palmettoprincess

I'm looking for a nice spring break hotel that accepts guests younger than 21 years old in MB or Hilton Head. I keep finding requirements that someone be 21 years old and even some that require someone 25 years old. Spring break is near my daughters birthday and I want to surprise her and her friends, but I don't want to go with them.

starrs

I don't think you'll find a nice hotel that will do it. Things are too crazy during spring break. One option might be a vrbo.com rental IF you provide a significant deposit against potential damages.

nytraveler

If you guarantee the rental with your card - and leave a significant damage depost - they might let them stay as long as there aren;t more than 2 people.'

For more than that - esp spring break - many hotels just won't take under 21s at all.

Ackislander

Before you do this, and I think you can get a place in a less than wonderful hotel on your card with a big deposit, please look at youtube for "Myrtle Beach Spring Break party" and decide if you really want to send your underage daughter into this.

nytraveler

You're assuming that kids at spring break act any differntly than they do whike at school.

Don;t know the kids involved - but there's every opportunity you would want to part at school as well - esp if they have frats and/or a substantial number of kids living off campus.

(I always wonder if some of the people on this board forget what they did on spring break? Or if they didn't go away to school - and just lived at home and studied the whole time? For spring break hijinx yuo can go back as far as Where the Boys are - in the early 1960s.)

RoamsAround

nytraveler makes some good points. Obviously OP thinks her daughter and friend are "responsible" but so did Natalee Hollowell's mother and look what happen to that unfortunate young girl.

Ackislander

She hasn't said her daughter was in college. There is an old tradition of high school seniors in South Carolina going off to Myrtle Beach after graduation so it is by no means certain that she is a college student.

And I too was thinking about Natalee Hollowell and Britanee Drexel.

And I can honestly say that though I lived on campus, I was too poor to go on spring break in college and too busy going to graduate school and raising children in my twenties to go anywhere then. That's why I travel now.

starrs

Twenty years ago we made reservations in Panama City without thinking about college spring break. If you haven't been in the midst of it, you can't imagine what it's like. Every pool, all of the beach taken over by the craziness and the roads were a parking lot by the cruisers. It was a nightmare. It doesn't much matter HOW the daughter is planning to behave - the environment is going to be crazed.

I think Hilton Head will be a much better choice than Myrtle Beach and think a parent has a chance of arranging a rental on vrbo with a large deposit against damages.

Gretchen

I thought I posted this earlier, but. I would NEVER do this,to or "for" my child, and I "trust" my kids. But there is just too much going on for someone that age. AND Natalee Hollowell was even on a chaperoned trip. It's fine to say she's mature--stuff happens. It is stupid, to be just plain blunt.
Rent a place for yourself and go. Check on them. IF you have to do this.

nytraveler

Sorry - Natalee Hollowell just proves that you can;t protect kids against themselves. If they are determined to do things that are dangerous - they will do them and you can't stop them. I think that kids that have more freedom early have a more relaistic view of the world and are less trusting than those that are sheltered and prevented from seeing what it's really like.

Caveat: kids that grow up in Manhtattan see the runaways that are turn into prostitutes and the buidlings that are used as shooting galleries by druggies. Not attractive - but gives a much more realistic view of life and it's dangers.

janisj

Even assuming your daughter and her friends are totally sensible - choir girls even - that doesn't change the fact that the area will be slammed, the roads will be filled w/ drunken kids, and hotels won't want them.

suz24

I agree with jansj. I wouldnt want my kids near all those drunken drivers. And you may end up being responsible for any room damage that the girls or any (welcome or unwelcome) guests do to the room, since you are paying for it. How about some nice all day spa time and a big limo drop off and pick up at a super glittzy spa for the girls instead?

palmettoprincess

It is funny. If I asked for advice on letting my 19 year old daughter go to Europe with her 19 year old best friend I would get high fives. If I mentioned I was worried about her traveling overseas without us, the helacopter sounds would start swooping.

I trust my daughter at school without me where she has seven days a week to try things I wouldn't approve of. She loves the beach. I would trust her at the beach for a couple of days.

SC beaches are not know to be spring break hotbeds mostly because they are too cold during March. The party folks head south.

Gretchen

This is the first mention of her real age, she has been "on her own", and has been "away". We were left to opine "high school senior". There are things about Europe I find safer than the beach, to be honest!!
So back to your question, have at it. You'll be able to come back and say "I told you so--they had a great time". And that is all any of us would want. ;o)

suz24

So palmetto princess, let us know what you end up finding for your daughter and her buddies and how it all works out.

OO

Holloway, not Hollowell! It is all so sad that it's still unresolved and that spoiled rich kid walked around Scott free....until he took away yet another young woman's life. Call me bitter, but I wish his father had lived to see the results of his actions!!

Palmettoprincess, I think many of us are thinking back to our own Spring Break experiences and thinking this might not be the best idea. Aside from age restrictions, you often run into restrictions on the number of guests per room too. It's a present your DD would love, no doubt, but I would worry about the risk you are assuming.

And speaking of helicopter parents, my DD is in Peru right now and I worry about each step of her trip....and she just turned 41!! LOL

gail

My 21 year old daughter is about to embark on her 4th Spring Break - each year I worry - but she has spent 6 months in Argentina, back-packed thru Peru, and I am sure does a whole lot of things that would terrify me if I knew. And she is going to Panama City with all the other drunken low-life college students.

First, are you sure she wants to go to MB or Hilton Head - different colleges and different social groups want to go different places. You say it is a surprise - make sure the reservation in cancellable if she rolls her eyes at you. For past 2 years my daughter and her friends have found great deals on Gulf Coast - thanks to BP places were so eager for income, they would rent to almost anyone. (Who in their right mind rents a house to 8 sorority girls for Spring Break?) Second, most "nice" hotels are less likely to rent to under-21 year olds. And they will ask for ID - so just renting in your name may not help. But you might be able to find a place that is not top-tier but not a flea-trap either.

I suggest you pick a hotel or 2 and call directly rather than just dealing with website. Do not use the words "Spring Break" when you talk to desk clerk or manager - just that your daughter and some friends want to stay a few days.

palmettoprincess

Oh well... My daughter is home with us. I think she is happy just being home. I asked what the others were planning for Spring break and she said sleep and look for summer jobs. Thanks for helping me brainstorm.