It’s also true that you need to think about the reality of limited family vacations from this point forward once the kids get involved with college. When you go as part of a tour and/or with chaperones, you end up paying for them which bumps up your costs (but is a great deal for the teacher/chaperone).</p>
<p>Going as a family allows you to enjoy the experience together (it’s hard to put a price on this) and let’s you tailor the vacation to your own interests. If you can swing it, the family trip is the way to go.</p>
<p>My D made another trip to Europe (Scotland) after this while in college on a study-abroad program. She obviously went to this one on her own but after having already done the previous trip, I felt better about her being able to navigate Heathrow, other airports, subways, taxis, etc. After arrival, she was with a group of college students from different Universities that were in the same program and were shuttled around. She did fine and loved it.</p>
<p>I’m leary of school trips. I don’t think they are as well chaperoned as they like to make you think and I think a large gaggle of Americans running around together doesn’t really learn to much about the culture they are visiting. I second the idea of a family trip and if that is impossible - I think you’re better doing a program like a month long course at a Goethe Institute or a place like the Institute D’Etude Francais in Tours.</p>
<p>My son will be attending a trip to Europe this summer, also through EF Tours. Our trip is a little different – my son is 13 years old and this is through his middle school. The 2 chaparones are the language teachers at school and are only taking students they have in class for both last year and this year that they are confident are well-behaved and mature. With the ages of the kids from 12 to 15, they probably won’t have some of the problems that a highschooler would have. The student:chaperone ratio is 1 to 4, so tons of supervision.</p>
<p>The trip my son is going on is 14 days, Spain/France/Germany and the cost is $3100 (with all the extras). Our group is doing tons of fundraising to offset that cost.</p>
<p>My son and i are both thrilled with the opportunity – I am comfortable with the supervision and the organized tours will be great for his first trip to Europe.</p>
<p>My older son is 17 now and has traveled quite a bit – I would not waste my money on this type of organized trip for him. He plans to head over and do the youth hostel thing after high school – for him, that would be a much better solution.</p>
<p>My son spent three weeks in Italy with two buddies after his senior year of HS, before college (summer of 2005). Total cost, including airfare was $3100.00. They stayed in Hostels in Rome, Sienna, Cinque Terra, Venice and Sorrento. Had the time of their lives. He had no language issues and was street wise enough to know a scam when he saw one. I should add that he had been to Europe several times prior to this trip and was comfortable with the trains and dealing with pickpockets etc etc.</p>
<p>I guess I’d be more concerned about a young lady (or group of young ladies) going on a trip without adults than I would be a few young men, especially after reading about the aggressive, predatory Romeos that may be encountered.
Honestly, I have preferred for all of us to travel as a family whenever possible, but I guess travel with some buddies will be coming up in the near future. I’d prefer S & his buddies try out travel in the US a bit before venturing overseas, so I’ve encouraged him to visit some classmates in Boston, cousin at Notre Dame & friends elsewhere while in college; we’ll see what evolves.<br>
$5000 does sound a bit much, even for 18 days trip & yes, degree of chaperonage can vary considerably. Each family has an idea of how much supervision their child could use & should inquire about how much free time/supervision the trip will offer, including adult/student ratio at various times of the trip.</p>
<p>My D went to Europe(3 countries) in the summer between her soph and junior year. It was A an EF tour lead by two history teachers from her school. They have been leading tours for years. We had complete confidence in the teachers. My daughter had a fantastic time. The tour had almost daily updates online with pictures of the kids on the trip. They stayed in clean hotels in safe locations. They packed three weeks of touring into 12 days. I would highly recommend this program. It is a true growth experience for the student and alot of fun. Dana’s Dad</p>
<p>Language isn’t an issue in most of Europe since most Europeans speak some English with many of them being fluent. This is especially true for any tourist destination.</p>
<p>Some countries in Europe, Italy being one of them, have more issues with theft than others. I really like Italy though. One must just be more careful in these countries. Extra care should also be taken in major transit locations like train stations.</p>
<p>I’d also be more concerned about a female bopping around versus a male. Females are more vulnerable and greater targets than males. They should never wander around a strange city on their own. </p>
<p>There is an added issue of drinking related to the age group of the tour. Age 16 is the legal drinking age in some countries so this could be something to contend with. Even if your D doesn’t end up drinking, others might and it could be uncomfortable for her.</p>
<p>We have done it all three ways: school trip, family trip and language institute. I agree with mathmom: language institute is the best in terms of getting something out of the trip. You learn a lot about the local area and native culture as well. Each of these institutes runs age apropriate camps as well. My daughter went to a French summer school at 17. Her roommate was German and her best friend was Danish. My other daughter went to a Goethe Institut camp at age 13. Her roommates were Greek and Slovenian, if I remember correctly. Current cost for a three week course is 1995 Euro. That doesn’t include airfare and spending money.
The family trip is fun but very exhausting.
The school trips have been band trips where we travelled from town to town, stayed in hotels and played in local churches and halls. The cost for each teenager or parent/chaperone was about 2500 american. That included airfare, bus travel, lodging and meals. The last trip was 16 days and included Prague, Brno, Krakow, Bratislava, Vienna, Salzburg and Ulm.
Eastern Europe is cheaper</p>
<p>People to People runs similar tours for mostly high school age kids, though they do have some less ambitious trips for middle-schoolers and also some adult programs. My Ds have have been on several (Australia/NZ, British Isles and Hawaii). They go in groups of 30-40 with two, three or perhaps four counselors, depending on the trip and group size, who are teachers on summer break. The counselors were always quite serious about discipline and safety. My kids have done other things the last couple of summers so I don’t know the current cost and the website isn’t forthcoming about that subject.
<a href=“http://www.studentambassadors.org/home.asp[/url]”>http://www.studentambassadors.org/home.asp</a>
The last trip the younger one took, three weeks in Australia, ran about the price you are talking about. They do see and do a lot, probably more than we would do if we went as a family, since they have stuff programmed for every day on a tight schedule and they do cover a lot of ground, literally, in Oz. The cost had escalated quite a bit over the several years we have been involved and we, like you, decided there were more economical ways to travel.</p>
<p>"They should never wander around a strange city on their own. "</p>
<p>Never? </p>
<p>I started wandering around Europe alone starting at age 15 or so. Things I learned. If you sit down on a park bench in Paris a man will be asking you out within five minutes or so. Don’t go into a train compartment alone with a man - he may turn out to be a flasher. That nice guy at the Victoria and Albert Museum will probably turn out to be not quite so nice when it’s time to leave. Italians whistle a lot, but are basically harmless. </p>
<p>But you know, I really wasn’t harmed by any of these experiences and I suspect they could just have easily happened in American ones.</p>
<p>16 yo son did a language institute trip to Sevilla Spain (three weeks). He and a friend from school stayed with a host family (turned out to be an older woman and a German exchange student rooming with her). </p>
<p>They had a wonderful time - no English was spoken in the home and they made friends with the local kids at the school (the language institute was located on the grounds of a local HS). Soccer and basketball were played until midnight almost every night. There was not much chaperoning going on out of the time at the school but they are responsible/streetwise kids. It was pretty expensive 4K total but that includes a fortune spent on jerseys (this was during the World Cup and he used $ that he had been saving for years). </p>
<p>I would definitely not have let my D have gone on this particular trip at 16. Sad to say but it’s just a fact of life that a girl traveling in a foreign country is more vulnerable. </p>
<p>I know lots of kids plan to travel after Senior year. Maybe give her a choice of going on this school trip which is well chaperoned or spring for a trip after graduation that may not be. Not that you are required to pay for any trip at all of course.</p>
<p>Whether it’s educational or not, just the fact of being in Europe, soaking in the scenery, museums, people etc. expands your horizons IMO.</p>
<p>I would second the comment that the chaperones don’t watch the kids closely on these trips, at least in our experience (soccer, People to People, and school trips). People to People was the strictest, but in all cases, the kids were allowed to wander around without a chaperone. Stories S came home with included an almost brawl with a gang of pot smoking kids in Holland (age 14), a similar run-in with kids in a rough neighborhood in Rio (age 15), and getting lost in Venice while jogging (age 17). The good news is the kids did interact with local kids and each trip was worthwhile overall. We take the point of view that almost any experience, as long as it doesn’t injure you, is a good one.</p>
<p>International family trips are a mixed bag now that the kids are older. We all enjoy different activities, so sometimes it just requires too much compromise for anyone to really have fun. H also has a tendancy to get us lost in very bad places (I see where S gets it from). To avoid that problem, our last trip was a tour. That actually worked well because there were plenty of other teens on the trip. However, I know that if given a choice between traveling with us and traveling without us, our kids will go without us every time.</p>
<p>This summer both my kids went on student trips abroad (separately). For various reasons, a family trip wasn’t in the cards for the foreseeable future, so we felt it was worth the ‘chaperone overhead’ for this experience. They both had a great time; more so than if they had been with their parents.</p>