Why it matters

By winter 2028/29, Bubu is 18 and Gaby is 17. That is a different trip from the one we would plan for a 16- and a 14-year-old.

It also introduces variables that don’t exist now. College schedules may not line up with a high-school winter break. One or both may have jobs. And — the part worth saying out loud — at 18, coming on a family trip is a choice rather than a given.

This question has no options list, because it isn’t ours to answer. It is a question for them, and it is on this site so they can answer it directly rather than have it guessed at.

The questions, for Bubu and Gaby

Answer in the comments below, or tell us in person and we’ll write it down. There are no wrong answers and nothing is booked.

1. Are you in? Genuinely — and if the timing is the problem rather than the trip, say that, because dates are still open.

2. Is there a city on the list you would be disappointed to miss? One name is enough. Browse the cities first.

3. Would you rather have four days in one place or two days in two places? This is the pace question, and you two will feel the packing-and-moving fatigue harder than anyone.

4. Rank these: museums · food · nightlife and going out · outdoors and walking · shopping and markets. Honestly, not diplomatically.

5. Is a ski day appealing? The Sierra Nevada resort is about 45 minutes from Granada — a genuinely unusual thing to do on a trip to southern Spain.

6. Sunshine or cities? The real trade in Which arc? is Mediterranean daylight versus London, Paris, and Amsterdam in the dark. If you have a strong feeling either way, it plausibly decides the whole trip.

My recommendation

Answer this one before the arc gets locked. Of all ten questions here, this is the one most likely to change the answer to every other question, and it is the only one where the rest of us are guessing.

My honest read of the current plan is that the northern arc is the strongest for a 17- and 18-year-old — West End theatre, Camden, the Light Festival, no language barrier — and that the Mediterranean arc is the better trip for the adults. If that read is wrong, this is where to say so.

What would change my mind

Their actual answers. That is the entire point of the page.