June is a good time of year in terms of weather for pretty much any destination in North America, or Europe and still very early on for Caribbean hurricane season to be in effect, which is just starting…

Also pretty much no need to rent a car in most cases.. Ubers, and other forms of public transit are usually available in most cases.

They should just choose a destination they really want to visit, and then research their options …

Airbnb, Hostels and many Hotel chains allow 18 year olds to rent…

See the following link for some accomodation choices avail-

https://firstquarterfinance.com/hotels-that-allow-18-year-olds-to-check-in/

And then start the research from there

Also, if they're up for a US road trip/domestic travel, could they could just drive a personal vehicle from home…

Really all of this planning would be most dependant on their overall budget, length of holiday, their personal interests etc …

Again, if you check the link lve left in reply #2, youll see that Hotel /accommodation choices ARE available to 18 year olds

I have always understood that many hotels (at least in the U.S.) prefer not to rent rooms to guests under age 21. Hostels do but in the U.S., they are found almost exclusively in big cities. In Europe, hostels are common.

Car rental will be hugely expensive for them as car rental companies charge more for young drivers. It would be better if they choose a destination where a car is not needed. That could be a Caribbean island, one or more big cities in the U.S (they could combine New York City, Philadelphia and Washington , D.C., for instance and travel between by Amtrak). or Europe where travel by train is very efficient and there's an excellent train network for intercity travel as well as good public transit within many cities.

I have never investigated cruise lines' minimum age for booking. That might be worth looking into.

There are three places I've stayed where I was able to go to almost everywhere I wanted to visit via public transportation were Chicago, Boston and D.C. Of these, the subway systems in Boston and D.C. were the nicest as far as cleanliness and safety went. That being said, we took three kids on the El in Chicago, and it was mostly okay. A good location in Chicago is River North.

I'm going to throw out a wild suggestion on the lodging: try the VRBO route. Look for one that is run by an individual vs. a property management company. In the message box to the owner, have a parent explain the situation and tell them that you'll be paying for the rental. If the owner is okay with this, get it in writing, book the rental and then have your son pay you back. Again, possibly a crazy suggestion, but you do have a somewhat unique situation. I suggested VRBO vs. Air BnB because I think the reviews are more realistic. This is based on reading reviews for a rental property near my lake cabin that has two very different types of reviews on both of these sites.

Another crazy idea would be for a parent to book two rooms in a very large hotel. The parents would have to travel with them, but could then make themselves scarce in a large hotel.

Good luck, and congrats to both of them!

Booking and checking in to hotels under the age of 21 isn’t unusual in Europe, as long as they have credit cards. 18 year olds stay in hotels all the time, for work, to attend concerts, for holidays etc.

Hiring a car, however, is really a non starter. I can’t think of any of the big hire companies who rent cars to under 21 year olds or let them drive. If they did find one then insurance is likely to be prohibitively expensive. Also, here in Europe, they’d need to specify an automatic if that’s what they wanted.

But where are they planning to travel to please? Within the US? Europe? The Far East? Somewhere else?

I agree they would be better off forgetting about the car aspect. I think San Francisco might be a good idea if they can find somewhere that will allow them to stay. But basically any city will provide things to do and transport to get around.

I posted on your closed thread. "Congratulations! How much time do they have? Do they have a car to do a road trip vs fly and rent? What are they interested seeing?" My thought was a VRBO/airbnb for Chicago. I don't see anything that says 18 year olds can't rent, but maybe I missed something?

Timeframe/ length of trip…? Budget? Did I miss??