My daughter was 17 (also a few months shy of 18) when she traveled with 3 friends a few years ago. She only got turned away from one club in London who wanted to see her ID. They just went to another place. But she DID use her ID to get the free "under 18" rate at some sites and museums!

And your trip doesn't sound too rushed at all. My daughter did all the cities you did plus Barcelona & Amsterdam in 3 1/2 weeks and had they had a blast. Took a few overnight trains for the longer distances and 1 flight. You're going to have a fabulous time!

Things are getting stricter all over when it comes to showing ID.

After reading this post, I wish I were 17 again and back out trekking through Europe for the first time. LOL! You'll have a blast. Just be safe. Happy Travels!

Those were the GREAT days indeed Guenmai. Who would've thought we'd look back with such fondness on the funny bits like how to get home late at night with no money??

<i>a soda pop can be much more expensive than even beer or wine is</i>

Also, less expensive in a bar to buy just the alcohol and being charged extra for the soda or juice - which you add yourself to your taste from those teensy-eeny bottles and cans. It's such a completely opposite perspective to our give-away-the-soda ways of doing business! (One I wish we'd adopt more of here... sigh.)

...Did we scare away the OP?

Things are getting stricter all over when it comes to showing ID.>

Yes indeed as underage binge drinking is becoming a big worry now in places like France - indeed the drinking age has been raised to 18 from 16 due to binge drinking and resulting anti-social actions attributed to that.

I traveled all over Europe,from Portugal to Finland and from England to Yugoslavia, for 3 months when I was 17 years old. I only realized about 20 years later that a lot (if not all) of the solo travel was technically "illegal" (as an unaccompanied minor) even though I showed my passport and filled out hotel forms everywhere. Nobody batted an eye.

And I doubt that anything has changed.

kerouac - somethings have indeed changed - like the boats between Stockholm and Helsinki now require parental permission for anyone under age 21 to ride them - sounds like an impossible thing that but it is in print. European youths are unfortunately IME getting more drunk and doing drunken things than before and the resulting crackdown will continue.

France raising the drinking age to 18 is just one show of this I'm afraid.

When I sailed from New York to Cannes on the Italian Line's Michelangelo to move to France, my parents had to fill out a form for me, because I was "only" 20 years old.

France has not raised the drinking age to 18. It has raised the "unaccompanied" drinking age to 18, as well as enforcing the ban of selling supermarket alcohol to minors. This has not stopped any of them from drinking, of course.

Oh, and I should mention that we are only talking about hard liquor. Drinking age for beer and wine is set at age 13 for young people with their parents or guardians.

If the hostel says they have an 18 and over age limit, chances are they will enforce it. I would plan on hunting down hostels that don't have that age-limit. The hostels I have stayed in were 18+, but I'm sure there are some in every city that aren't.

If you have an option, wait 2 months and go when you are 18 so you don't have to worry about any of that.

kerouac - or other French folk - I wonder if stores like Carrefour have indeed cracked down on asking for ID for minors - it was not long ago my son was buying beer and hard liquor at his nearby Carrefour when under 16 (the then drinking age for beer and wine - it was 18 I believe for hard liquor) and no one ever ever asked for any ID

Here stores can suffer great penaltis and even have their beer/wine/liquor licenses suspended if they are lax in IDing folks under 21 (American legal drinking age)

I wonder if stores in France or elsewhere in Europe face the same yes severe sanctions stores here do. In fact we even have lots of undercover underage stooges cops send around to see who will sell, etc.

Thanks