{"id":1146734,"date":"2026-08-13T19:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T19:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1146734\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T19:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T19:24:26","slug":"northern-ireland-parents-booking-new-york-shopping-trips-and-f1-races-for-a-level-results-students-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1146734\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland parents booking New York shopping trips and F1 races for A-level results students \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York shopping breaks, Formula One weekends and rugby hospitality packages are among the trips Northern Ireland parents are booking for teenagers receiving their A-Level<\/a> results, according to one of north\u2019s largest travel firms.<\/p>\n

Alison Hamilton, of Oasis Travel, told The Irish News that the most expensive rewards include big-ticket destinations<\/a>, with parents also frequently stepping in to settle the bill for A-Level holidays their children have picked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren aren\u2019t silly now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll pick where they want to go, when they want to go and who they want to go with, just to make sure that it\u2019s right and then the parents will get involved sometimes with the payments. Not every parent, but certainly we have seen that before around about the A-level time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sinn<\/a>\"Shankill<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Hamilton said the trips booked by parents often break along gender lines, with New York shopping a recurring theme among girls alongside sporting trips for boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen parents book Formula One and sports trips for the boys – whether that\u2019s over for rugby or football, or a nice Formula One trip to look forward to in Europe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally speaking, the girls will always want to do New York at Christmas for shopping. And for boys, hospitality for rugby has also become very popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the sums involved at the top end of the market can be substantial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the family. The New York trips for Christmas shopping, or even Formula One in the past, they aren\u2019t low-priced trips.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she added that the bulk of post-results travel is considerably more modest.<\/p>\n

Short city breaks dominate, with students favouring destinations such as Krakow and Prague, along with the usual hotspots of Portugal, Spain and Greece.<\/p>\n

She added that many youngsters are now choosing hotels based on how they look on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity breaks are up there as well for young guys and girls,\u201d Ms Hamilton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to go to maybe Krakow, or they want to do Prague. Even quite a lot of them will go down to Portugal for three nights, that\u2019s quite popular. They want those iconic, Instagram-type hotels.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the bookings are not always tied to good grades, with some parents booking trips to soften a disappointing results day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just brings that bit of excitement,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the result, the parents do try and give them something to look forward to, whether they go with them, or whether they help them pay for their own trip with their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York shopping breaks, Formula One weekends and rugby hospitality packages are among the trips Northern Ireland parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1146735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[121739,2266,2837,1144,857,16,15],"class_list":["post-1146734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-a-levels","tag-education","tag-holiday","tag-northern-ireland","tag-schools","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117089841399447050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1146735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}