kristenw

Any advice on what we might need for our 14 year old son traveling with his aunt? She is an experienced traveler, but does he need anything other than a passport (ie, legal, insurance, medical,etc or are we worrying too much)? Legalities and bureaucracy aside, what might we have missed to make his first Europe experience (without us ) a bit easier (and fun) for both of them?

zeppole

Everybody should travel with medical insurance.

ellenem

Some mention that a notarized letter signed by both parents that he is traveling with your permission is good to have. There may be no problem, but with all the problems with divorced parents and such, it couldn't hurt.

adrienne

When I took my 14 YO niece to Europe I had 2 letters giving permission to take her out of the country and to approve medical treatment in the absence of her parents. Both letters were signed by both parents and notarized. I fortunately didn't need either letter but I felt better having the medical one.

adrienne

Your son might want to phone home each day. My niece started out phoning at a set time each evening, just for a few minutes, since this was her first time away from home w/o her parents. By the second week of the trip she was forgetting to phone. I would plan for a set time that works for everyone just in case he is homesick. If you do have a plan like this then it's important to stick to it. One night we had a very busy day and a late night and didn't remember to phone until 10PM and then couldn't find a phone. There were 3 messages at the hotel to phone as her parents were getting worried.

If you think your son will be homesick at all (and there's no way to tell until it happens) you might want to write a few notes/cards to give to auntie that she can give him along the way to remind him of home and you.

Other than that...they'll have no problem finding the fun stuff!!

Michael

Whenever we traveled to Europe, our American insurance covered emergency medical expenses. This included a three day hospital stay in 1971 for eventually undetermined reasons covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield (the stay was much cheaper than in the States), and recently a doctor's visit and a separate visit to a lab for a sonogram covered by Kaiser (all cheaper than in the States). I suspect that the 14 year-olds present medical insurance will cover emergencies, although it might take time to be reimbursed. What will not be covered is emergency evacuation, which in my mind is not necessary because medical care in Europe is comparable to medical care in the States. Travel insurance might be useful to cover change in the travel schedule, but that is very unlikely. 14 year olds tend to be healthy. Since the aunt is an experienced traveler, she might be able to give more specific advice according to her own concerns in that regard.

nytraveler

You need a notarized letter signed by both parents giving specific approval to take him out of the country as well as to act as his guardian for medical purposes. You also need to understand his medical coverage (presumably through his parent) and have a copy of the card/info with you. I would also buy trip insurance.

zeppole

Regarding medical evacuation, I doubt many parents would be comfortable have a child serious condition treated in a foreign hospital for any length of time, no matter how good the hospital. I would get the insurance -- which might also cover the cost of parents flying over should it be necessary.

Also, regarding changes in travel schedule, good travel insurance covers the cost should your son need to stay home because one of you got sick and he is reluctant to leave.

For a 14 year old, travel insurance will cost very little.

susanna

I've traveled with a niece who was 16 at the time.

They need to have a little time to themselves, they need to sleep later than you think in the mornings and they can stay awake a lot later than you think. They need a cell phone so they can reach each other if they are not together 24/7.

I would always wake her and tell her I was going out to get pastries and ask her if she was ready to get up or did she want to sleep and I would go out for about 45 mins if she was going to get up and maybe 1 1/2 hour if she wanted to sleep. This way she knew where I was and she had a little privacy when she got up.
I brought earplugs so she could watch tv at night if she wanted to stay up.
I also sent her out so I could have a little private time. She would go to the corner cafe, have coffee, listen to her ipod and take everything in.
Don't expect him to ohh and awww over everything, you will only know that he loved it when you hear him tell others of his adventures.
It was a great bonding time for us, I hope it will also be for them.

susanna

I forgot to mention, let him pay for somethings. It gave my niece a feeling of power to buy the coffee's at the cafe, or even a not too expensive dinner. He will need an atm card so he can get a little money of his own.

kristenw

Thank you all for your advice so far. It's making me even more excited for him about this trip - Barcelona for 1 week!

Grcxx3

You might want to remind Auntie that boys (especially teenagers) need frequent re-fueling! When we travel, we take lots of little breaks.......some french fries or a snack for the boys and a glass of wine/beer for the grownups!

KL467

Make sure he has a small foreign language guide. At 38 and very healthy, I ended up in the emergency room in Rome without an Italian guide.