What was your first holiday without your parents?
Jul 29, 2019, 2:02 am
#31
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 6
My first holiday with my parents was when I was 14 years old and we went to Paris. It was awesome experience, I had a great time with my family. I can never forgot those moments. It was one of the bestest days of my life. Paris was my dream city and I was finally there with my parents so it was exciting.
Jul 29, 2019, 5:22 am
#32
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: CLE
Programs: DL GM, Hilton Silver, IHG Platinum
Posts: 198
Without any adult supervision (so excluding school trips) was to a week long camp when I was 13. I had worked odd jobs and saved birthday money for several years to pay my own way to camp and my parents bought the plane ticket as a gift. Mom was terribly impressed because I had a connection and my initial flight was delayed so I missed the connection due to weather. I got all my arrangements for a later flight sorted out and then called home (on a pay phone).
I still have that ticket stub in my scrapbook.
First international without parents was a school trip with a fairly clueless chaperone and I got hugely ill on the flights with food poisoning. Once I recovered that was a hugely fun trip, we were pretty much left to our own devices to hang out with our local hosts and see what trouble we could get into.
I still have that ticket stub in my scrapbook.
First international without parents was a school trip with a fairly clueless chaperone and I got hugely ill on the flights with food poisoning. Once I recovered that was a hugely fun trip, we were pretty much left to our own devices to hang out with our local hosts and see what trouble we could get into.
Jul 29, 2019, 8:18 am
#33
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: LFT
Programs: AA Plat, lots of AA, AS, DL, UA miles, former top level CO Elite (sigh...)
Posts: 10,795
I had just turned ten years old and my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday. The year was 1963 and our family lived in Pasadena, California. "A trip to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in northern California", I replied, " and I want to fly by myself to see them!" And so I did just that on board a Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Lockheed L-188 Electra from LAX to SFO where my Aunt and Uncle picked me up in their new VW Beetle for the drive over to their home in Berkeley. This was also my very first airline flight and it was a great trip! 
Jul 29, 2019, 9:17 am
#34
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: BOS
Programs: JMB, AMC
Posts: 170
I couldn't even afford a trip for myself until I was 19 and working in between college classes. Anything prior was with my parents who drove/paid airfare.
Went from BUF-DCA on US Air back when they still existed to attend a convention.
Went from BUF-DCA on US Air back when they still existed to attend a convention.
Jul 31, 2019, 1:25 pm
#36
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: coastal Croatia
Programs: BAEC Gold, M&M Senator
Posts: 2,178
Six weeks hopping around India in 1976 when I was 15/16 (I celebrated my birthday on the trip). Calcutta, Delhi, Jaipur, Aurangabad, Bombay, Goa, Udaipur (stayed at the Lake Palace by the way), Delhi, Srinigar, (plus three weeks learning to ski somewhere in Kashmir) and finally Amritsar. Had an Indian Airlines pass that allowed unlimited flights for a few hundred bucks. Can't even imagine letting my own kids go on a trip like this now, but those were different times and I'm glad my parents let me travel and explore the world by myself.
Aug 1, 2019, 6:36 am
#38
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Central Texas
Programs: Many, slipping beneath the horizon
Posts: 9,859
Our granddaughter, having turned 7 in late June, celebrated with her first trip "on her own", HOU>DAL & RTN on WN to visit her aunt. A good time was had by all, especially the WN staff & flight crew at DAL. Not her first flight, but her first alone. Yes, just a hour aloft. but a triumph at 7. Sure Beats me. My first "alone" (aside from "Summer Camps") was at 16, 1955, the Greyhound to Laredo, then Mexican buses to the City, an over night (IIRC the hotel was the Ruiz Galindo, (Correction error, it was the "Vasco de Quiroga, pretty good memory for 60+ years, & the Ruiz Galindo was in Saltillo, IIRC), then another bus to Cordoba, VC to stay with friends.
Last edited by TMOliver; Aug 3, 2019 at 7:03 am
Aug 2, 2019, 6:40 am
#40
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
Not as exciting as others upthread, but I had just turned 16 in 1990 and went with a group of about 15 other students in the foreign language club at school to Spain and France for a couple of weeks. Fortunately our chaperones were pretty lax so we had a great time especially after-hours. Flew on Pan Am, which I remember fondly, even if it was on its last legs at that point, sadly.
Aug 4, 2019, 12:29 pm
#42
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
Mine is a nice story. In the summer of 1995 between 4th and 5th grade I went to a day camp in Greenwich, CT. I made friends with another kid the first day because I had brought an AA timetable to read and he had brought a UA one. We were friends the whole summer and hung out a few times afterwards but ended up losing touch. I found out later he moved to California and we exchanged an occasional letter and phone call but stopped talking for a few years. In 2001 I plugged his name into AOL's Instant Messager search along with the city he'd move to and I found him. We started messaging and our friendship picked right back up. So in 2002, the day after my 17th birthday, I flew out to spend the weekend with him and his family. It was nice because that summer while looking at colleges I had managed to make it to AA Gold through their Gold Challenge so the JFK-SJC flight to go see him again was my first ever flight with status. A year later he spent July 4th with my family and we took our first ever international trips without our families in 2006 together.
I'm happy to report 18 years later we're still friends. Here's me with him and his new baby:
I'm happy to report 18 years later we're still friends. Here's me with him and his new baby:
Aug 12, 2019, 11:31 am
#45
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: ORD
Posts: 14,223
<gfunk falls over from the sheer nerdiness>
