What to do for Christmas in Paris, France?

Convince my parents to let me go to london and paris?

• i'm a 17 year old girl and would like to go to europe with my best friend who's 19 in college. i've been to london and paris a couple of times but only for my mom and dad's business trips, i've never really been able to see the cities the way i've wanted to (like in france, ive seen paris and stuff, but ive never gone to versailles and fontainebleau because we only go for a very very short period of time). i am familiar with how to get around them though and know the tube and metro well. my friend and i (we aren't crazy girls either, we want to stay in the louvre all day and stuff like that) have come up with an itinerary for ten days between the two cities and a budget. it's 1,600 per person for ten days, which we both agreed that we would pay for, not our parents. how do i present this to my parents? problems with mom: she says its unsafe.. but i live like twenty minutes outside of new york, and if i don't go on the trip ill probably be there the whole break.. in my opinion i think new york at night is more dangerous than london .. problems with dad: he'll probably say there's no point in going considering i've been there before and that i'm going just for the sake of going. if i decide to go somewhere else educational, such as cairo or venice, they'll both say i don't know the city so its unsafe for me to go how do i present this to them? i don't really have much to bribe them with. i'm not boasting or anything, but i already get really good grades, i'm already really responsible, and i pay for pretty much everything myself anyway. most of the time during christmas and my birthday, they'll get me gifts just for the sake of getting me gifts. i know i sound ungrateful, but most of them have very little sentimental value, and i rather them save their money. if they truly want to get me something for christmas, all i really want is a "yes" for this trip.. lol any suggestions?

• Answer:

  Do they know the other girl? Could you sell it to them that way. She's going, she needs someone to go with, we don't all want her to go on her own now do we? It would be educational, prevent you from wasting your money at home/being idle at home/ what ever you usually do on your holidays at home, I dunno about that. Also say how responsible your friend is, how much she is looking forward to the trip. Lay it on!! And maybe show them the places you plan to stay, if like you've said they know/been to London or Paris before, they might no a little about the neighbourhoods, then they might be assured that your going to be safe. Also throw that you've been here before back at them, perhaps bring up that you'd like to travel in the future, and this in your eyes is the perfect 1st trip opportunity, you know some of the area, yet you'd still learn from it, your not going somewhere completely new for your first trip alone, so its going to be better for you all. And if your birthday isnt that far off, say that so you turn 18 in X months, its not like you going to grow up/mature much more in that amount of time.