Scotland? Ireland? GB? w/ my 15 yo old
 

5 years ago I asked my son "If you and I went on a field trip just the, two of us, where should be go?" I was taken aback when my 10 year old said Scotland. When I asked why he said, "well they have real castles there right?" We that got the ball rolling and I started asking myself what would a similar trip be if I took his older brother. He loved ancient cultures and an incredible deal popped up so we went to Greece with nothing specific in mind other than knowing that he wanted to see lots of ruins. We landed in Athens for 2 days and then boarded a tall masted sailing vessel for a tour of three islands Santorini, Hydra and Mykonos. Other than the boat getting us around we were free to do whatever in port. We opted for one multi hour tour transported by bus to see the excavated city on Santorini. I realize choosing Ireland, Scotland or GB means this format is not really the way it will go down when I take my younger son (now 15) on his special trip but it worked so nicely to just have the freedom to wonder around and see what we saw and experience things at our own pace. It was an incredible experience and I now need to make it happen with my other son. I'm not loaded with money but if I can keep the trip to about $6,500-7,500 (including everything) that would stay in the range of what I have been saving up.

Given that information and the fact that before he became sucked into the world of video games my 15 yo old was an avid reader of mostly knights and castles and fantasy in that topic I am looking for some realistic and specific advice on where to go and what to do. Ireland does have direct flights from Hartford, which would make my life easier, but Scotland is easily gotten to from Boston which is a bit farther for us but not bad to fly out of. I'm really afraid to take him on some multi day scripted tour but every time I start looking at what to do I get overwhelmed and concerned that I will plan a very expensive, failed experience. I think he would get board with a multi day tour also and the rigid schedule would be hard for both of us. I don't want to spend too much time driving and I am also afraid of how I would do at driving on what I consider to be the wrong side of the road;) so being able to take trains, buses and ferries might be preferred when possible. Any help with specifics on how I will dig into the details of making it happen are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Those non stop flights to Dublin from Hartford are great. You could take the flight and get on the Belfast bus right after landing. They are very frequent. McCombs does a Game of Throne tour which he would probably really enjoy. You can read Alessandrazoe's trip reports on public transportation but this tour might work better for him and then go back and visit Dunluce Castle on your own. Most just stop for a photo. Belfast has some very interesting history and the Titanic exhibit. You can take a flight from there to Edinburgh easy enough and see Edinburgh castle. Premier inns are really economical and you should look into them for keeping cost down. Check out Rabbie's one or two day tours. I really enjoyed taking the city bus to Roswell Chapel. That should interest him with the Knights Templar history. The train to London is easy and so much he could see via public transportation there. You can fly home from London.

Given the background you've provided -- take him to SCOTLAND!! Everything he wants. You could either fly non stop from Logan, or Hartford to DUB and on to EDI from there. Edinburgh for 2 or 3 full days (3 or 4 nights) and then either rent a car and visit one or two regions . Let him do some research on which part(s) of the country and which castles he wants to see.

As for a group tour -- I would never ever take a teenager on a large coach tour (EVER). However there is a company that does small group tours (max 16 passengers often fewer) and caters to all ages. They do one day to multi day itineraries all over Scotland and they are terrific. W+Even for a 'bore-able' 15 yo ;) https://www.rabbies.com/en/scotland-...from-edinburgh

I couldn't agree with Janisj more. All my teenage years were spent regularly traveling on big coach tours with my family... I loved the chance to explore Europe but I remember wishing it could be just our family or just me and my friends. Traveling on the bus was super exhausting.

McCombs has a small bus that they do the Game of Thrones tour in and it was mostly young people on board. I was not talking about a five day tour with a bunch of people my age. Rabbies or timberline are small bus tours and you can do one day if you want to cover a bit of ground. I thought you were worried about driving on the wrong side of the road. The one day tours are very different than the five day or longer tours. Edi has so much he will like to see. Easy to fly in and out and there is the tram there if you need to get around.

Had to smile at "asked my son where we should go" morphing into "I took his older brother,"
:plane:

Scotland or North of England would be great. If you want to save more money use the yha.org.uk or hostellingscotland.org.uk.

Very clean and great value

OMG--As soon as I saw this post and read "your druthers", I thought, "Northern Ireland! GAME of THRONES" I'm not into it, but my best friend's three boys were all over me when I came back to share my phone pictures with their mother. And they'd been to Scotland, as have we. They were (and I guess still are) "gamers."

Background for my opinion--My sister and I had our fill of English castles in high school when the parents took us for a 3-week "drive until we die" tour of England with a two-night stay in Edinburgh included, and my husband and girls not only spent a week doing the London area thing with quite a few castles, but also cycled in and out all over Scotland a few years later. We've cycled much of the Republic of Ireland over several trips, and just one daughter and we spent a week in Dublin later on.

I think Northern Ireland with a bit of Dublin will be the EXACT ticket for you. And while prices in the UK are not cheap, transport is a DEAL. So do read my NI trip report for transport ideas (I'll link to it below). Again, I did not take a specific one-day Game of Thrones tour because I was not a fan of the series (my grown daughters, however, ARE), but even without a tour, we were constantly passing filming sites.

In the meantime, your son can be reading up on all the theory discrepancies on the design and the sinking of the Titantic. Heck, he can DESIGN your tour. We stayed high end; you do not have to do so at all. There are a lot of options. Again, have your son help research. My youngest to this day became my very best "buddy" traveler because she and I would coordinate the travel plans by the time she turned 15. She is always "The Boss" now with her new by-marriage family because she became an expert so early. She can make public transport work for her EVERYWHERE.

Oh, I envy you for the time to do it all over again. Happy Planning!
AZ
Link to my NI Report:
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...ation-1669055/

A 15-year old might not be all that familiar with Game of Thrones references; after all he was probably 6 or 7 when the show premiered.

I also think Scotland and the North of England (Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland) would be ideal because it's relatively easy to reach and offers a lot of variety in a fairly compact area. There are plenty of castles, obviously, but also some terrific coastline, heather-covered moorland, fishing villages and Roman ruins, history oozing out of every pore, great cathedrals...

A $6-$7K budget is doable; obviously it makes a big difference if that's for 10 days or 3 weeks, but certainly not lavish. On first blush, I'd probably do something like Janis suggests - spend two or three days seeing Edinburgh, maybe with a day (or two-day) trip on the likes of Rabbies out to the western Highlands, but then do a driving tour down the east coast - maybe with a stop or two in the Borders, but then the Holy Island and the Northumberland castles, down to Durham, maybe via Hadrian's Wall, and ending in York. Drop the car and train down to London for a day or two, or back up to wherever they landed in the first place, for the flight home. I wouldn't spend much time (if any) in the south of England, both for time management and cost reasons. London isn't going anywhere.

But 15 is plenty old enough to take an active role in detailed planning; it's often more than half the fun. Assuming this trip is next year, I'd start plotting and scheming right away.

And to the OP, welcome to Fodor's!

>>spend two or three days seeing Edinburgh, maybe with a day (or two-day) trip on the likes of Rabbies out to the western Highlands, but then do a driving tour down the east coast - maybe with a stop or two in the Borders, but then the Holy Island and the Northumberland castles, down to Durham, maybe via Hadrian's Wall, and ending in York. Drop the car and train down to London for a day or two, or back up to wherever they landed in the first place, for the flight home.<<

This would be about perfect and doable in about 2 weeks on the ground.

See my longer comment to the thread... \but basically my younger son is mildly on the spectrum, needed to mature to be able to cope and appreciate the trip.

The trip I am planning will be for 10 days so realistically that means 8 days on the ground. I might consider pushing it to 11 but the school calendar constrains me greatly. I have made two more posts with further details but both have not actually shown in the thread. Not sure what is is up with that. What are your thoughts on us flying into and out of London (so much cheaper) and then getting multi-day rail passes to make our way up to Scotland with stops along the way. I would like to mostly use Airbnb so that we can rent apartments for a couple or 3 days in various locations. My son is a bit on the spectrum and being able to give him his own space in the evening to decompress will greatly improve our overall experience.

>> Not sure what is is up with that. What are your thoughts on us flying into and out of London (so much cheaper) <<

>>To be efficient and save money, fly into one city and out of another, say into Edinburgh and out of London. <<

Normally I seriously recommend open jaw like Mimar suggests. And IF you can get a fare in to say EDI and home from LHR for close to the same price it would be a no brainer. However the UK is a bit of a special case. R-T flights in/out of LHR are often so much cheaper and LHR/London is sort of a hub for the entire country so a decent itinerary can be worked out open jaw or not.

>> . . . and then getting multi-day rail passes to make our way up to Scotland with stops along the way.<<

Rail passes almost never make sense - the main economy is to book any long distance train like London > York, London > Edinburgh, etc as far in advance as you can. The cheapest fares sell out first.

Re the posting problem -- as I understand it brand new members are limited to 2 posts in any 24 hour period until they have posted 5 or 6 times total. So you are almost there :)

Understand the appartment need for someone on the spectrum, one of my nieces is the same.

Re renting apartments -- (very good idea) -- in London specifically you might want to look at one of the ApartHotels Like Dolphin House, Citadines, FraserSuites etc, because they are self contained apartments with kitchens, more space, etc, but also have a hotel front desk with staff to help with suggestions/call taxis, a place to leave luggage if the room isn't ready on arrival and so on. (Dolphin House especially because it has a pool and nice outdoor areas)

janisj these apartment style hotels are interesting, but I'm not sure that their services out weigh their cost v.s. space. My housing dollar looks like it will go much further for better bed configurations on Airbnb. My son is a little over 6' 4" so any bed smaller than a double (which he has to sleep on diagonally;) is not very comfortable for him. Add to that the fact that he is 15 and I'm his mom... basically he refuses to sleep in a bed with me at this age. I don't blame him, I would prefer not share a bed with him either LOL. While I could certainly stay at a hotel with two double beds for cheaper than the cost of most of the Airbnb's, the ability for him to go in a separate room and be by himself will allow him to "hit the reset button". That cost will be well worth say reaching for more budget minded food/shopping and eating out of the kitchen. The time that I will need to cook a meal is perfect "reset" time for him. Plus he is a growing boy so he definitely eats more often then three meals a day.

Thanks for the heads up on the train passes, I had really been leaning in that direction.

Any suggestions on the best tools for grabbing better airfares? I have been reading about paid services that have monthly or annual use fees. And the ins and outs of using each airlines fare change notifications services. I am starting to get the feeling we will end up needing to choose an overnight flight since they seem to be the most cost effective but I have read daytime flights are much easier on your body and get your trip off to a better start. For European travel I have only flown to Paris and then on to Greece and in both cases flew during the day. I took a redeye to Brazil over 15 years ago and regretted how horrible I felt for a full day afterwards. I know there is no full proof way around jet lag but the fact of the matter is that I do have varicose veins now and the overnight might be considerably worse at this point in my life.

One of the Airbuses runs at an internal pressure below that of mountain top Boeing's that will help.

Just quick -- but in general your chances of getting a large bed are better in a hotel than in a budget airbnb. And if you book one of the major international chains they almost all advertise their large beds.

I've almost always had at least the equivalent of a queen bed (called 'king' in the UK) when booking nice hotels/aparthotels. But most private flats I've booked have had smaller beds.