ceb1222

Try also http://www.jambase.com/euro/... This lists live music events in Europe. That is, once you've figured out when you'll be where. I think Rome/Naples/Pompeii would be a great choice for a high school aged boy... Another option would be Germany, especially Munich.

Do you have your tickets yet? If you don't, you should arrange an open-jaw, so you can fly out of a different city... That will minimize your travel time. If you can get an early morning or late night flight, you won't lose too much time traveling.

And finally, he likes to play guitar, but what type of music does he like/play? Depending on the genre, different cities may appeal to him.

julie_Colorado

I think most any kid would love Amsterdam (you may not love them loving Amsterdam - but that is a different issue). I want my kids to enjoy Europe enough that I treat their friends (esp. those I know could never swing it themselve). I'm not sure if this is an option for you.

LoveItaly

So many of you are giving me a good chuckle after what the famil went through with the "huh", "I dunno" grandson who was an honor student by the way. And what made him come out of his surely ways last Friday night still has us confused but we are not complaining, LOL. So far we have that deleightful person back that we use to know. Again, Orcas, best wishes. You have received some fantastic ideas here. Leave it to Fodorites!

cmeyer54

If you go to Paris, take him on a segway tour or rollerblading with the masses (I think its a weekly thing on Tuesday nights??). in Amsterdam, check out the music scene - clubs, etc where he could just listen to other bands as an option. We've taken our two teens on several trips when they were 12/14 and up to 16/18. Having two made it a bit easier - giving them some freedom to roam was also good. They really liked Seville and Barcelona this past spring - but have also done Munich/Rome, Paris/Normandy, Zermatt, Madrid/Seville/Barcelona and Amsterdam. Does he have any interest in Photography? our older son really got into it after getting a camera for Christmas and took some amazing shots of architecture in spain that he probably would have just walked by otherwise.

suze

StCirq- Thank you!! I'm certain that's the one I'd seen mentioned. I'm writing it down right now. I'm big on trying to find local events and entertainment. Between that calendar and Time Out guides and the like after arrival, whatever your age or interests you can find what you'd normally like to do, but you'll be doing it in Europe. Fantastic!

LadyOLeisure

We offered to take our son to NYC for Spring break the year he turned 16. He was totally NOT interested. So we farmed him out to stay with his best friend's family and we went on our first trip to Paris. We did not attempt further family travel (other than a weekend rafting on the Yougheganey in PA) until he turned 18 when we did Montreal and Quebec City at Christmas. It was fabulous and eversince he's been great to be with anywhere on earth.

Doesn't solve your current dillemna tho. Yes, I too would let him find a good music reason to visit Rome or Barcelona or Paris or London. here was some crazy group I heard a few months ago who were pretending to be French and doing "Rock and Roll" which was pretty clever and quite entertaining. Of course they had gained a huge following in France, of all places!

cmt

Orcas, since, much to my surprise, you and some others seem genuinely not to understand the reason for my criticism of your referring to your child as a "Neanderthal," I will try to explain. I reacted in horror to your reference to your child as a Neanderthal. I actually understood what you probably meant to say, and if you had said it privately to your sister or your good friend or to the parents of your son's friends, with the appropriate joking facial and vocal expression, and with their intimate familiarity with your respect and affection for your son, it would probaby have been OK. But you said it on a public Internet board, both to online acquaintances of yours and to potentially thousands of total strangers from all over the world who might read it moments after you wrote it or many years from now. In that context, it was a disrespectful, reckless, and inappropriate way to refer to your child, no matter how humorous it may have sounded to you and to other parents of teenage boys. Therefore the mean and abusive comments that were made in response, such as advice to send the kid off to Iraq by himself, were really partly your fault and forseeable, because you unintentionally invited them by writing about you boy with words of disrespect and ridicule. Here, I think it's not your intentions that count; it's what you actually said, and to whom.

P.S. It sounds like you're fortunate to have a son whose main interest is playing guitar with his friends. So many positives: he has friends, he plays a musical instrument, what he loves to do is something constructive and personal and active that uses an interesting skill, rather than passive and reactive like watching TV or playing computer games (which are OK, too, in their place).

ira

Hi O,

You can fly Amsterdam/Copenhagen RT for about 115E,

See www.whichbudget.com

Mucky

cmt....I think your taking this a bit too seriously !!

Do you currently have responsibility for a teenage boy?

Are you a social worker?

Please let me know as I would be interested why you are so hung up on this

Muck

tod

Wow this takes me back to 1994!
Solve the problem by inviting his best friend to join him on the trip.
You have had some very good suggestions about Paris (Sedgeway-rollerblading)-even the Eiffel Tower should give a thrill, but I reckon he needs a mate to make it all worthwhile for you his parents & himself.
(I was not expected to pay for the friend - his parents were just glad to let him come along!)

amwosu

My own Neanderthal grunter did not enjoy Paris museums or shopping but loved the war related aspects of Normandy. Next time we'll spend at least a week there. Food played a central part of the trip also. He loved crepe stands as much as 3 star restaurants. Good luck!

sylvia3

I wonder that you are so concerned that he enjoy everything that you cater to his desires. You make him attend school, do you not? Make him eat vegetables occasionally? Will it kill him to walk through a museum or gallery? Maybe he'll actually surprise you! A little compromise on his part might teach him something, and help guide the way into adulthood; perhaps even expand his horizons beyond appreciating nothing but playing guitar with his friends.

amwosu

OMG! Orcas, you just aren't gonna win with some people. Don't bother justifying your position. Most of us "get it."

dmkujat

Orcas, I feel for you....when I took my Neandrathal at 17 on a cruise with his sister and a friend as a "graduation gift" he paid me back by buying pot in Cozumel and then bringing it ON the ship and then dumping it in the toilet (the ONLY smart thing he did) where I found it! Can you imagine where I would be had the drug dogs back in Miami found it? Thankfully he is now a well adjusted adult at 24 and has passed those "stupid" years! (But aha, he is ALSO in a band!)

satnitcboy

Two destinations closer to northern Europe: Prague or Berlin. These are two of the most vital cities in Europe today. Lots of young people, lots of music.
To my way of thinking, everyplace has something for teenagers, but perhaps not the same sights his parents would choose. But with the internet, you should be able to come up with some enticements. Obviously finding someone to go to a concert with him would be a plus ... I was going to suggest having him hang out on the Spanish steps in Rome, but seeing other kids his age with their friends might depress him if he feels he's "alone" there.
Good luck. My only other advice, give him some space now and then (as much as is practical and safe) to make some choices of his own. That's probably a little easier to do now that he's old enough that you don't have to worry about someone snatching him away!
One day he's going to go to Europe with some friends (maybe his band) and he will be TOTALLY grateful that his AWESOME 'rents made him the experienced traveler of the group!

sylvia3

No, no critique, just a suggestion! I do indeed "get it", having "dragged" two teens to the U.K. All they wanted to do was stay in the room wherever we were and watch "telly," unless we were going out to eat. We muscled them to the British Museum, Hadrian's Wall, Avebury, Edinburgh Castle, basically everywhere we wanted to go. I have photos of them beaming at almost all these places, they still talk about it after several years, and it didn't hurt them a bit. Quite the reverse: my son was very moved by the war memorial/museum at Edinburgh Castle, wants to go back as soon as he can afford it (without us, of course) and my daughter (whose main concern then was straightening her hair and the right shade of lip gloss) had to be dragged out of the Greek temple area of the British Museum (and thinks she'd like to go to Oxford). I'm just saying, give teens a chance, don't assume they're idiots, and don't always let them have their way, or "know" they won't like something. (However, Neanderthal would have been a nice way to describe my son at table for a couple of years...)

capxxx

I have a couple suggestions:

1. Can he bring a friend along?

2. Stay in a city that allows him to get around by himself and go to teen clubs at night -- do some research beforehand to find some good music venues. I'm thinking Munich or Paris.

Cassandra

Orcas -- know exactly what you're up against, but have been distracted by Barb's "Why I'l go solo" thread until now ...

First, VENICE! Nothing about the museums, shopping, etc. would interest him but the experience of the canals, boats, getting lost, etc. might very well capture his attention. Saw it happen with slightly older son, was utterly surprised. Believe they also have a reasonable jazz/rock scene, although it may be seasonal.

Second: Universities! DH is a jazz nut and it turned out some pretty good concerts were happening at university venues -- for your son, it'll be <i>kaultoddaly</i> because these are the young people he hopes to be in a couple of years. Some univ. cafeterias are open to the public for cheap lunches, too.

Third: Don't go TOO far trying to please him. He's part of the trip, for sure, but if you send the message that you have to go out of your way to plan an entire Apologetic Itinerary (to compensate for making him come, deal with family), he'll likely proceed on the assumption that you have to keep on making it up to him and that the trip is, essentially, going to be miserable. He gets to opt for a couple of things of his choice, but otherwise just ignore the grousing and wait to see what surprises and engages him. You may both be surprised.

Cassandra

PS re: capxx -- normally I'd agree with the idea of taking a friend for someone up to about age 12-13. But older teens are more likely to relax about being humiliated by their parents and committed to looking miserable if their friends/peers aren't witnesses. Better shot at getting him to take a break from being petulant, self-absorbed teen if he's not got a co-conspirator.

chatham

Orcas, Have you thought of the west of Ireland? I think of Ennis, Galway city, or even Doolin. Last April the weather was great.